Temporary art

 

I recently attended an art course for children - lots of inspiration for observing nature and working with natural materials - it was great. One thing I will definitely use in my role as a teaching assistant is creating collages without glue - yes it's a temporary work of art. Most children like to create pieces of art independently - and supplies are always accessible to them. However, left to their own devices they often choose not to use glue, but yards of sticky tape, hog all the best resources and be quite wasteful unsupervised. So the concept of creating a piece of art that doesn't involve glue may appeal to all.

Although they won't be able to take their artwork home with them - this can be solved by taking a photo of their work and putting it on display. This also works well with children (boys!) who like to use construction toys, such as lego and blocks. Smaller models may be kept on a shelf for a little while to admire - but eventually it has to go back in the box to be reused. A photo stays forever.

 

Which links to this:

 

 

My own little glue less (unsewn) temporary collage for my daughter's birthday. My husband had a trip to Japan, so we paid for her to accompanying him. As a textile/fashion student I hoped the trip would be inspirational to her and sent her this for her birthday.

 

Happy 21st!!



Fairytales craft

Wow - can you tell it's half term? So many blog posts. I'm going through my photos of the various things that I've made.

 

Cinderella craft

Small children have limited drawings skills - so I tend to use a lot of collage, group projects, printing, whilst still practising their cutting  skills

 

 

I drew lines onto card and then photocopied it for the children to cut into strips.

 

 

The strips were crossed at the centre and fastened with a split pin, then each end brought up to the top and fastened with another split pin.

 

 

Sizzix extras such as leaves and the horses, but the children could make their own, depending on their skills - and there you have it - Cinderella's pumpkin coach.

 

Red Riding Hood craft

 

Forever thinking outside the box - This is an Ikea tablemat.

 

I've used printing ink here, it's really messy stuff - oily, but the children love printing and are always surprised at the result.

 

It's a tree for the woods.

 

You can just about make out a wolf rubbing hiding in the corner

 

The tree print on a display - I like to decorate the background on the display paper before it goes up.

 

 



 

The wolf was collaged from newspaper

 

This huge display was made from shapes - triangles, rectangles, circles and hexagons on Granny's quilt. The children printed onto the trees with maths shapes too.

 

 

 

 

The children drew around a hoola hoop to make a large circle and then cut it out themselves.

 

 

They rubbed the paper with a crayon on a crate - again they are fascinated with rubbings and the results that this achieves

 

We printed real fruit and vegetables for Grandma's basket



 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

 

Another group project - the children were engrossed in cutting snips around pieces of paper to create the bears' fur. We had a theatre role play area with a small stage to rehearse their plays.

School fete

More photos of school fete craft.....

 

I decided to do a recycling/gardening theme with the reception children.

 

 

We made bird feeders from recycled milk bottles - again, you know me, keep it low cost!

 

I used my Sizzix to cut out birdhouse designs from orange juice cartons, and the flowers to spruce them up.

 

More scarecrows

 

Bird scarers and blackboards

 

Cardboard teacups filled with a bath tea bag - homemade

 

We made a big effort growing plants with the children. However, I did have to take most of them home at Easter to water them, and grow back up plants at home, just in case. A colleague also grew loads on her allotment.  We made a really big effort with the plants - a lot of hard work!

 

 

and more photos that I don't think I've shared before...

 

 

More bean bag frogs...I play catch with the children with these at break time, so I decided to make some to sell.

 

 

and of course...more herbie hens...

Animal headdresses - mini zoo theme

 For our theme topic 'Mini Zoo' - we had a role play pet shop in the classroom, a great visit from the 'Reptile man', and to finish off a performance for the other classes. We made headdresses for the performance.

 

 

The albino python that visited us - we recreated him for our pet shop. Printed in yellow using bubble wrap and cotton reels for the skin effect.

The fish were drawn or collaged, then cut out and put into tanks.

 

Again - I've enhanced the children's drawings by cutting them out and mounting them. I used some silver net from my fabric stash for the wire 'hutches'.

 

Oh look there's those mice I made! See previous post on how to make!

 

The boys especially loved making the snakes. I've put them in old Ipad boxes - with the middle cut out and plastic 'glass' put in.

 

 

I spy some herbie hens!! See previous post for how to make!

The children made snakes with plasticine. The glass tanks were made from a roller blind package.

 

raddits for sale - only 50p!

 

Oh look there's those 5 little speckled frogs!

Headdresses

 

My inspiration for the headdresses came from Googling, as usual. This time I looked at the Lion King show for headdress ideas (Which I saw in Cardiff in the New Year - amazing - lots of ideas!!). I also looked at real animals and drew a simple sketch. I find it easier to fold a piece of A4 paper vertically and draw half of the animal face. Then cut it out so that it is symmetrical. I then cut it out onto card - this was packaging card that I'd brought in from home. This card was used as a stencil for the children to draw around and cut out themselves. They also sponged over the mask to get the correct colouring. A little help with the eyes and finishing off from me though!! I made headbands from recycled card and display borders. The masks were stapled on to the headband (and covered the staples with tape - health and safety always!!)

Some of the headbands needed extra card support to make them stand up more - these masks did not over the children's faces, but rather sat on top of their heads.

 

 



 

The lion was made from a paper plate, with 2 circle eyes peeping over 2 circle cheeks. The children decided that he should look scary!! The children have sponged the paint over the plate and cheeks before adding the raffia and hessian mane. Then stapled onto the headband.

 

We used bubble wrap to print the crocodile's scaly skin. Careful folding here - it was rather large!

 

I quite like this sponged effect for the giraffe. I helped to add the eyes. More bands on the headband to make it tall was needed here.

 

The gorillas were collaged with squares of black tissue. The face was cut out in grey, then pastelled over. Help with the eyes - you have to get them right or it'll all looked cockeyed!

 

I drew the zones where I didn't want them to sponge - so that remained white - you can probable tell that I've gone over with a black pastel for the face!

 

60 masks later - I created these over a week with Year 1 children - and it was tough going to get them finished, with a fair bit of time spent mounting them onto sugar paper to give extra support.

Welsh lady peg dolls

Well here in Wales, St David's day is a big event in schools. We hold an annual Eisteddfod, where the children sing songs and recite poetry as well as making Welsh craft. Lots of prizes and fun galore. As my peg dolls have featured well on Pinterest - I thought I'd add them here. When I worked with reception age children, I made these every year. I prepared all the bits and bobs from my scrap stash - a triangle shawl, a rectangle for the skirt and a little pinny. Although I stopped using doilies as they kept ripping with those sticky fingers! So I used lace instead. The children glued them together and I helped them to tie them with string whilst they dried. The hat by the way, is just a sugar paper circle.

 

 

 

Wonky faces...

 

 

See also my Welsh lady bunting