Hints on providing a creative environment
1.Make a regular time for creative expression, just as a regular reading time.
2.A makeshift space such as an area of the kitchen table is just as valuable as a separate activity room. Remember, the creative mind has no boundaries.
Balloon Prints Materials: Liquid tempera, Shallow pans (pie tins or cake pans), Small balloons, Paper
1. Put liquid tempera into shallow pans.
2. Have several small balloons blown up and ready for activity.
3. Give each child a large piece of paper.
4. Place one balloon into each of the tempera pans.
5. Let the children bounce the balloons onto the paper. Trade pans around for variety of colour.
Bubble Blowing Painting Materials: 4 small containers, food coloring,
Bubbles and wands (purchased at store), white paper,
paper plates, towels (for clean-up), trays.
1. Have arranged on table 4 small containers. Fill each container with bubbles and 4 wands.(non-toxic-age 4 & up)
2. Add enough food coloring to each container (1 green, 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 blue). Thus you will have a mixture of bubbles and food coloring. (It's best to let this stand over night.)
3. Have child dip wand into container and blow bubbles either on tray, plate, paper. If child blows on tray, have paper ready for child to press onto bubbles.
Color Crafts
Cups of Color
1.Fill all the cups of a muffin tin with water.
2.Place red, blue, green and yellow food coloring in each of four of the cups of water.
3.Children use eyedroppers to transfer colored water to other cups, thus creating different shades of color.
By combining colors, children also create new colors of purple, chartreuse, brown, etc.
About Me Crafts
The Me Puppet
Paper Bags
Crayons
Fabrics
Yarn
Let your children make a puppet of themselves. They can create the facial features on the bag
and yarn for hair. Additionally they can use your fabrics to make clothes for their puppet.
Paper Plate Face
Crayons/Markers
Yarn
Paper Plates
Various Collage Materials of Your choosing
Have your children look in mirror and create their face on a paper plate.
Life Size Me
Paper
Bright Light
Glue
Art Supplies of your choice
Use a bright light, a projector, or the sun and take a piece of construction paper and trace the silhouette of your children on the paper. Cut out the siloute and place a piece of black paper under it. Glue it onto a large piece of colored paper. Now let the children decorate the white frame.
Summer Crafts
Design a Beach Towel
Large Piece of paper
Paint
Glitter and any other material you want
Give the children the paper and let them design their own beach towels.
Animal Crafts
Bird Nest
Coffee Filters
Easter Grass
Glue the Easter Grass onto the coffee filter and it makes a cute bird nest.
Real Bird Nest
Mud
Sticks, twigs, pine needles, or pebbles
Grass or leaves
After showing your children pictures of bird nest, provide you students with mud, sticks, grass, leaves, twigs, pine needles, and pebbles. Let you kids create their own bird nest.
Bug Crafts
Make your own Ant
cotton balls
egg cartons
google eyes
pipe cleaners
construction paper
glitter, any other material that you want to use.
Cut the egg cartons and let the children make their own ant
Coffee Filter Butterfly
Coffee Filters
Spray Bottle with water
Washable Markers
Clothespins
Let kids color coffee filters, then spray them with the spray bottle, then twist and clip with clothespin. This will make the butterfly wings, the kids can then color a face and antennas on the clothespin.
Dinosaur Crafts Dino Eggs
You need enough hard boiled eggs for everyone in your class. Have children bang hard-boiled eggs on table the making cracks in them, but not removing the shell at all. Put them in a cup of water and choice of food coloring. Let sit for the day. For snack, open up the egg shell and you can see neat designs from the cracks and food coloring. Exciting and Yummy!!
Sand Table Activity
Fill your sand/water table with sand or rice. Hide small plastic dinosaurs in it. Have the kids use spoons, sifters, or their fingers to go on a dinosaur hunt. If you have the colored dinos like I do, they can also do a sorting game. Find the dino and sort it into the correct cup according to color or type of dino. Count all the dinos and then bury them again for the next child.
Apple Crafts Apple Prints
On a large piece of paper, cut out a large shape of an apple. Slice apples in half vertically. Using red and green paint, have the children dip the apple halves in the paint and then make their prints on the large apple.
Paper Plate Apple
Use a small paper plate and have the kids glue scraps of red fabric, paper, or tissue paper all over it. Add a construction paper green stem. Real easy for even the youngest kids.
