Little Busy Bodies: Some fun painting from the week

At school, we paint almost everyday. Usually there are either water colors or tempera paints at the easel (although sometimes I will switch out paint for oil pastels or I will tape something textured to the easel and give them peeled crayons to make rubbings). In addition to this, several days a week I will put out some "art materials" for painting, collages, or other art opportunities on the table. Sometimes they are minimally teacher directed, other times they can just walk up and start working. In any instance, while they seem perpetually interested in painting on the easel, it is still important for them to have a wide variety of art experiences. Thusly, I am always searching for new ways to paint (and perhaps you are too).

Here are two hits from this week:
Ice cube painting

to create these paints just use half liquid water color and half water in ice cube trays and freeze with popsicle sticks

This class did not like this as much as classes in the past. A few of the children grew impatient with waiting for the ice to melt so that they could paint. In years past, however, the children typically would paint until we were out of ice! Every class is different, though. At the end of the day they asked if we could do it again, so maybe we will have a second go of it on Monday.

We have been experimenting with ice for the last few weeks, so this is another cool way for them to experiment with ice.

Painting on aluminum foil

I truthfully have not done this in the four and fives class before, although I did do it almost four years ago when I was teaching the threes! Fours and fives seem to enjoy this just as much, however.

Even children who are not usually remotely interested in the art area, (except occasions when we are painting with cars), did a few paintings on foil like this one to the left. You can see a "stage of scribbling" in his painting.

Some of the children also created some really cool textures when painting this way, although they were as much interested in the sound that the foil made when the hit it with the head of the brush, as was required to make this kind of texture. Some of them also liked the sound of the foil when they went around and around the sheet with their brush, while others were simply fascinated by painting on the shiny surface- making this an overall interesting sensory activity as well as art.