Art Making WebsitesThis piece of art was created by my 4 year old. The only guidance I gave him was to put the glue on a plastic lid and dip the tubes in the glue. He cut toilet paper tubes, glued them down, added details with marker and before I knew it, he made a chicken! His idea changed a lot as he went but turned out pretty incredible in the end :)
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EASY and CHEAP Art making at HomeIt is so important for the learning to continue outside of our art studio and most kids naturally want to create. This could look like sitting at the kitchen table and drawing fruit, painting rocks outside, or creating a sculpture from household items. They should have a special space to create to develop their skills and do planning for their ideas like in a notebook or sketchbook. We use a variety of art materials in our art studio which can be found at Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Shopko and even some of the dollar stores also have a small art supply section. If you are ever curious about the materials we are using please feel free to ask!
Other ideas and tips for encouraging creativity at home... *Avoid giving directions, just let them go! Don't have an end result in your mind and when they finish ask questions about what they created, avoid the "its good" kind of comments. By asking questions you will learn more about their process and will be amazed by all of the thought they put into it! *Found Object Printmaking - use milk caps and caps from other old containers for printmaking. Put some paint on a plate and like stamping have them put their cap or any other found object in the paint and then paper. You could also use toy cars to make cool tracks on paper, pine cones found during a walk, or q-tips. *Sculptures - if you have legos or any kind of building blocks, old boxes or clean food containers, encourage building a sculpture. Give them a challenge like they can only use one color, it has to be so tall, it has to be an animal, etc. From there they might think of other things they need to add (i.e. chopsticks or toothpicks for whiskers). You could also make your own play doh (and if the child can help you its even more exciting). Click here for an easy recipe I like to use. *Drawing - this is probably the scariest art for children (especially third grade and up) because they are very self-conscious about their work and expect it to be perfect and look realistic. You can find many how-tos online for drawing and the library has many books for drawing. But other options are to have them practice drawing things around your home. But like I tell them, "Draw what you see, not what you know!" They can use simple shapes and lines to draw just about anything by really looking at the object and what shapes and lines make up that object. *Collage - that means different kinds of papers glued down to make a piece of art. Give them a magazine, old fabric, newspapers, old pictures, etc. and encourage them to create something. Maybe its just a combination of things they like or maybe its a shirt from a magazine with pants cut from construction paper, shoes shapes cut out of a newspaper, and a drawn face to make a person. *Fiber Art - a kid can do just about anything with string! If you have an old shirt or pants and a needle and thread, who knows what they could create. They can even sew paper to fabric for more cool effects. |