Mouth and Foot Painting

Our children have started an amazing inquiry this week that we were so excited to share with you! It all began last week when one of our children brought in some old calendars that had been donated to our program for use at the art center.  The children enjoyed looking through the calendars and were admiring the beautiful paintings.

Mrs. Bombardier and the children looked at the 'artist information' page to see who had created such beautiful work and were amazed to find that the artists had painted the pictures by using their mouths and feet!

The children were intrigued with this idea and wanted to know why this was and how the artists learned to paint using a different part of their body. Miss Waites helped us to do some research by using the Internet and Smart Board. The children were able to view videos of people painting in this interesting way!

Of course this inspired many of them to want to try this themselves, so Mrs. Bombardier set up two areas where children could explore.

One center encouraged children to attempt to paint using just their mouth - children had to hold the paint brush, dip it in colours, and swish it in water to clean it in between colour choices. Covers were placed on the brushes in order to prevent germs from being spread.

Another area encouraged children to try painting with just their feet!

Although we are always fans of art activities, what we loved about this inquiry is that is really encouraged our children to think beyond their immediate lives and perhaps appreciate another's perspective - hopefully creating empathy and understanding for people who may look or act differently that we do. We can't wait to see where this inquiry takes us!

Fantastic Finger Painting!

Is there anything more fun than getting your hands full of colourful paint when finger painting? Our children just love to spend their time swirling, printing, and drawing in colourful shades of thick paint! Not only is this a great art activity as children choose which colour combinations of paint they explore, literacy is also a focus as children draw and write repeatedly in the paint.

Melted Crayon Art

The children participated in a very interesting art activity that combined their interests in drawing with their recent observations of things melting. Mrs. Bombardier set up a griddle that was covered in foil and turned on the 'warm' setting. 

The children helped us peel some festive colours of crayons.

With adult supervision, the children were invited to draw on a piece of paper that was placed on the warm surface...as they coloured they noticed the crayons begin to melt!

The children observed that the slower they moved the crayon on the hot surface, the faster it melted.

And the more they coloured, the more wax was left on their paper, creating beautiful textures and the blending of new colours on the surface.

The finished product was a masterpiece of colours, lines, and textures!  As the art cooled and the wax hardened, the children could feel their artwork as well as see it!  Beautiful!

Paint Drips

The children participated in a really interesting painting activity that required them to use droppers to drop diluted paint onto a vertical paper. The children were fascinated by how gravity affected the paint. 

Depending on how much paint was dropped and how the colours were dropped on top of one another, some really interesting artwork emerged from the experience!

The children also worked to create some amazing communal pieces of artwork. 

This activity also allowed children the opportunity to experiment with the thickness of the paint - they realized the more water added to the paint, the thinner it would become and the faster it would run down the paper. 

Using the droppers is also great for strengthening children's fine motor skills!

Valentine's Tactile Table

Mrs. Bombardier invited the children to explore a very appealing Valentine's Day tactile table filled with pink rice, sparkly hearts, measuring scoops, and heart-shaped containers. The children loved it!