painting

St. Patrick’s Day Painted Shamrock

March 11, 2021 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

A painted shamrock sprinkled with green glitter and shamrock confetti. An all-ages art activity.

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This painted shamrock art activity has a whole lotta green and plenty of glitter and shine. It is a paint mixing exercise with a finished product that looks lovely displayed. As is the shamrock collage craft, it is inspired by the lush greens of the Irish countryside.

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Supplies To Collect

green, yellow, and white tempera paint
large sheet of sturdy paper
egg carton or paint palette
paintbrush
paper towel square
shamrock confetti
green glitter
green ribbon
scissors
glue gun
shamrock template

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Painted Shamrock Art

Cut a shamrock from a large sheet of sturdy paper. Shown below is manila paper.

Pour dark green, medium green, yellow, and white tempera paint into an artist palette or used egg carton. This color scheme works well whether your little learner keeps the colors separate or does a lot of blending.

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Invite your early learner to paint the shamrock, using green, yellow, and white hues. A paper towel works well to dab excess paint from the brush before switching to a new color. This is a helpful tip from Patty Palmer’s book “Draw, Paint, Sparkle.”

Color mixing painting exercise with green, yellow, and white paint.

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Next, have your little one sprinkle on metallic shamrocks and green glitter while the paint is still wet.

When the shamrock art is dry, spray on unscented hairspray from an aerosol can to help the glitter and shamrock confetti stay on.

Fashion a bow from ribbon and use a glue gun to attach it to the shamrock.

Painted shamrock art activity. An all-ages color mixing invitation.

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Discussing shamrock shapes, using beautiful finishing touches, seeing how white added to darker green makes different shades, and noticing how yellow lightens and brightens green are some learning possibilities for this craft.

If done just before St. Patrick’s Day, this painted shamrock art project can be displayed for the festivities.

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New Year’s Countdown Activities

December 30, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

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These New Year’s countdown activities give practice in number recognition and counting down from 10 to 1. And how fun is it for early learners to print fireworks with fringed toilet paper rolls!

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Printmaking Fireworks

Supplies needed:

Happy New Year printable (downloadable below)
scissors
toilet paper rolls
magenta, yellow, and light blue tempera paint
small plates or container lids
paintbrushes

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Happy New Year Printable

New Year's Countdown template to use for art and math activities with young children. Invitation to add paint print fireworks, count down from 10 t0 1 and match numbers.

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Download this “Happy New Year” printable for the fireworks art activity. It can be printed on 8 1/2 inch x 11-inch paper, or 11-inch by 17-inch paper.

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Happy New Year PrintableDownload

This printable is for individual or one classroom use only.

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The Printmaking Invitation

Do the following steps to paint print fireworks:

Cut fringes into one end of three toilet paper rolls.

Bend the fringes on each paper roll outward.

Pour magenta, yellow, and light blue paint into small plates or lids.

Set out the paints, paper rolls, and paper on a table.

Ask your little learner to dip the fringed end of each paper roll into a color of paint and make a firework print on the paper.

Encourage your little one to add more prints in each paint color to the page.

Invitation to paint fireworks with fringed toilet paper rolls.

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Tip: Try this on a practice sheet first.

For added control, fringed ends can be painted with a brush instead of being dipped in paint.

New Year's fireworks printmaking with fringed toilet paper rolls.

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Fireworks paint prints made with fringed toilet paper rolls.

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To incorporate number recognition and matching practice, ask your early learner to cover the numbers 10 to 1 with numeric stickers.

Number matching on a New Year's countdown printable.

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Dot Marker New Year’s Countdown

Another way to use the New Year’s Countdown printable is to let your little learner decorate it with paper stars. Then ask your little one to count down the numbers from ten to one, dabbing each numeral with a dot marker as it is spoken.

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Dot marker New Year's countdown activity.

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These New Year’s countdown activities will be sure to help your early learner start the new year off on a positive note. Let the counting begin!

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New Year's countdown printmaking and number matching printable.

