A Few Projects to Inspire Your at Home Learning
Collage
Flower pressing was introduced to our class by the gardening teacher. It's a simple way to add extreme beauty to the children's artwork and enjoy the beauty of nature.
I'm not sure how it started, but most of my favorite art projects turn into collage. There's something about taking the time to cut out each and every leaf and making each detail just so. It really makes the classroom hum and creates happy busy hands. It might be fun to give your kids paper at home and see what they can do. These projects evolve and grow over multiple days. You can say, "Today we will do the tree trunk and tomorrow the leaves. The following day we will add the flowers."
Sewing
Sewing projects have become my summer go-to activity with kids.Whether we buy a pre-made project where all we have to do is sew the sides together and stuff, or by drawing and cutting our own patterns. Kids have enjoyed this immensely and always brings a happy focus in the room. This could really take off at home!
Paper Plate Art
I've always turned my nose up at paper plate art until this year. I don't know why I was so snobby about it before. Now I appreciate the simplicity and functionality of a good paper plate fan! We got some good use out of our acrylic pens this summer and I was cheered by the results.
Ok, so I told you I was snobby about paper plate art, right? Well, I'm pivoting on that one. Here are the adorable paper plate butterflies, again we used acrylic paint pens and added puff balls. How cute are they? If you wanted to tie it into math, you could teach a symmetry lesson and have the children draw an exact mirror image on either side.
3D Art
My brilliant teaching partner is a Waldorf teaching master. I don't say this lightly. She really is.She's been teaching for like 60 years...One day on a whim she said she was going to try making homemade Wikki Sticks. She melted some bees wax and dipped some yarn in the molten wax and let them cool. It was genius!
Math Art
Practicing skip counting can be fun when you make skip counting flowers. I ask the kids to use the side of a crayon to draw a big circle in the middle of their paper then make 10 bumps around the circle with the tip of their crayon and cut them out. It's tricky but they can do it!
You can have the kids go as high as they like. First starting with twos, threes, fours, etc...
Painting and More!
We had some fun this summer paining rocks with acrylic paint pens.
Chalk Art
Another fun activity this summer was chalk art. We used old fashioned Crayola chalk but we also found a product last summer called Crayola chalk paint. It's liquid and you just squirt it out onto the playground or sidewalk and paint away! It's really fun.
Gluing Work
We made Ghanaian crowns when we were studying Africa and their system of kings and queens.
Math Art
Arrays:
We made an Array Town in the form of little houses with windows that line up in columns and rows. We added a garden of vegetables lined up in columns and rows as well. It was big fun.
We tried to make connections to arrays all around us. We made a drawing with colored pencils and also experimented with collage.
Multiplication Foundation
First draw a circle and label it 1-10. Invite your students to count by 2s, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's, 8's, 9's, and 10's. Its so much fun to see the patterns that emerge.
Skip Counting Flowers
Practicing skip counting can be fun when you make skip counting flowers. I ask the kids to use the side of a crayon to draw a big circle in the middle of their paper then make 10 bumps around the circle with the tip of their crayon and cut them out. It's tricky but they can do it!
You can have the kids go as high as they like. First starting with twos, threes, fours, etc...
Telling Time
Telling time got a lot more fun with these little watches. I gave each child a precut yellow circle and two precut watch hands with holes for them to lace the brad through. Their job was to follow my directions. With a lead pencil I had them divide their clock into 4ths. We drew a 12, 3, 6, 9 for the hours and then filled in the rest. They added the hands and a wrist band made out of paper and voila! Then we practiced telling time. I would say, "Show me, three o'clock!" We focused on to the hour, a quarter after, half passed, and a quarter til.
Science Art
Cloud Study (stratus, cumulus, and cirrus)
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Cycles of the Moon collage. It was heavily teacher directed and took weeks to complete. It was a “little by little“ project.
Layers of the Ocean
This was a alone but together project where we all contributed to the main mural which depicted layers of the ocean and the animals that live there.
Rainbow Study
In language arts we were studying a unit on water and made little watercolor raindrops.
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