Bug Art for kids!

I discovered this book when I was in Sydney and came home and ordered it online for $11! (The Book Depository!). It is the most delightful book I just had to have it! The author has photographed beautifully crafted felt pieces on each of the pages. When I was looking at the authors website I was amazed to see many other wonderful books that she has created http://www.beatricealemagna.com/news/ I also discovered this delightful youtube interview!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pOgspbs9QU

It starts like this: At the bottom of the garden there is an old blanket on a bed. That is where the little bugs live. The bugs have lived there for years and years. Each little bug, snug in his hole in the rug. And as I read I started thinking about a rug I had at home and how great it would be to recreate the story in felt!

1. I started with the idea of reading the book to the children and then providing them with pencils and paper to create their own unique bug!

2. We then used old scraps of felt to make the bugs.

3.Finally we  worked on planning  where the bugs could snuggle up in a hole in the blanket! I have folded the blanket into a small section for you so see the beginning of the project!

I am off to order some more of this amazing authors creations!

Teaching: Art tips!

I have been busy working as a relief teacher all week and  I have missed writing on my blog! So I thought I would start this blog with some of my mother’s ‘everyday objects’  art tips! My mother was an amazing woman, she remembers, from a young age, her father taking her to live shows and art exhibitions in London. He had a love of the arts and obviously saw a kindred spirit in his daughter. In her teens my mother’s parents sent her to a school for gifted children. She remembers feeling as if she had come alive!  She was at the school for two years and then went back to regular schooling.  She often said that she had learnt so much in those two years that she believed in that period of time her eyes were opened to a different way of viewing the world. My mother lived through the war in England and I remember the stories she would tell me, how she would walk home from work and only her house was standing and all the other houses around had been bombed. How strange it must have been to come to Australia from England, what a culture shock!

Her love of art continued, I remember her creativity as a child,there were numerous handmade clothes and dolls. One doll I remember she made, I think it was a Raggedy Ann doll, she sewed a heart button onto her body! So when I undressed the doll countless times (as you do!) I could see her little heart! Everywhere I looked I saw her creativity in the stories she read, in her amazing drawings and paintings, in her love of nature and the unique way she viewed the world. Here are some of her techniques.

1.Shaving brush!

The tree pattern is great as with a few quick dabs of the brush: instant bushy leaves! The grass I feel is very effective and is produced by sweeping the brush across the paper! To the right and then to the left and voila: wavy grass!

2. Painting with a stick!

I remember an art unit my mother decided to enrol in and when she came home I asked her how she went with her lesson. She said the lecturer sent the students outside and said they needed to collect a stick and have some black paint ready to go! She was wondering at this stage why on earth she had enrolled in this class! It was an adult class and there was a scantily draped model posed on a chair, the students were then  asked to paint the model! She was a tad surprised but after an hour she had produced quite an amazing likeness! For the sake of this blog being about children I will include a more child friendly example! I stayed with the nature theme as I have discovered children of all ages are keenly interested and innately tuned to the outdoors.

3. Painting with a plastic knife!

My mother always believed that from an early age children should be given a range of tools to express themselves in art. As metal palette knives are quite sharp she felt plastic knives still gave children the opportunity to experiment with different ways of applying paint to paper.

4. Painting with the back of a teaspoon!

5. Bubble wand art!

A Uni friend and I put our heads together and this is what we came up with! Enter one bubble wand!

Next we carefully drew around the stencil onto a pizza tray with a pencil (good chance to recycle!)  and also drew around all the patterns. Younger children would need some help, older children could manage this by themselves.

We then loaded a paint roller with black paint, it was the only paint we had to hand at the time!

Then we turned the pizza tray over and pressed onto a piece of paper and voila! Our lovely ladybird!

 

My friend introduced the activity to a group of preschoolers on her practicum. They loved the idea and added lots of red for authenticity! Some children added glitter while the paint was still wet. I will try and add some of their masterpieces on to this post for you to see.

I am off to the shop as the next two everyday art tips (from my mother) require a plastic net bag and a chocolate wrapper!

See you soon!

Peter Rabbit activities

I am back again. I thought I would share with you a slightly unusual activity I came up with! I love all things to do with Beatrix Potter! I have visited her house in Hill Top several times and love her heart for children’s literature. I love the fact that she designed her books to be small so that they would fit into children’s hands. I have collected all her stories, (the books with the cream covers and paper inlays).

