MaryAnn F. Kohl, process art and treasures of childhood

Learning Through Play, E Book Offer $9.99 ($130 value)

                

Every now and then the bloggers I know put together a great little package of eBooks to share at the price of only $9.99, a $130 value. Can you believe it?  

This BUY NOW link will be active from midnight Pacific Time (1 minute past April 7th) April 8th, until April 14th. The sale ends on the 14th. What an amazing deal!

 

 

March 2013 ArtsyKidsNEWS

The following March ArtsyKidsNEWS is shown with jpgs. To view this newsletter with active links in your browser, CLICK HERE.

 

Art is as Natural as Sunshine and as Vital as Nourishment

Splish! Splash! It’s Time for Summer Water Fun!

Splish! Splash! It’s Time for Summer Water Fun!

from the Gryphon House blog!

By MaryAnn F. Kohl

Summer is an endless stretch of time for kids to fill. Make it special for them by doing things together. You won’t need anything special – just a little time and cheerful energy to fuel the fun! The bonus to these activities is that you are building memories together. And don’t forget how much fun water activities are for kids! Hot weather is water weather! Here are some ideas for active water fun in your own backyard:

• Play in the sprinkler or with the hose (extra fun: eat watermelon first, and then wash off – and cool off)

• Scrub it up! Kids love to wash and scrub! Fill buckets with soapy water, add sponges and rags, and let them wash their bikes, the swing set, rocks, and the lawn furniture. Have a hose ready for rinsing. Let the sun sparkle on the clean and shiny new world!

• Toss water balloons at targets (or each other)

• Play sponge toss – take soaked sponges and throw them at a designated target (that includes mom or dad!)

• Squirty-Cup-Head Game! Fill a big squirt bottle with water. To play, everyone sits side by side on the ground with a plastic cup on his or her head, backs to the “squirter.” The “squirter” takes the squirt bottle and tries to knock the cups off each person’s head. When all cups are off, the squirter takes his place in the line-up with a cup on his head, and a new person takes a turn at being the squirter. Everyone gets a turn!

• Fill a plastic or galvanized tub with water. A child’s wading pool will work too. Add plastic cups and bowls, turkey basters, spoons, and buckets. Let the kids go at it, pouring and playing. Going barefoot and wearing swimsuits adds to the fun. For extra intrigue, add some food coloring to the water for mixing enjoyment.

• As long as the kids are outside, make Wacky Bubbles together! Start by mixing together 1/4 dishwashing liquid (Dawn and Joy work the best), 2 cups water, and 1 teaspoon sugar. Pour the mixture into a shallow container and have a wacky bubble blowing experience with a wacky variety of bubble blowing tools: plastic funnels, six pack soda rings, and plastic cups with holes punched through the bottom make a good start. Add your own ideas.

• When the kids run out of steam, change the bubble mixture into an art project! Pour some of the bubble mixture into a cup and add a few drops of food coloring, liquid watercolorpaints, or poster paint. Blow rainbow bubbles into the air with a bubble blower, and then catch them on a white sheet of paper or paper plate! When the bubble pops, a most amazing bubble print is left. When the paper dries, use markers or crayons to outline the bubble shapes, creating bubble art masterpieces!

• If a little quiet time is in order, create in the shade! Design beach jars under the shade of an old oak tree! You will need a peanut butter or mayonnaise jar for each child, some plastic funnels, and a worktable or blanket on the grass. Gather some containers of sand, shells (whole or crushed), and small gravel or pebbles, even colored craft rice or salt. If possible, cut some fish or seashore shapes from colored foam sheets from a craft store. Mix blue food coloring in water, and set aside. Each child fills his jar with layers of sand, shells, gravel and pebbles, and then places the foam cutouts on the inside of the jar against the glass. When the jar is full, pour blue water slowly into the jar, covering the layers. Tighten the lid on the jar, and the beautiful beach jar is ready to place in a window to catch the sun.

