Making Prints with Textured Balls

A while back Chris and I attended a friends' wedding in New Harmony, Indiana.  Its a cute little town with some great local history.  They also are one of the founding towns for early childhood education in the United States, but that's a post for another day.

We were walking around the town between the service and reception and popped into the local art gallery.  There was an artist that had created balls of various sizes out of clay and attached 3D patterns to the outside.  The artist had rolled them in sand to show the patterns that they made.  It was an interactive exhibit that allowed observers to make some prints with some of the smaller pieces.  (I will need to call about who the artist is.  I forgot to write down the name.)

I immediately thought that this would be wonderful to have for an early childhood classroom for the sand table, clay, or with paint/ink.

Imagine my delight when I came across these balls in the dollar section at Target today.  I picked up one of each.  As I often do, I tried the experiment with Miles before taking them to work.

These particular balls light up.  Miles was a bit more excited about them lighting up than about the patterns, but I think the kids would get a kick out of using them in various media.  This activity promotes strengthening of fine motor movements.

We also tried rolling them around in corn meal and then compared the 2 methods and the patterns that were made.  I think that this activity could be a lot of fun to do with a lesson that includes talking about animal prints.

Magic Shiny Pennies

I used my master's degree today!! One of the classes that I took was a wonderful science class that allowed us to learn about science concepts hands on with objects around the house that a teacher can afford.

Miles was told by Chris that he could have all the pennies that he would take out of the floorboard of the new race car.  (There were roughly 100.)  He spent about 5 minutes picking up some and putting them in a jar.  Then he said the others were too dirty.  I convinced him that I knew a "magic" way to make pennies shiny once again.

Today's experiment takes salt, vinegar, and pennies.

First: Lay out the pennies on a cookie sheet to keep the mess contianed.

Second: Sprinkle the pennies liberally with salt.

Third: Squirt the salt covered pennies with the vinegar to remove the tarnish.

Fourth: We used a colander to rinse the pennies off and patted them dry with a cloth.

Here are some pennies before and after the "Magic" transformation.

I think it's important from time to time to discover the "Magic" in the world around us.  

Cars: Making a Series of Art Pieces

When I picked up Miles the other day, he was very excited to show me this collection of drawings.  We had seen some art on display that a single artist had created.  Miles noticed that they were very similar and we discussed that artists often create a collection of works of art in a particular style.

He was very proud that he had created a car collection of drawings based on his Cars characters. 

Mater is my favorite.  I love how even in his simple drawings Miles has captured the whimseyness of Mater's character. 

This one is Sarge.  ( I couldn't find Sarge to picture.) I love the simplisity of his collection.  He has definatly started to have a certin style to his drawings.  I am fasinated how each child can have this independant look to thier creations even if they are creating stick figures. 

Wood Glue: Doing it "Right"

There are lots of little skills that I think are important for kids to have a basic understanding.  I know that lots of people think that gluing is a skill that young children need to learn.  And as my memory serves from my own childhood and from watching my co-workers teach children about gluing, I find that we (adults) are hung up in the procedure of gluing.  In early childhood education, we are pretty good at allowing children to explore open ended art when it comes to paint, but put restrictions on glue.  Teachers are often leery of allowing children to experiment with as much glue as they would like to.  

I tried to let go on this one and allowed Miles to use as much as he'd like.  (I must admit that this is easier if you know the child well and the glue bottle only is 1/4 full.) 

The other day, Chris had some scraps of wood left over from fixing up the deck.  Miles has been very intrigued with the sculptures along the river front, so I asked if he'd like to create a wood sculpture with the scraps.  We discussed how wood glue works and then you need to wet the surfaces that you are gluing together, so that as the wood dries the glue is pulled into the pores of the wood.  

After he glued it together, we let it sit to dry over night.  We sat it on waxed paper so it wouldn't glue to the table.  The waxed paper didn't peel off quite like I had hoped, but you live and learn.  

The next morning he painted it.  

I don't think that using wood glue is a skill that every child must have.  I do think that it was great for Miles to see that there are different procedures that go with various types of materials.  Reading and learning and reading about how materials should be used is important for success of use.  

Foiled Play

Miles saved up enough money to buy a toy monster truck that he'd been wanting and so we took his piggy bank with us when we went to the farm store (Yes... the farm store.  I once heard a co-worker quote her grandmother, "If Rural King ain't got it, you don't need it." It's true for all intents and purposes.) for some other items that we were picking up.  This one came with a little plastic fold-able car that could be smooched when the monster truck goes over it.  Miles was very excited by this, but of course the set only came with one such car.  Chris told Miles that, "Back in my day... we smoothed foil over matchbox cars to make cars to smooch with monster trucks."  I suggested that Chris show him all the ins and outs of creating your own smash-able cars for monster truck play.

He're how it's done.

Cut a piece of Aluminum foil large enough to cover a matchbox car (or truck). Smooth it over the top and sides of your vehicle.

Once you've smoothed the foil into all the little crevices, you can add details with permanent markers.

Play Monster Truck Jam!! until your heart's content.

Chris and Miles kept giving the foil cars shape and smashing them over and over.  By the end, the foil "cars" had a very realistic look of a car at the end of a monster truck rally.  

Some times the simplest ideas are the most fun.  Hours of fun for just pennies.

Galoshes

Galoshes are the one piece of foot wear that up to this point in his life that Miles has truly worn out.  He has gotten a ton of use out of them.  Part of it is that they slip on so nicely.  I don't care if he gets them muddy.  

Or wants to make the biggest splashes in the puddles that form by our house. 

Or experiment with techniques necessary to make the best ripples.  

Of course when he sits in the puddle it doesn't really matter what kind of shoe he has on his feet, the water will make a puddle nearly as big as the one in the yard as he takes them off in the kitchen.  

Shoes that allow and encourage outdoor imaginative play are my favorite.  I think that every child should have a pair of galoshes.  (They're cheep at the Rural King.)  Miles is on his third pair and they all get a ton of use.  

Still Life : Train

The other day Miles wanted to draw a train, so we had a little lesson in looking at the shapes to create drawings.  He asked how to draw a train, and so I put together his little wooded train on the table and we looked at the shapes that make up a train.  Then we began drawing.

He started with the engine using rectangles and circles.  He referred back to his toy train to get the details correct.

After he drew the train we talked about where the train was, so he drew the train on a track on a bridge that is up on tresses.  

He added further details to the picture by added a few skyscrapers to the picture.  

Here is the finished product.  

Chugga chugga Choo Choo!!!