I came up with this idea from a teacher friend from years ago and also a Uni lecturer. They both believed that children love adults dressing up and taking on a character.  They  felt the potential for learning was increased! I wanted to share with the children how illustrators and story tellers come to write their stories and what inspires them! So………….I went to some Op shops and decided  I might dress up as one of Beatrix Potter’s  governess’s children. As Beatrix spent time with these children and they were the catalyst for her  writing,  I tried to be as authentic as possible! So as I was saying I went off to the Op shops and with the help of my amazingly understanding husband who in the end found everything I was ready to go!

Here is my outfit!

I had the boots, hat and gloves already as you do! So what I needed now was Peter Rabbit! I decided to do this activity with the encouragement of my amazing mentor teacher (in  a kindergarten class) while I was on Prac from Uni! If I could have I would have definitely looked around for a real live rabbit! But I was on Prac and it was easier to search for a toy rabbit! I didn’t want just any toy it had to be as realistic as possible!

Here he is!

I am off to take more photos and I should really fold some washing!

I’m back ! The teacher told the children that there was a visitor coming and I walked into the classroom in my finery! I put on my best english accent and sat down in a comfy chair. The children looked and looked and they said,” She looks like Morah Sue???” It was quite funny!

I sat down and we talked about Beatrix Potter and the way she wrote and  illustrated her books. I had asked my artistic son to draw a light sketch of Peter Rabbit and as I talked I pretended to draw and then apply the paint (while looking at Peter Rabbit and noting his features). I showed them the kind of paint she would have used to colour her drawings.

We also looked at her early drawings and paintings.

I am off again!

I am back again! We looked at this wonderful book that I have had for ages. It is called Beatrix Potter a  journal. I love it as it has reproduction articles such as her letters, art exhibition events and lift ups. You can take the letter out of the book and read it to the children. It feels so authentic! The book is available at http://www.fishpond.com.au/ for $24.00. This price is incredible as I think I paid $50 in a store!

I had purchased a set of CD’s from  a school. Many schools have companies that leave sets of books available for purchase. These books and items are considerably cheaper than regular stores.  I have looked at Fishpond and Book depository this item is currently unavailable but I have seen many ‘pop up’ shops with them.  I paid $30 for the set and they are audio stories with well known british actors lending their rich voices to the text. These I played at rest time to immerse children in the beauty and wonder of the stories.

There is also a DVD with 5 classic tales which I picked up for $5 in a book store.

When I was in England I found this amazing  cook book. It has wonderful recipes with Beatrix Potter’s illustrations to accompany the dish! I have made the fisherman’s pie, the honey cake and the apple butter pudding and they are all delicious.  There is a company called ‘ Book Found’  ( https://www.bookfound.com/) and they will search far and wide to find a book! So if you were desperate to have the book I know they will be able to find it, but it will be at a price! (I have sent out a search so I will let you know!).

For the activity time,  I showed the children different painting techniques Beatrix Potter would have used and they had a lovely time experimenting with water colours and fine brushes.

The official website of Peter Rabbit has been updated http://www.peterrabbit.com/au/.  It has always been the most beautiful, creative and engaging place for parents, teachers and children. Now it has units of study for teachers, which is such a bonus! The units have been designed to fit the Early Years curriculum in the UK.  I can’t wait to go through  all the material, adapt it to life in Australia and share it with children!

I could babble on for ages but I will stop! The website truly is a treat for teachers, parents and children! Till next time

Sue!

P.S. Book found just found the cookery book! It will cost  $67.50 this includes delivery from overseas!

Teaching ideas and strategies

I thought I would include a ‘relief teacher  pack’ I made  recently.   I am so grateful to all the teachers who have shared their resources and I was looking at all the  strategies and ideas I have collected over the years. Rather than carrying around lots of bulking resources, I tried a variety of ways to reduce the size and volume of the materials. This is what I came up with:  a small pack of laminated cards. I started with learning areas, choosing quick, effective teaching ideas that I had found from highly resourceful and innovative educators. I then created a colour code system for easy reference and an index to help me flip to the learning area I wanted to use. It started small and then it just grew and grew! I put it on a lanyard (courtesy of Typo) and  attached it to my relief bag. I made one for a ‘soon to be’ teacher friend of mine and she has it on hand for reference during the day.

