This activity was featured on:

http://www.ohcreativeday.com/arts-crafts-eric-carle/

(If you love Children’s literature, be sure to check out Shannon’s many ideas!)

Materials

• Cardboard (depending on your child’s age and cutting abilities this could be from shipping boxes, cereal boxes etc.)
• Sticks
• Yarn
• Glue gun
• Scissors
• Paint
• Paintbrushes

We always find these items helpful too:

• Smock
• Craft tray

Directions

• Go for a nature walk with an adult, collecting sticks and observing flowers to get ideas.  Our daughter was attracted to the colours of the flowers below and wanted to make bright blooms.

• Cut your cardboard into manageable pieces.

• Sketch out your leaves, flower centres and petals.  Our daughter was frustrated in the fact she wanted to draw her leaves so that they came out from the stem and made a point at the end so I suggested that she put dots at those points and see if that helped in achieving the look she wanted.  Sometimes making a guide helps to suggest parameters for sketching out an item.

• Carefully cut out your pieces.

• Don your smock.  Paint your pieces, focusing on the base colour.  Depending on the paint type, you may require more than one coat.  We used foam brushes for this part of the project.  Allow to dry overnight.  Then paint on your details.  Allow to dry overnight.

• Wrap your sticks in yarn if you like.  Start by tying a knot at one end and then wrapping over the knot.  You might find it easier to wrap around the stick, holding the ball of yarn or you might turn the stick itself.  Push the wrapped yarn down to the end that you started, if you want a fuller look.  Knot the end and cut off the excess.

• Glue the pieces of your flower together and then glue the stick stem onto flower.  Be sure to hold it in place until the glue sets.  As my daughter said, “The glue gun is good for this kind of project as it dries fast!”.  Glue your leaves onto the stem.

• Hang your giant flower in your room and play underneath it (pretending to be a small bug of course!) or create a garden in your classroom!

Purpose

• Re-imagining items.
• Getting out into nature to source materials and observe the changes that occur during spring.
• Taking an item and altering its scale.  This could be a segway to seeing something from a different perspective (E.g., How do flowers appear to ants.)

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors and a glue gun with care and direct, adult supervision.

Materials

• Thick paper
• Craft sand
• Thick, stiff paint brushes
• Craft (white) glue
• Shaving foam
• Container
• Embellishments (chenille sticks, button, foam- scissors to cut)

• Wipes (It is VERY important that you use wipes on your hands etc. rather than washing them in your sink as the sand may clog your drain.)  You could do this activity outside if you like too.

We always find these items helpful too:

• Smock
• Craft tray

Directions

• Don your smock.  Mix your glue, shaving cream and sand in a container, going with approximately 3 equal parts.

• Use your brushes or hands to create your monster shape with your paint mixture.

• While your paint is wet, add embellishments to create your monster’s face, arms, legs etc.  Give your monster its own personality!  If there are two layers- such as the pupil for the eye, simply glue the pieces on top of each other.

• Allow to dry overnight.

• As mentioned, be sure to use wipes on your hands or for any spills to avoid washing sand down your drain and potentially clogging it.

• Hang up your monsters!

Purpose

• Experimenting with different types of paint.  This one can provide a varied sensory opportunity.
• Cutting various materials.
• Re-framing things that may be scary (e.g., monsters) and making them friendly.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors with care and adult supervision.
• Small parts such as buttons can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.
• It is VERY important that you use wipes on your hands etc. rather than washing them in your sink as the sand may clog your drain.

http://www.hellowonderful.co/post/KID-MADE-WOODEN-BEAD-ICE-CREAM-CONE-NECKLACES

http://letslassothemoon.com/2016/05/11/kids-project-small-world/

where we show you an example of a Bumblebee’s Garden and give you a few tips to get you started on your very own small world for your home or classroom!

Materials

• Bin (this one is for under the bed storage)
• Food colouring
• Watercolour paint
• Water
• Watercolour paper
• Empty soap pumps

We always find a smock helpful too!

Directions

• Don your smock.  We first experimented with water before moving onto paint.  We added a bit of food colouring (red, yellow and blue) and water to the pumps, exploring what secondary colours we could make.

• We then switched out our water for diluted watercolour paints (see the label on your product for ratios) and pumped away!

Purpose

• Exploring primary and secondary colours.
• Building hand strength.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.