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More New Year’s Activities

New Year’s Eve Sensory Tray

New Year’s All Gold Sensory Activity

New Year’s Crafts

New Year’s Sensory Tray

New Year’s Art and Math Activities

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[Read more…]

Christmas Tree Art

December 21, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

This Christmas tree art is quick to set up and simple to do. And it gives early learners a chance to explore color shades and brightness.

Dazzling, easy to do Christmas tree art painting activity. An all-ages art project.

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Supplies to Collect

green, yellow and white tempera paint
12-inch x 18-inch sturdy paper
paint palettes
paintbrushes
paper towel squares
metallic green star confetti
gold and green Christmas gift bows

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Making The Christmas Tree Art

Cut long, narrow triangles from large sheets of sturdy paper. Shown below is manila paper.

Pour dark green, medium green, yellow, and white tempera paint into artist palettes. This color scheme works well when children keep the colors separate or do a lot of blending.

Invite your early learners to paint a triangle. They will embrace painting a unique shape.

Christmas tree art set up with white, yellow, and green paint hues.

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A paper towel works well to dab excess paint from the brush before switching to a new color. This is a helpful tip from Patty Palmer’s book “Draw, Paint, Sparkle.”

Painting technique to use when switching paint colors.

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Next, have your little charges sprinkle on metallic stars while the paint is still wet. They will loooove doing this too!

Painted triangular tree ready to be topped with a Christmas gift bow.

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When the tree art is dry, spray on unscented hairspray from an aerosol can to help the stars stay on. (This is the first year I searched for unscented hairspray to use as a fixative. It was worth the time and slightly greater expense.)

Lastly, have your little learners pick a Christmas gift bow to stick on top of their tree.

A Christmas gift bow is the topper for this painted Christmas tree craft.

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Discussing triangle shapes, using beautiful finishing touches, seeing how white added to darker green makes different shades, and noticing how yellow lightens and brightens green are some learning possibilities for this craft.

And these Christmas tree art projects look absolutely beautiful displayed together.

Dazzling, easy to set up Christmas tree art project.

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[Read more…]

Christmas Dove Art

December 13, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

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Angels are often my “go-to” theme for a Christmas craft keepsake, but this holiday season I have doves on my brain. Doves are symbolic of peace and love, which is welcome inspiration at Christmas, or any time of the year. So here are two Christmas dove art projects that make touching keepsakes… and display beautifully. Bonus: I’ve included a free downloadable printable to use for the crafts.

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Squish Painted Dove

Create a symmetrical dove pattern or download the printable in this post to use as a template. Cut out one bird from white 8 ½ inch x 11-inch cardstock paper for each child completing the project.

Dove printable to download for a craft project.

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Dove TemplateDownload

This printable is for individual and one classroom use only.

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Set the doves out onto a table along with red and green paint and spoons.

Invitation to spatter paint paper doves with red and green paint.

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Invite your little learners to spatter paint their dove.

Spatter painted dove using green and red Christmas colors.

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Then help them fold the dove, and smooth their hand over it. Placing newspaper underneath and overtop the folded birds helps absorb excess paint.

Ask your little ones to unfold their birds. They are bound to be excited to see the art they have created.

Squish painted dove art project in red and green colors.

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After the doves dry, hot glue a sprig from a Christmas stem underneath each beak.

A sprig from a Christmas stem is the finishing touch for this squish painted red and green dove.

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Cuttings from a stem with berries, pine cones, and leaves in different tones give the doves a unique finishing touch.

Christmas stem to use as a finishing touch for festive dove art.

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Sprigs cut from one Christmas stem for a craft project.

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Displayed together on a wall as a triangle and topped with a star, the painted birds make a unique Christmas tree shape. Or mount on a complimentary patterned paper background.

Christmas dove art utilizing a squish painting technique.

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View a Squish-Painted Christmas Dove video tutorial here:

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Papercraft Christmas Dove

Supplies To Collect:

8 1/2 x 11-inch white cardstock
sturdy paper in white, green, red, and turquoise hues
12-inch x12-inch cardstock or Christmas-themed paper
flower, leaf, snowflake, and bird paper punches
glue sticks
holiday greetings
self-adhesive pearls
double-sided tape

Supplies needed to make a papercraft dove Christmas keepsake.

