Art? Yes, Yes it is!

I had a great plan for an artistic endeavor. I thought it was genius and foolproof! I thought my son would love my idea! He had other plans for the art project and he had way more fun!

Supplies:
Gessoed Art Board (any size, we used 16x20)
craft paints
tray
paper towels

We picked out some paints and decided we were going to make some drip paintings. I thought it would be so much fun to watch the colors combine. We put squirts of about 6-7 different colors on the board and then tilted the board to watch the paint roll down. The plan was that we would watch those roll down and then turn the board and do some more paint colors. Turn the board again and repeat until we were happy. Once we may the first turn and added the second colors, I could see the wheels turning in my son's head!

He wanted his hands in the paint so bad it was physically impossible to sit still. I let him mix the colors all up. I suggest doing this activity outside, we had paint everywhere! We also had an amazing amount of fun!

Once he had run his fingers all through the paint and mixed it all well, we went back to watching new paints run down the board. We would pick which color we thought would be the fastest and the slowest. He really enjoyed the race and he loves to see his art on his chest in his bedroom!

Because the paint was so thick, it did take over 24 hours to dry but it was worth it. Be sure to keep the board on top of the tray or another surface that it is okay to get pools of paint on.

Art is different to everyone but it should always be fun!

Wordless Wednesday - Monkey

Who are you calling a monkey, Monkey?

Tuesday Teachings - Worms, Worms, Worms

This past Friday (July 15th) was Gummy Worm Day! My son's teacher was so kind and invited me into the classroom to do a special segment on worms/gummy worms. I had so much fun and I think the kids enjoyed it too. I am sorry I do not have action pictures of the kids participating in the activities but I did not want to put a bunch of kid's pictures on here with out parent approval first.

First, I purchased 2 inch petri dishes for the whole class. Once I received them, I washed and sanitized them well to make them food ready. I then laid a small gummy worm in each dish and made blueberry gelatin to surround them. Each child then had a gummy worm snack to eat. They really enjoyed this, as how often does anyone eat anything out of a petri dish?

Next we played a game of "Pick Up Worms". I cut up several pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and we used tweezers or ice tongs to pick them up. This was much like the game my son and I played picking up snakes, I just renamed it. To make it a bit more of a challenge, I put the "worms" in a container filled partway with colored rice.

We also played a rousing game of "Worm in the Apple". All of the kids stood in a line with their legs spread. They were the apples. The child at the end of the line was the worm and had to crawl and wiggle through every one's legs. When he reached the front, he also became an apple and the new last person was the worm until everyone had a chance to be the worm.

I also made up a little sheet for everyone to measure their worm. For this, they used a gummy worm. I taped a seamstress' measuring tape down to the table and we measured each worm a couple of ways. First we just laid the worm down and measured it. Next, we stretched it out as far as we could without breaking it and measured it. This turned into a discussion of elasticity and how even though we stretched the worms, they went right back to their original shape. In addition to measuring the worms in inches, we also had a pre-made measuring stick of "unifix cubes". The kids wrote each measurement on their sheet and at the bottom of the sheet was a box to draw a picture of their worms.

The last activity was probably one of the favorites. I actually bought a container of night crawlers. I put a few in larger petri dishes and gave the children magnifying glasses to investigate them. We wrote down all of the words that they used to explain and describe the worms. In the beginning several kids were hesitant to touch the worms but by the end everyone was letting worms hag out in their hands. At the end of the experiment, we went outside and released the night crawlers into the garden that they have. The classroom is growing tomatoes and marigolds. We explained how the night crawlers would crawl around in the soil and make it loose and easy for the roots of the plants to go down deep and allow the plants to grow happy.

Monday Meanderings - Sidewalk Chalk Art

On the Family Fun Calendar for July we suggested going outside today and doing some sidewalk chalk art. I thought to myself, wonder what kind of art is out there using sidewalk chalk? So I went to my trusty friend Google and look at what I found.

This is pavement art by Julian Beever. I found it on the blog Having Lemonade.

This picture is from Incredible Art. They had a sidewalk chalk festival after turning in their AP Art folder. What a great way to relax.

This is a rendering of Leaf Cutter Ants also created by Julian Beever. I think everyone should check out his website. It is amazing what he can do! These are just chalk drawings on flat sidewalks. Shocking!

Some kid created chalk art:

Frugal Family Fun created this great butterfly garden on the sidewalk in front of their home.

This picture is from Drawing on Earth. They went to Hearst Elementary School in CA and drew this 80x80 butterfly with the 700+ kids working on it for three days!

Let your inner Picasso roam free tonight and every day. Get out to the sidewalk and be free!

Life Cycle of a Snake

We recently read another of our books in the Life Cycle Series that I purchased. This time we read

Green Snake (Life Cycles) by David M. Schwartz. I still highly recommend this Life Cycle series. We love that there are actual photographs in the books instead of just illustrations.

After reading the book we decided to do a few activities.

First we talked about how most snake species lay eggs instead of giving live birth. We also discussed how snake eggs are not hard like a bird egg. They are more leathery feeling and have some give to them.

We then did an experiment to see how they feel. Since I do not care for snakes and have no desire to go on a snake hunt, we used a chicken egg. I hard boiled two regular chicken eggs. Once they were ready, I put one in the refrigerator and the other I put in a bowl and covered it with white vinegar. We let the eggs sit in their respective spots for 24 hours then we pulled them out to look at them again.

The egg that had been in the refrigerator looked and felt exactly the same as it had when we put it in there. The egg in the vinegar though, had taken on a new consistency. Instead of the shell being hard, it was more flexible. We could squeeze the shell without it cracking and it actually bent in under the pressure of our fingers. My son was fascinated by this.

Why this works: The eggshells are made of calcium carbonate and when the acid of the vinegar touches the calcium it causes a chemical reaction, which you witness with the bubbles coming from the egg in vinegar. The reaction will continue with the calcium turning into carbon dioxide (the bubbles) until the calcium is used up (about 24 hours). Now that you have this soft shelled egg, what do you do with it? Well, you can extend the experiment by leaving the same egg out on a table over night. The next day the eggshell will be hard again. The reason is that it stole the carbon dioxide that we breath out of the air.

The next thing we did was an exercise for fine motor skill development. I cut up numerous pipe cleaners/chenille stems into a variety of sizes and put them in a container. My son had to use tweezers to pick up the "snakes". Once he picked them up, he used the tweezers to sort them a few different ways: by color and by size. He loved doing this and was quite adept at using the tweezers.

Once we had sorted the "snakes" we graphed them a few ways: Longest to shortest, color wise and then how many of each color we had.

Have a great time studying snakes at your house!

Tuesday Teachings - Math Activity

We have been trying to work on our counting skills at my house so I whipped up a little activity for him to work with.

Supplies:
Construction Paper
Marker
Glue
Pipe Cleaner/Chenille Stems
Scissors
Beads

Cut strips of construction paper about 1 inch wide and 2 inches long. You will need one for each number you want to work on. Fold the strips in half and write a number on one side. I cut my pipe cleaners in half since they are originally so long. Now glue the paper around the top of the pipe cleaner with the number facing out.

Once everything has dried, set out the pipe cleaner counters and the beads. The child then has to string the correct number of beads on to the pipe cleaners.

This works on counting and fine motor skills. Have a great day!