Having loads of FUN with Yarn / Wool......

Ohh my are we just loving yarn at the moment... I can't get enough of it and neither can the children.

This is what we have been doing:

• Lots of finger knitting  
• Yarn weaving 
• Yarn snakes.  
• Yarn Sticks  
• Yarn Rocks

* We have been working on these ALL term as I have been using these activities at the end of sessions when the main project has been completed.

our table centre piece with yarn work hanging off it.

We have been talking about "yarn bombing" (see earlier weaving post) and I've even started to yarn bomb our garden trees with all the finger knitting that is accumulating.  There is SO much you can do with beautiful colourful yarns.  If you are looking at more ways to use yarn check out the The Artful Parent who by pure coincidence just did a post on this.

Yarn Weaving
I made my own cardboard looms for these as I had some cardboard offcuts given to me.  With some experimentation with my own children I found the easiest way for the children to weave the yarn through was to wrap it around a piece of cardboard the width of the loom (use a small slit to hold yarn in place to start).  Once the weaving has been completed, cut the yarn in the middle across the back of your loom, knot the threads together at the top and add beads if you wish.

Finger Knitting
I was teaching my daughter how to knit yet it was proving difficult and a friend mentioned finger knitting.  That started a huge trend in our house, at art classes and at my daughters school.  Finger knitting is a great craft to teach young children.  My daughter who is nearly 8 has really taken to it.  Finger knitting with one finger is the easiest and the best way to start yet once they have got the hang of it you can teach them how to do it with more fingers.

Yarn Snakes
These were inspired by this pin.  It didn't link to instructions so we just worked it out.  The children drew a snake on cardboard then cut it out.  We then sticky taped the end of some yarn onto the snake and they wrapped it around and around.  When they wanted to change colour we just cut the yarn and sticky taped the end to the cardboard then started again with a new colour.  You just need to ensure that you wrap the next yarn over the end and start points so you can no longer see it.  I used the hot glue gun for either end to ensure the yarn stayed put and for gluing on button eyes and a felt tongue.

Yarn Rocks
These were inspired by this pin.  It sounds really simple, just cover the rock with tacky glue and then wrap the yarn around.  However it's actually hard to do without getting glue everywhere and keeping the yarn looking neat.  The below photo is of my rock the kids decided it was too hard.

Yarn Sticks
These are all over Pinterest click here and here for some great examples.  It is a similar concept to the previous two examples.  I used a the same process as the snakes.

Cheers
Fiona

Clay Faces for Father's Day

I've been fortunate enough to go into my daughters classroom over the past few weeks to do an art activity with the children.  Its been lots of fun and they have been perfect students. 

We recently made these clay faces.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out. 

The faces are made out of paper clay (normal clay with paper pulp added to give extra strength when dry).  I supplied each child with a ball of clay and a wooden skewer and they created them from there.  The children painted the hair and skin colour when the clay was wet.  The following week the children added a few more features with paint and a background on cardboard with oil pastels.  The final step was to glue the clay face to the cardboard and cover it with Mod Podge to give it a gloss finish (photos prior to this step).  The children also wrote about their dad and it was glued to the back.

 If you notice a few animals in there we used the book "My Dad" by Anthony Browne as inspiration and children were told they could represent their Dad in any way they pleased.

Nice work kids!

Cheers
Fiona

Underwater Seals and Hippos

Aren't these underwater seals & hippos just the cutest??

Of course two wonderful ideas from Deep Space Sparkle.  The seals were part of the first e course I did and the underwater hippos are on her website click here for instructions.

I gave the children the choice of doing either animal.  As usual we had a few that deviated from the instructions yet I like that creativity.  All the children's art is shown.  Paintings done by 5 to 9 year old children.  After these photos were taken the children added fish, jellyfish, seaweed etc out of painted paper and tissue paper to jazz them up even more.

To tie in with the underwater hippos theme our artist of the week was Melanie Mikecz who illustration inspired Patty to develop the underwater hippo art lesson.


Cheers
Fiona