The word summer simply means fun! Doing things together will make the days spin by and before you know it, fall will be in the air, kids in school, and memories will fill the hearts and minds of all. As the song goes, “These are the days, my friend! I thought they’d never end….”

~~~ 

MaryAnn Faubion Kohl is the author of 20+ award-winning books of activities for children. Two of her many titles are First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos and Mudworks Bilingual Edition: Clays, Doughs, and Modeling Experiences for Children; The Big Messy Art Book is a favorite for summer outdoor fun.

JOIN MY MAILING LIST AND RECEIVE a

ONCE A MONTH NEWSLETTER

FULL OF ART IDEAS!

It's called the ARTSYKIDSNEWS.

 Click here to see 

past newsletters.

 

From the Chocolate Muffin Tree: Happy Birthday to Me! Balloon Sculpture

Hello, Blogging Friends: Today is my ... ahem ... BIRTHDAY, rather a milestone one actually, and thanks to one of my favorite blogs -- The Chocolate Muffin Tree -- I have a complete post (translate: no work for me, I'm copying hers) to share with you: Balloon Sculpture  based on my book "Storybook Art". I suppose I could write my own blog post, but this one is so great! And it's my BIRTHDAY!  And it's 4am! And so... Thanks for the post, Melissa. I promise to do a guest post for you in February or any time in exchange for posting this one.

MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 2012 - My ? Birthday!

Balloon Sculpture and a Book

Would you ever think of making Balloon Sculptures?  (Besides the twisty animal kind)  Well, we made Balloon Sculptures! This idea comes from the book Storybook Art by children's art author MaryAnn Kohl (and it happens to be her Birthday today!....Happy Birthday! and with balloons too!).  This is a wonderful book filled with 100 Hands-On Art Lessons that incorporate Great Picture Book Illustrators.  This particular project appealed to my daughter immensely because she LOVES balloons and sculpture projects. We first read the book, Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm, which is the book that goes along with the balloon sculpture.  The illustrations by Mark Buehner really made the "Balloon Farm" of the character, Harvey Potter, come to life!!  The book itself with the imaginative story by Jerdine Nolen Harold and colorful illustrations was a hit for my 5 year old! I think any child would be intrigued by this book!

For the project you'll need:

all sorts of balloons

double sided tape (we used tape pockets----rolled tape)

square of cardboard or matte board

also string or rubber bands for extra support

(we just used tape and I could see string and rubber bands being helpful!!!)

Here is one of our finished sculptures:

Here are all the balloons we gathered: twisty animal balloons, water balloons, small balloons , and birthday balloons.

C wanted to play with the balloons (and we did!) You can see the joy on this girl's face before the project was ready to begin!

I had a bunch of tape pockets (rolled tape) ready in preparation for the project and used a piece of scrap matte board for a base, but you could use any kind of cardboard. To begin, C first started stacking the balloons!

She wanted to stand on the chair, because I think she imagined it to be really tall!  We found it wouldn't stack very high!!!  I talked about using the skinnier twisty balloons for support on the sides and that helped.  It would be fun to make a Balloon Hanging Sculpture too! Here is our Balloon Sculpture again.

I never would have thought to make a sculpture with balloons, but then take a look at this Google Search forBalloon Sculptures if you click here! There are zillions of them!! These will definitely inspire you to create Balloon Sculpture or at least have a n appreciation for them! Here is one Balloon Sculpture to a awe you with from Balloon Sculptor: Jason Hackenworth. Pretty Amazing, huh?

We had a lot of FUN creating this balloon sculpture and we may just do more with all this inspiration! 

Other Ideas with Balloons:

Next time we might Draw on our Balloons before we start sculpting with them!!! 

We might make some Homemade Stress Ball Balloons too!

Making a Balloon Yo-Yo  would be FUN!

A Hot Air Balloon toy has been on our list for a long time!

Printing with Balloons looks like a cool way to paint! 

We'll be creating another project from Storybook Art so stay tuned!

 

Amazing Mommy-Blog Christmas Ideas

I've chosen a few of my all time favorite Mommy Blog Christmas ideas to share. You cannot go wrong with these blogs on any day, and Christmas seems to have brought out art for children is that exemplary and wonderful in so many ways.

