Responding to Children's Artwork

How to Respond to Children's Artwork

Children are eager to show off their artwork and get a response. Ever wonder how to reply? Advise from kids follows:

• First, have your eyes talk! Beam me a smile and make your eyes glow when you talk about my artwork.
• Don't ask me what it is. The "what" isn't important. Let's talk about how I made it, what I like best about it, and what I enjoyed about this art experience.
• Let's decide where we will display it. Does this one go to your work or hang in my room? Is the refrigerator door full? Let me help decide what I take down to hang this masterpiece.
• Notice the colors, lines, shapes and motion I used to create the artwork. Sometimes that is more important to me than trying to draw a "thing".
• Recognize how hard I worked, the feelings I have and what I'm trying to communicate in the artwork. Build my pride and confidence. 

crayola.com

Projects Scheduled for Friday, June 29th

 Fun with Paint!

Three project choices:
1. Painting flowers with recycled soda bottles
2. Painting your clay project from last week
3. Fireworks Shirt

Supplies needed for all projects: You will need to bring a plastic table cloth to cover your work area, along with paper towels and wipes for clean up & a plastic cup or jar for water. Also remember to wear old clothes, a paint shirt or smock to protect clothing.

For the Painting Flowers Project you will need:
-Recycled soda bottles (one per kid)
-Card-stock, Poster board or Construction paper.
-Different colors of acrylic paints
-Pie tin or paper plate to pour paint on
I am adding in the link for the project idea. You will notice they just used pink and black for their project. I think it would be fun to let the kids choose more colors, but I will leave it up to you to decide.
http://alphamom.com/family-fun/holidays/cherry-blossom-art-from-a-recycled-soda-bottle/

Here is an example of the Painting Flowers Project:

For Painting your clay project from last week you will need:
-Your clay project
-Paint brushes
-paper plate or old pie tin to mix paint on
-acrylic paints. Rainbow colors are fabulous, but if you would rather mix your own, just be sure and bring red, yellow and blue. We can mix the rest of the rainbow and teach your kids a bit about color mixing. You may also want a black and a white.

 Below is an example of the Fat Cat project painted.

Below is an example of the owl project painted.

For the Fireworks Shirt the supplies needed are:
-Plain T-shirt
-Newspaper
-Glittery Fabric Paint (3 colors are sufficient)
-Paper plate
-Pipe cleaners (4 per color of paint)
Here is a link to the project idea. This should be a fun one for anyone willing to try it out. 
http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/crafts-by-age/preschool-crafts/fireworks-shirt-661910/

All three of these projects can be adapted for different age groups.

Supercharge Your Child's Creativity!

Supercharge Your Child's Creativity!

Your child's Imagination Quotient can be increased easily. Simply have more creative fun together! Dr. Robert J. Sternberg, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, Tufts University, is a renowned psychologist who specializes in determining what makes people successful. Dr. Sternberg's research demonstrates that imagination is as important as intelligence in predicting how successful people will be later in life. "Intelligence is important, but so is imagination." There are two IQ's: The classic Intelligence Quotient and now the Imagination Quotient.
Worried that your kids aren't creative enough? There's good news. Dr. Sternberg's research shows that creativity is not something you are either blessed with at birth or doomed to be without for life. Parents can stretch their children's imaginations and supercharge their creativity. Here's how:

5 Tips for Supercharging Your Child’s Creativity

1. Question and Challenge Assumptions.

Ask your child to imagine new ways and wonder, “What if?” “What if you could have a dinosaur as a pet?” “Imagine vacationing on other planets.”

2. Generate a lot of ideas. Anywhere. Anytime.

Encourage your kids to be creative everywhere-at restaurants, shopping, or traveling. Bring along plain paper and crayons so kids can draw what they imagine.

3. Explore other points of view.

Ask your kids to put themselves in others’ shoes. See the Earth as an insect would, or imagine what it would be like to trade places with a friend for the day.

4. Encourage creative collaboration.

Few creative solutions are generated in isolation or by one hero. Build on each other's ideas. Serve as a role model by tossing in your ideas, too.

5. Combine facts with fun.

Knowledge and creativity go hand-in-hand. It’s the playful spin on what we know that leads to a new discovery. Take a simple problem you notice at home and ask your children to be inventors who create new solutions. 

--crayola.com 

Project's Scheduled for June 22nd

Let's Play With Clay!

The Project Choices are listed from super simple to more advanced.

1. Wobbly Pot
2. A Fat Cat
3. Clay Owls

Supplies Needed:
Paper towels, wipes to clean up afterwards
Plastic to cover your table area & tape to secure
Wax paper taped to your work area works great for a non stick surface!!
You also need to bring a box to carry your project home in. Especially for the clay projects that will need to air dry for a while. 
Air Dry Clay or Model Magic (The amount of clay should be at least a cup size for each project)
If using Air Dry Clay you will need a small sponge, a small bowl of water, a plastic knife, plastic fork, or a pack of modeling tools. You could also bring other objects you have around the house that might make interesting imprints or designs in the clay.

*Air Dry Clay Recipe you could try:
1 cup Corn Starch
2 cups Baking Soda
1 and 1/4 cups water.
Here is a link on how to make it: http://whipup.net/2006/10/03/kitchen-craft-clay/

For Model Magic you will need a plastic knife, or other kitchen tools that might make interesting designs to the surface of the clay.

The clay owls would be for those who are a little older and really enjoy sculpting.
Here is a link to the clay owl project idea.
http://onecrayolashort.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-19T12%3A07%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=7

*Because these projects can be messy, be sure and wear an old shirt or apron to protect your clothes.

Here is an example of a pinch pot:

Below are two examples of the fat cat project:

Here are two examples of the clay owl project:

The Importance of Creativity

The Importance of Creativity

The seeds of creativity live in everyone. Some individuals are fortunate that their sprouting imagination was nurtured and grown into strong creative thinking abilities. Their parents and teachers nourished them with creative experiences and confidence building responses to their attempts, throughout their childhood.
Creative people invent, imagine, problem-solve, create, and communicate in fresh, new ways. Every business requires creative thinkers in the form of scientists, engineers, medical researchers, technology innovators, business entrepreneurs, artists, performers, writers and illustrators, designers, inventors, educators and parents. Those with the ability to "think outside of the box" will lead the future and make special things happen.

-crayola.com