From this:

(http://make-it-your-own.com/beautiful-blooms/)

to this:

http://www.purpletwig.com/

CutOuts Studio is owned by Julia Linsteadt whose own art practise is rooted in paper cuts, where she creates an image using a single piece of paper.  Julia teaches in the San Francisco Bay area at a few locations (see her website link for details.)  What impresses me most about her work is that it is often with very young children.  The classes focus on various creation methods with practical (and clever) modifications to make the process accessible and successful for children in that age group.  Being organized and anticipating possible complications is one of the ways in which art projects can go more smoothly with a large group (and at home too!).   Julia took the nest activity that our kids did and then made these changes (which I think you will find helpful too!).

http://make-it-your-own.com/bird-nest-craft/

1) As you can see, each child has a piece of cardboard that they are working on.  This allows for easy transportation (what heart break occurs when a child accidentally drops her or his work while moving it!) whether it be on a side board for drying or to take it home from a studio.

2) The kids chose their yarn and materials and pre-mixed it with the glue in a shared bin.  This bin was then placed in between the group of children so that each child could access the yarn to create the nest.

3) Julia found that for small children, painting the balloon first with a bit of glue allowed there to be greater adhesion of the yarn.  She used foam brushes that are both easy for young children to use and gentle on balloons!  I like how each child’s glue container has a large mouth, making it easy to brush, but she also stretched an elastic across a container so that children could wipe off their excess glue!

4) Julia then extended the idea, having the kids paint their very own eggs for the nests out of rocks.

Photo Credit:  Candice Gliatto of http://www.citrus-salon.com/

As you can tell from the beaming faces in her photos, the children are proud of their individual pieces.  One of my favourite stories on her Instagram account is that a family travelled across the U.S. to attend her class after connecting online- how magnificent is that?!

https://cutoutsstudio.com/

Both these studios feature ideas that are open-ended, reflecting the maker’s own creativity.  We hope that you take a peek at them and if you find yourself inspired by something we have done on Make it Your Own, please tag us as we would love to see it and say thank you in our own special way!

Materials

• Notebook
• Camera or other device with these capabilities
• Pencil/eraser
• Glue stick

Group/ Classroom setting

• Ikea TOLSBY frames * If these aren’t available to you, we show you a little trick as to how to make a paper stand!  See below.

Directions

• With an adult, go on a nature walk, taking photos of your specimens that you find.  You may want to take a photo “in the field” or take the items home, photograph them and then return them to the earth.

• Once you have your photographs, glue them into your sketchbook (you could also use something like self-adhesive photo corners).

• If you are doing this in a group setting, pop your photos into a picture frame to put out onto a table.  Here is a copy of the photos we took if you would like to use those as an example or a starting point.  They are sized for the frame: nature pictures3

• Sketch away with these thoughts in mind- how can you show texture?  How can you experiment with taking a 2-D image and making it appear 3-D?  What different types of lines can you use?  If you like, label your work, add colour and provide a description- where did you find the item?  What surrounded it?  Do you have any predictions (prior to researching it) as to what it might be?

• Continue this process throughout the year, noting any differences you might find during the seasonal changes.

• If you are in a classroom setting, set up a nature table for displaying your collections and/or mount the sketches with the photographs beside them to display the work.

* Creating a Paper Stand

If you don’t have a frame and want to make a quick and inexpensive stand, here is a trick I learned from one of my host teachers as a University student, using cardstock, Poster/Bristol Board or thin cardboard.

Purpose

• Getting out into nature.
• Learning how to take photos of items of interest.
• Exploring how to draw a likeness of something.

Safety Notes

• Have an adult accompany you on your nature walk, being sure to respect nature and people’s property.
• Ask permission, prior to using equipment such as a camera or cell phone with the camera feature.
• Avoid choosing items that may be dangerous (e.g., selecting mushrooms for example).
• Small items such as erasers and glue caps should be stored out of reach of small children (o-3 years of age) or those that tend to put things in their mouths.

Materials

• Building blocks
• Printables  make lego creatures
• Ikea TOLSBY frame * If these aren’t available to you, we show you a little trick as to how to make a paper stand!  See below.
• Felt
• Paper cutter or scissors

Directions

• Print the challenge cards and use a paper cutter or scissors to cut them out.  They are sized to fit in the frame.

• Pop the cards in the frame.  In the sets there are words and pictures to serve as a prompt for building.  As the frames are double sided you could set this up in one frame or two.  If you wanted you could add books as well to generate ideas.

Woodland Creatures

Farm Creatures

Underwater Creatures

Rainforest Creatures

Ice-Land Creatures

• Lay out your felt on your work surface and create away!

* If you don’t have a frame and want to make a quick and inexpensive stand, here is a trick I learned from one of my host teachers as a University student, using cardstock, Poster/Bristol Board or thin cardboard.*

Purpose

• Developing one’s fine motor skills.
• Investigating what animals are present in various types of habitats.

Safety Notes

• Use scissors or a paper cutter with care and direct adult assistance or supervision.
• Small items such as building blocks (LEGO) can be a choking hazard therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.