Stripy Eggs

Here is an Easter activity for little hands. Of course, anybody can make these, and I had fun making my own, but this is perfect for the youngest set (3, maybe even 2 1/2). It is easy for them to be very successful with minimum assistance.

Stripy Eggs

Materials:

cardboard (ideally something thicker than a tissue box) with one side “plain”

pencil

paint (different kinds of paint achieve different coverage. As long as the cardboard is brown, or white or something, it will still be pleasing)

paint brushes

something to do while the paint dries!

pinking shears you don’t mind cutting cardboard with

scraps of yarn or embroidery floss

tape

1. Using a pencil draw eggs of various sizes on the cardboard.

2. Paint each egg a solid colour. It’s a good idea to do a lot of eggs at this stage as it is so easy. You never know how popular wrapping may be, and this way you can have lots of eggs to wrap. (maybe even to leave out at the craft table for future wrapping)

3. Wait for them to dry. If you are working with little ones, maybe take this time to read a book, or have a snack….

4. (adult) Using the pinking shears, cut out the eggs. The zigzag edge will make it easy to wrap the eggs.

5. Time to wrap the eggs! You have several options here. You can either make a little slit with straight scissors at the edge of an egg and wedge the end of the yarn in to secure it, or simply tape the end of the yarn to the back. The second option is easiest for kids to do themselves. Then get wrapping! Secure the end in the same way you started.

And that’s that! If you are looking for a nice way to display your egg collection consider attaching them to a piece a long piece of ribbon (using glue, or again, tape)  and hanging them on the wall.

Some other ideas: You can use plain brown cardboard or white cardboard to look like natural eggs. Try making some giant eggs and using several colours of yarn for the stripes.

Paint and Mirrors

We had our second Autism Arts class on Saturday. It went quite well, and was surprisingly calm. I think everybody was just that little bit more comfortable.

In the last class we had noticed that two of the children enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror. They kept wandering into the supply closet in search of the mirror, so we found a little corner to put one up in the class. This week I was watching one of the children walking about, and how he kept returning to the mirror, and I wondered if we could incorporate the mirror into some art making. I quickly set out a long mirror on the painting table – it’s good to improvise! Funnily enough, it was another child who jumped right into mirror painting. At first, he seemed to find it fun to paint something and watch himself “eating” it. Then it became a rather more sprawling exercise. And after that he discovered how the paint could be removed with a sponge – artistic subtraction. Eventually, the boy for whom the project was intended came over and did a bit of work on the mirror. He also helped clean it after the painting was done. I’m going to give it some thought and find more ways to use the mirror in our art activities. Some more painting, of course, but I would also like to stretch a piece of contact paper, sticky side up, over  a mirror so the kids could do some simple collage with a mirror background. I’ll keep you posted!

Workshop Prep: Collagraph

Today I am doing a bit of prep for a workshop I’ll be teaching next week. I wanted to do some kind of printing project and have settles on collagraph prints. A collagraph is a printing plate made by glueing things to the surface. I’ve done this with children using foam sheets, but I wanted to try it with cardboard. I also wanted to see how painting the plates would work, instead of using a roller. As a starting point to the design process, I’ve decided to ask the participants to build images around an initial. (more on that when I do the workshop!)

First I cut out, arranged and glued pieces of cardboard to my “plate” (another piece of cardboard). I also made one that incorporated some bubble wrap and cloth. (Note how I remembered to make my C’s backwards!)

In an effort to keep material costs low I thought I’d try using acrylic paint for printing, as I’ll need that for another project with the same group. I painted the whole plate, using different colours. You have to work very fast as the paint dries quickly!

Then I placed a piece of paper carefully on top of the plate and applied gentle and even pressure with a rolling pin.

I think this has scope for a kids project, but this workshop is for adults and I don’t think they would be as happy with the results. So…..I resorted to the  roller and printing ink and I’m happier with this version. So I guess I’m pretty much back to where I started!

But I’m glad I experimented. I liked the way my second block looked when I inked it up – you can see the colour from my previous efforts. I may try adding some colour to the print somehow when it’s dry.

Jungle birds and Treasure Maps

This is the second time I have done this bird project, and it seems to be a great success. I was originally going for something like those wooden geese with wings attached to strings, but discovered that a paper model would flap its wings simply by being moved up and down.

I think the best part of this project  is that it requires several steps to make. The kids work on them a little, then do something else, then go back to work on the birds again. First pastels, then paint, then collage. As a half hour seems to be about the amount of time I can rely on them to work, returning to a project is a way to get them trully involved in the project. I really should think of more things like this. The beauty of this one is that it is relatively simple, and all the children can accomplish something quite lovely to behold.

A beautiful wing:

The birds were yesterday and today it was “Pirate Day”. We made treasure maps:

Then I “found” a treasure map of the gallery in the classroom. This is what I love about this age – the kids really did believe that this was the REAL THING. Off we went on a treasure hunt, completing various challenges, and finding various way marks. And then we found the treasure!