As I am an Early Years teacher, I decided to start with an idea I saw in a book called  ’Question of the day’. As the name suggests, at the beginning of the day, the teacher writes a question on the board and during the day the students can ask the teacher to record their ideas . At the end of the day, a class discussion can take place about the question and possible answer. I put a few questions  together so that I didn’t have to think of an idea on the spot!

I also included a lot of strategies that I have seen relating to language; oral language, auditory ideas, listening skills and language games, mental maths, math and numbers, patterns and some science quick info about mini beasts!

I decided to include fun timed activities as I noticed that there are many times during the course of a day at school,  children finish early with their activities and these games are great to finish the lesson. They can be used to relate to the topic and as they are timed children need to search around in their mind to find the answer! An example would be,” In 10 seconds write 5 things a doctor uses in his surgery!”

I am off to make it available for you to print, laminate and enjoy! I won’t be too long!

Download Here

Have fun!

Recycled paper craft with kids (updated)

I was walking through a hardware store the other day and I find I  am always drawn to the paint section. Not because I want to paint my house, but because the colour swatches are so appealing! I was thinking that, children in the early years, learn red and yellow make orange and blue and yellow make green and so on, but as I looked at all the beautiful shades of colour I started thinking that it would be good to expose young children to different possibilities of colours. I was thinking I can’t just take one of every colour because that would look a lot like stealing and there is no way I could convince someone that I was painting my house with all the colours of the rainbow!
So I asked the staff if they had any swatches that they had finished with or if there were any discontinued lines. They said sure and they gave me a stack of cards. I was delighted! The reuse of materials and resources is so important and what better way to show children how they can at a young age contribute to looking after their world.
I thought I would list all the ways to reuse colour cards and in doing so expose children to the wonderful shades and hues of the colour spectrum! I saw this particular activity in the Country Living magazine. http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/green-crafts-0309?src=nl&mag=clg&list=nl_ccr_cft_non_041812_green-crafts&kw=ist#slide-1.

1. Paint swatch organizers

Repurpose hardware-store color cards in seconds flat: Simply stack two same-size cards atop each other, right sides facing out, and stitch together along the bottoms and sides with contrasting thread (we opted for red). Then use flathead tacks to attach your brilliant little pocket organizers to a bulletin board, and fill them with pencils, papers, and more.

As a family we are in the throws of a wedding at the end of this week, so my plan is to add some ideas every day, so please bear with me! I am finding that I am very weepy, delighted for my son and his fiancee but sad because we will miss him! So I shall go off and take some photos and return soon!

2. Mosaic letter tiling!

3. Flowers

4. Game board

The more I ‘played ‘ with this idea the more I liked it! An adult could cut the strips for children to use. I like the way this activity is open ended, no two game boards would look the same and it encourages creativity.

5.  Flash cards

I enjoyed putting this idea together as the quality of the cards are excellent and there are such a range of colours children can use to make their very own personalized flash cards. I feel it is an excellent literacy opportunity for practicing writing. You could use any catalogue, as long as each child had two of the same magazines. You could use toy catalogues, home and hardware magazines the ideas are endless!

6. Math patterning

7. Family mobile

8. Yes/No cards

These cards are great as you can hand them out to the children at mat time after you have read a story or for a quiz and they can decide which card is the correct answer!

9. Mini Art work frames

10. Ed Emberley birds

I love Ed Emberley’s art for children http://www.edemberley.com/pages/main.aspx

11. Frames for work samples

I like this idea for a number of reasons!

1. Each frame is  individual to each child.

2. It is a great opportunity to practice cutting skills

3. When the frame is laminated it can be used over and over to use as a display in the classroom with different pieces of work

4. It can be used as an assessment tool to follow the progress of children’s fine motor development and progression through the stages of their drawing capabilities.

5. You could also use this activity  to encourage patterning.

12. Very simple paper tole

With this activity it gives children an opportunity to see a different dimension, you could say from a 2D view to a 3D view. I used the smallest square from the paint swatches to create  a ‘raised ‘ picture. (these could be prepared for children before hand as they are quite fiddly!

13. Skyscraper art! With this activity the children could first start with the roller painting wash over the background of their picture and then cut the ‘skyscrapers into any configuration of ‘buildings’ that they liked! I must admit in my haste to put this photo up the paper was not quite dry! I like the movement of the foreground, I might investigate this process on another blog!

14. Story cards This activity gives children the opportunity to make up their own story and develop skills in sequencing a story line (beginning, middle and end). For younger children they could write a number on the back of the card to help them remember the sequence or for fun children could use the cards for stories and simply make up new ones every time!

