Freezer Paper Stenciling

O and I recently freezer paper stenciled a few shirts and a nature bag.  I traced and cut the stencils out of freezer paper and ironed it on the shirts and bag.




I mixed craft paint with textile medium, and O and I painted the shirts.  (you can find the textile medium is in the craft section of WM near the acrylic craft paint).



Since I bought dark shirts (aqua and purple), it required a lot more paint to cover the area than it usually does.  Next time I'll only buy white shirts for this project.















The girls are excited about their finished shirts!

Artist Study...Van Gogh

O and I have started studying an artist a month (this is another great idea from My Montessori Journey).  The first artist that we have studied is Van Gogh.  We looked at Van Gogh's art on the ipad (I downloaded Van Gogh hd, which is a great, inexpensive app), read several books about Van Gogh, and then did a few activities based on one of his paintings.

This great magnetic activity using the painting, Bedroom in Arles, came from the blog, little acorns.  I printed the activity on magnetic paper, and O arranged the pieces to match the painting. 








After O completed the magnetic activity, we had fun coloring a picture of Bedroom in Arles.  It's so much fun to color together!


This week we'll focus on The Starry Night.   

Egg Carton Art

O confiscates just about anything that I try to recycle or throw away and insists that I put it on her art shelf.  She even keeps the trash from bandaids!  She kept an egg carton on her art shelf for weeks before she finally started making art with it.  She worked on her egg carton art for more than a week.  I love all of her creative egg carton art, and I think these will look great in a shadow box one day!

Water Xylophone

O, E, and I made a water xylophone this afternoon. O poured water into the glass baby bottles in progressive amounts. After the bottles were filled with water, we added food coloring to make them beautiful :) The girls had fun making music, and O did hand over hand to show E how to play the xylophone.


After we finished making music, we poured a little water from each bottle into mugs. We folded paper towels and dipped them into the colored water to make art. O enjoyed this part of the activity more than the making and playing of the xylophone.



Our colors were not very vibrant since we only used a few drops of food coloring in each bottle, but O was still very pleased with her paper towel art!

Oh, The Possibilities...

When I saw this spiral rainbow notepad at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't resist buying it for O. The possiblities for creative art projects are endless!

So far, she has enjoyed writing notes on it with a pen (she is really excited about writing with a pen, and she likes to write all of our names), making a mini accordian fan for E, and she has started working on a collage using a piece of contact paper (sticky side out) that I taped to the sliding glass door. She loves to make contact paper collages, and I think she'll be making a lot of them with these colorful notecards. This notepad was definitely worth the 2 dollars it cost!

Painting on Canvas

The girls had a great time painting on stretched canvases this week, and I'm excited to have new art to hang on our walls! I decided to do this art project outside by the lake for easy clean-up, and I'm SO glad that I did!

The hand of a true artist! E was covered in paint, and she tasted it, too, of course.


After O finished her painting, she painted herself. She painted her hands, feet, and legs. Again, I was SO glad that we did this project outside, and I was so glad that it was warm enough to go swimming after we finished!


The girls were proud of their masterpieces!

This one is by Baby E (12 months old).


And this one is O's (4 years old).


After they finished their artwork, we went swimming and caught a baby soft shell turtle!

O named him Buddy (she names all turtles Buddy), and we observed him for about 10 minutes before letting him go. Evidently he lives on our beach because O accidentally caught him again today! She scooped up a cup of sand, and then said in an almost scared voice "Look! There's something in here!" The turtle was buried in the sand with only his head peeking out. We watched him for a while again before letting him go. Hopefully, we'll see him again tomorrow :)

Zubber

O and I recently made insects using Zubber. I bought the kit from WM for 2 dollars. We had fun making the insects, and O was impressed with and proud of her insects. Although we had a good time, I was glad that I only paid 2 dollars for the kit.

Fingerpainting Fun using Textured Trays

O and E had a great time fingerpainting this weekend using our textured fingerpainting trays. I squirted fingerpaint into the tray, and O squished it and spread it all around.


E was a little hesitant, and when she finally put her hand in the paint, she immediately tasted it. It must not have tasted very good because she only tasted it once. She seemed a little disturbed by having blue hands at first, but she relaxed after a couple of minutes.

After they spread the paint in the tray, we put a piece of white cardstock on the tray and pressed to make a print. This was a messy and fun activity that we'll be doing again soon.


The fingerpainting trays came from the Let's Explore shop (which is no longer open).