EXPLORING A NEW MEDIUM: PASTEL

It's shavuot, a flower holiday, so I brought two big sunflowers as an inspiration to draw for the big ones this week. I also wanted to introduce them to a medium we haven't tried before in this class, pastels. They come in sticks, similar to oil crayons, but are dusty and we usually draw with them without pressing too hard onto the paper. They smear when spread with a finger and dissolve in water, which makes beautiful effects. The kids really enjoyed the pastels and were very open to experiment with them. Later, we worked again a bit with clay, mixed some water to it to soften it and got used to working with this amazing sculpting medium.



SAND DRAWING

Children are used to play with sand in a huge sandbox or the beach, so this small amount of sand feels quite different to them. Each child got a box with a thin layer of sand in it and we first explored it with the fingers and craftsticks to draw through the sand. Then we put a sheet of dark paper in it and gave the kids bottles with colored glue (regular white glue combined with tempera paint) to spread onto the paper. We showed them how to put a little sand on top of the glue, shake the excess sand off and have a glue-sand drawing! Later, I brought out tools to play with the sand and plastic toy animals to play with them in the sand. This sand play was a sensory experience for them and they were intrigued by it for a long time! If you have a balcony and are not afraid of a little sand at home you can try this, put a little clean sand into a box, give them some tools and explain not to carry the sand around to other places :) and you will have your kid be very busy for a long time.

BUSY PRINTING SESSION

This week, we focused on printing. First, the kids drew with a pen on a piece of styrofoam, then they coated it with paint, pressed a piece of paper on it and finally, peeled them off to reveal their prints!

Then, we moved on to making prints with cookie cutters, woodblock stamps and round pieces of foam. It was a very busy printing session!





COLLAGE

The first time we did collage with the little ones, we used sticky contact paper. This time, we moved on to using glue that the kids could spread on their own. I brought them colored glue in small bottles for them to squeeze onto their boards and for each a container with collage material, such as colored paper, wooden sticks and pompons. I also got new sponge top bottles, which are great for toddlers because they can use big muscle movements to smash them onto their artwork to get colored dots.

We also put out the easel for drawing with markers.



CLAY AND PAINTING

This week I also brought in clay for the younger group to try out. They felt the moist material with their hands and used tools to see how they could work with the clay. At the same time, we put out the easel for painting. We put cups of paint with brushes in them and the kids were already very comfortable with all the artistic opportunities around. Soon enough clay, paint and water were all mixed together!

Even the clean up water bucket was colored!