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Cut out white cardstock doves, and set them out on a table with glue sticks and festive paper punched shapes. I used bird, snowflake, leaf, and flower shapes in turquoise, red, and green hues. Feel free to choose your own color scheme.

Set up with adhesive pearls and snowflake, leaf, flower, and bird paper shapes to glue onto a paper dove.

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Invite your early learners to glue colorful punched shapes to their doves.

Tips:

A muffin pan works well as a shape sorter for group art.
Paper or foil Christmas scatter purchased from a store could replace the punched shapes in this craft.

A twelve cup muffin pan works well as a shape sorter for group art.

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Afterward, glue a paper punched leaf or Christmas sprig underneath each beak. Mount the birds onto 12-inch x 12-inch solid colored complimentary cardstock with a few pieces of double-sided tape for a raised look. Invite your charges to add self-adhesive pearl gems to the flowers and background paper.

Words such as Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Joy, Peace, or Noel add a seasonal greeting to the pictures.

Papercraft dove Christmas keepsake picture.

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An alternative is to mount the arty doves on Christmas-themed 12-inch x 12-inch paper.

Papercraft dove collage projects mounted on Christmas-themed backgrounds.

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Click here for a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays printable to use for a greeting in the craft.

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Holiday Greeting PrintableDownload

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These two Christmas dove art projects are sure to add a festive touch to your classroom or home. Which one is your favorite?

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[Read more…]

Pumpkin Color Activities

November 23, 2020 by Annette Kaminsky Leave a Comment

Pumpkin facts and color activities. Anatomy, color matching, and art activities.

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Although orange pumpkins are traditional, and most grocery stores focus on selling them, these dramatic fruits come in many other hues. Diversely colored pumpkins can be scouted out at farmer’s markets and garden centers in autumn. They are intriguing in pumpkin color activities for little learners.

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Pumpkin Display

First, set out pumpkins on a shelf for little ones to view. The contrasting colors make a striking display. Discuss pumpkin color, size, shape, and texture.

Pumpkins in mint, cream, black, yellow, and green colors.

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Color Matching

Move the pumpkins to a table and invite early learners to add color words.

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Pumpkin Anatomy

Display a cross-section of each variety collected, and talk about pumpkin anatomy.

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Notice that some pumpkins have larger cavities than others, and certain pumpkins contain more seeds. Study flesh colors together, and invite little learners to feel the pumpkin insides.

Black pumpkin cross-section showing pulp and seeds.

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Spider Web Crayon Rubbings

Have children do a spider web crayon rubbing on a uniquely colored paper pumpkin. A few spiders hanging around add excitement to the activity.

Crayon rubbings of spider webs on colored pumpkins. An all-ages art activity.

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Pumpkin Painting

Offer tempera paint for little ones to slather on a small pumpkin. Have everyone generously sprinkle on gold glitter for a finishing touch. The decorated pumpkins make showy take-home art, perfect for displaying on front steps or a porch.

Tempera painted pumpkins sprinkled with gold glitter.

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10 Fast Pumpkin Facts

Pumpkins are native to Mexico but have been embraced all over the world.
Pumpkin harvest season peaks in October.
Pumpkins come in various shades of orange, but can also be white, black, deep green, light green, yellow, blue, soft pink, cream, striped, or speckled.
Uniquely colored pumpkins have different purposes. White pumpkins are perfect for art projects.
Cinderella, Blue Doll, Baby Bear, Crystal Star, and Midnight Black are some of many creative pumpkin names.
Some pumpkins are smooth. Others feel rough and may have warts.
The world’s heaviest pumpkin weighed 2323 pounds.
Water makes up 90% of pumpkins.
Pumpkins are treated as a vegetable in many recipes but are actually a fruit.
Pumpkins are a source of vitamin A, C, and E, and zinc, folate, potassium, and fiber. They contain antioxidants.

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