I cannot thank these young exciting mommy-bloggers enough for what they contribute to the world of children's creativity. Bless each and every one of you for your dedication and hard work.

~ MaryAnn

 

Painted Snowflakes from "The Artful Parent"

My comments: Cut coffee filters into snowflakes and paint. (You can also do this with flour tortillas and any variety of peanut butter, jam, or colored cream cheese for a fun snack.) You could also paint the coffee filters first and then cut the snowflake when it's dry.
Thank you, AP! 

Spin Art Christmas Tree Cards from "The Chocolate Muffin Tree"

The Chcolate Muffin Tree blog shows us a way to take spin art and cut triangles to assemble in a tree shape and then further decorate with paint dots, glitter, stars, foil, sequins, etc. Cotton is added for snow, which we know kids would love. I just love how happy these little trees are dancing in the snow. Thank you, CMT!

16 Christmas tree crafts to try from "NurtureStore"

NurtureStore shares some amazing Christmas Tree art -- these are far more art than craft, and so beautiful!

One of my favorites is the paint chip art cut into trianges to make little trees. Great gift tags!
And look at the sticks and driftwood tree.  Ooooo.

Sixteen different ideas for you, and just amazingly beautiful yet exploratory and unique for each child. 

Recycled Paint Stick Snowman from "Pink and Green Mama"
"Measure the snowfall!"

Pink and Green Mama blog shares this cute craft. I bet no two snowman sticks will look alike! Provide lots of felt, paper scraps, and ribbon or fabric strips for his scarf. Number at one inch intervals from the bottom up (from 1 to 8), and you have a measuring stick to count the inches of snowfall on Christmas Eve. (dreaming of a....)
Thank you, P&GM! 

 

Recycled Materials Christmas Tree from "The Imagination Tree"

The Imagination Tree provides the young artist with a cardboard tree shape, and then stands back as the artist paints the tree base and then adds scraps and doodads and other items from their "Jar of Wonder". Oh glorious! Check their blog to see how they fix the tree to stand.

Thank you IT! 

 

Thank you all for making Christmas merry, bright, and creative for children.

And Happy New Year to All!

 

PS. I send out a newsletter once a month with an art idea and other news and fun. If you'd like to sign up, go here.  

 

 

 

Miniature Christmas Lights craft, from the Crafty Crow!

The Crafty Crow is one of my favorite blogs, run by Cassi, an amazingly creative person.

She has shared a cute, did I say CUTE, yes VERY CUTE!!, idea and has produced a great video to share with you on how to make Mini Christmas Lights, a Q-TIp Craft.

The above video from Cassi at the Crafty Crow blog shows how she makes the cutest cute cute cutest little mini Christmas Lights from cotton buds (Q-tips®). 
 

The following URL takes you to the Crafty Crow blog where you can find out more and browse Cassi's other great craft and art ideas. Be sure to sign up to follow her blog.
http://www.thecraftycrow.net/2011/11/miniature-christmas-lights-garland-made-from-q-tips.html

The following three pictures are also from Crafty Crow to show you how cute the mini lights are for other uses.

Thanks for the great idea, Cassi!
I know my blog readers will be hopping over to your
blog to see this and all the other great ideas you have to share.

 

Crayon Melting on a Warm Plate, from www.playcreateexplore.com

Here's a wonderful art project
from Play Create Explore! 
Melting crayons on a warming tray
is one of my favorite art activities,
but not everyone has a warming tray,
and this finally solves the
problem! Great idea!! 

http://www.playcreateexplore.com/2011/01/crayon-melting.html

Crayon Melting on a Warm Plate

L did a crayon melting activity today while I cleaned the kitchen and he loved it!
Warm a plate in the microwave or under hot water.
It doesn't need to be scorching hot to melt the crayons. My plate was very warm to the touch and I explained to L that the plate was very warm. He bumped it a few times, with no reaction.
Just test it first to be on the safe side. 
Give your child some peeled crayons and let them discover the fun of drawing with melting crayons! 

         * Note from MaryAnn: Soak old crayons overnight in a tub of water.
            The paper slides right off.

The great part about this is that with hot water, and dish soap, and a scrubbie, the plate washes clean! So you can give your little artist a clean palette when they cover the plate, so they can start again, AND when they're all done, you'll still have a usable plate! However, don't expect to use the scrubbie again. It remains a bit waxy.
 * Note from MaryAnn: To clean easily, reheat the plate and wipe nearly clean with a paper towel. Then wash as usual.