Cooking with children: insects!

Hi I’m back! I am still in an insect biscuit and cake making mood ! I bought a butterfly biscuit cutter and a dragonfly cutter as well and I am off again! I have been drinking this product by Charlie’s one is a Spirulina and Pear juice and the the other one is made with Acacia berries! I am amazed I was up cooking at 12 midnight! This is a good thing!

I have used the following recipe for over 20 years now and it is such a good recipe for baking for children and with children. It is one of those recipes that are almost indestructible! The great thing to is that you can make up to 70 biscuits (mini ones). I have sometimes got to the point where I have thrown the last bit away! I know shame on me! but it just goes on and on and on, a bit like the woman who used her last portion of oil and flour to bake bread for the prophet and a miracle happened and the oil and flour didn’t run out until the end of the famine! When I am using this recipe I think of this story, a lot!

Here it is:

3/4 cup of plain flour
3/4 cup of self raising flour
1 egg
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of castor sugar
175 degree oven. In a bowl cream butter and sugar. Add the egg. Sift both the flours and add to the mixture. Form into a dough and knead lightly. Place in clingwrap in fridge for 30minutes. Take out of fridge and roll thin.Cut out desired shapes. Place on greased trays. Cook for 10-15minutes. Done!

When I work with children I find it is easier to make a batch before hand so that they don’t have to wait the 30 minutes as they want to get going! It is a great recipe to follow for children and lots of language comes from cooking and talking about the procedure, the science of it all and also the pure joy of baking and spending time together. I am now off to create my butterflies and dragonflies and will return with photos!
Ok I am back!
I started with these cutters

Here is the end result! Yay!

I will be back with some info and the sweets I used to decorate!
The dragon fly I used green sugar coated jubes and cut them into thin slices! I then cut them in half and as they are sooo sticky they stick onto the biscuit, you could add a tiny bit of icing to be sure!


With the butterfly I just cut thin slices and added them to the wings, the sweets I used were mini m and m’s
The flower was me again forgetting about the insects and getting carried away with the decoration!
Insects need flowers around!
I used the red licorice again and rolled it out flat

I then cut out a petal shape

And then pinched the base of the petal and joined a few together

I need to go and buy some more different coloured jubes and experiment with them!

Cooking with children: mini beasts!

My friend who is about to go on prac from Uni was thinking about cooking you could do with children with a mini beast theme! We put our heads together and came up with these!

I thought this looked like ants running up and down an ant mound! I drizzled honey over the muffin and sprinkled chocolate 100′s and 1000′s over the top. We decided we like this one as it was a great recipe to do with children as they could be involved in the whole process, from the making of the muffin to the addition of the ants!
This one is the same idea, but I turned the muffin upside down for a flat mound effect!

The spider is one I have seen and adapted, I will try and find the one that inspired this little creature! I think the one I saw had jelly snake legs which looked fun! I tweaked the recipe by cutting strap licorice very thin and inserting the ‘legs’ into the side of the muffin! I added chocolate icing, 100′s and 1000′s, m and m’s and a little dot of black writing gel for the eyes.

I will have a search for the original spider and add the photo to this post (to give credit where credit is due!) I just found the website with the jelly legged spiders!
http://www.sunhatsandwellieboots.com/search/label/Spiders
This next one was me forgetting the mini beast theme and getting carried away! An adult could make these and add them for decoration!

I used my favourite biscuit again, Arnotts Tic Toc biscuits. I was looking at some sugar coated jubes and I decided to cut them to see if a pattern emerged! I was delighted as the petals took on a stained glass effect. They are unbelievably sticky which is great, if you can get them off your finger, as they stick straight on to the surface of the biscuit! The centre of the flower is an m and m!

The other biscuit pictured is my attempt to make an ant sitting on a log! I used a chocolate covered piece of licorice for the log, you could use a mini flake which my husband believes would look more authentic! I cut little thin legs from strap licorice, 3 m and m’s as you can see, black writing gel for the eyes and stuck the whole thing together with writing gel! So fiddly! Definitely one for an adult to make for a decoration to the plate!
The muffin with the spider web I found on a blog I was looking at and adapted it. I guess you could give children the writing gel and let them make their own spider web, why not! The spider is an m and m with 2 little dots for eyes! My adult son was a bit perturbed by the fact their didn’t seem to be a body for the spider, I guess I could have used mini m and m’s to make a more realistic spider!