Waldorf dolls

These are a couple more clumsy attempts at Waldorf Dolls. I used a combination of instructions from my beloved Creative Play for Toddlers book, and Toymaking with children. 

For the hair on the purple doll I followed these instructions from the Crafty Sheep Blog. 

Easter Eggs

Finn was getting into the easter spirit this week, drawing endless amounts of eggs and rabbits. 

He worked into a dry watercolour painting with coloured chalk. I think the effect is wonderful.

Happy Easter. 

Worms for Dinner

I gave Finn a bowl of left over noodles, and some food colouring. He had great fun mixing, stirring and pouring the noodles into muffin trays and other small containers. 

It did get messy- so I recommend this for outdoor play, or putting a plastic mat down if it's a covered or indoor area. 

If you add a bit of glue to the pasta, children can also arrange noodles and make patterns onto a  piece of cardboard. Allow to dry. 

Painting with Water

Mark making is such a strong instinct for children. My 10 month old enjoys painting with water and watching the marks it creates. 

My 3 year old loves 'painting the fence' with a large paintbrush and small bucket of water. 

The way in which the water changes the colour of the wood (or bricks or stones) is something quite magical for children. 

collage

I like to give children a variety of materials for collage. If you display and store the material in a clear craft box- it gives the children an attractive choice, without overwhelming them.

 Today Finn was working on a nature-based artwork using paper bark and bird seed. Cutting or tearing up unwanted dried paintings also creates lovely textural materials for collage. 

clay

"Prehistoric humans discovered the useful properties of clay, and one of the earliest artifacts ever uncovered is a drinking vessel made of sun-dried clay" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay ) 

Even children as young as two enjoy manipulating clay- a material that has been around for thousands of years. 

 Clay is an inexpensive material, and if stored correctly can be used countless times. There is no need to fire it unless you have access to a kiln, children will enjoy building and creating objects which can be shelf dried, or squashed down to be re-used. 

In these photos I was working with some 4 year olds who were using a small block of air-drying clay. We used metal and plastic spoons and cotton buds to create texture and detail, and a heavy rolling pin to flatten to clay. 

Remind children to join pieces firmly as if they are too thin they will fall apart when dry. 

Glass Jar Music

What You'll Need: 

 different-size glass jars with lids

•  glass jars or drinking glasses
• Water
• Metal spoon 
• Food colouring (optional)

Fill each jar or glass half full of water and add a few drops of food colouring. Use a metal spoon to tap the jars and listen to the sounds they produce.

Let the child experiment with making different tones by adjusting the water-levels. 

 

Drawing into Wet Paint

Today Finn was experimenting with his paintings by using a dry paddle-pop stick (or you could use the dry end of the paint-brush or a stick from the garden) to work further into his wet painting. 

He was able to create more detail and fine lines than he could with the paint brush alone, and it creates a lovely effect when dry. 

Encourage children to press gently into the wet paint as the paper could easily rip. 

Puff the Magic Dragon

After listening to a reading of the song book 'Puff The Magic Dragon' at his Music Class, Finn was inspired to draw magic dragons for the next day or so.  

I had a packet of 140 'self adhesive colour label' (found in variety shop for only $1 a packet), and suggested he could incorporate some spots into his art work (as scales, or patterns). 

He had a wonderful time creating patterns, shapes and layers. At one stage the spots became smoke, and in on of this drawings he decided that his creation was actually a fire-fly which he used a pen to add wings to (the top example). 

There is some great information on Jennifer McCormack's lavendilly site: 

http://lavendilly.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/childrens-development-in-drawings-part-4-talking-to-children-about-their-drawings/

Which discusses positive ways to talk to children about their artwork, and encourage them to think about the process they are engaged in. 

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." 
Pablo Picasso

Nature Table

Finn has a Nature Table on our paved outdoor area (a nature table is really meant to be set up inside as a way of bringing nature indoors, but we lack space in our house, and his table is pretty large and messy!). Every time we go on walks he collects new things to add to his collection- feathers, rocks, sticks, seed pods etc. 

Today I thought we needed to add some people to the table so he could create some natural scenes, and I decided to use a gorgeous family of wooden peg dolls I bought recently on Etsy which I had been meaning to do something with. 

I made them to represent our little family, so I glued (using PVA) some felt for our clothes (Finn choose the colours he thought were our favourites), I tied a small bit of string around the middle, attached a bit of woolen hair (I used some unspun Alpaca fleece, but anything would do), and drew on some simple faces with a fine permanent marker. 

Then we created an island setting for them using rocks, sand, bark and sticks,  

and a seed pod worked well as a raft.. 

If you don't have wooden peg dolls to use, sticks can make really sweet gnomes as demonstrated on this site: http://thatartistwoman.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-make-gnomes-out-of-sticks.html

Water Play

The simplest of activities can sometimes provide the most joy for children. My 10 month old loves supervised splashing with a large tub of water on the deck. Pouring, sprinkling, floating, splashing and mixing. 

For older children I set out a few containers (empty clear juice bottles are good) of water with drops of food colouring in each, and watch them mix the colours together to create new ones. 

Small plastic sea animals or boats are also fun to scoop and play with in tubs.