Watercolour Leaf Prints & Playdoh Earths for Earth Day 2016

Loving these watercolour leaf prints we did last week...

These tied in nicely with Earth Day and Autumn Leaves which were both on my mind that week.  I love how some of the kids got really creative with their leaf arrangements and use of watercolours.

What you need:

• A3 white paper
• Watercolour paints (we used liquid watercolours)
• Paintbrushes
• Newspaper
• Fresh leaves from the garden 

How to:

• Paint back of leaf with watercolours
• Put leaf paint down onto paper
• Put a scrap of newspaper on top
• Push down or use a rolling pin to flatten and press into paper
• Remove scrap paper and leaf - marvel at your leaf imprint
• Repeat with different leaves and colours

 The Results:

We also made these great play dough earths.  It proved no children are too old to play with play dough.  Even the 11 year old's liked this activity.  Directions can be found on a couple of websites - I like the ones here.  I used this no cook play dough recipe.

A very belated Happy Earth Day everyone!

Cheers
Fiona

Easter School Holiday Challenge Winners 2016

I just loved the entries to the Easter School Holiday Challenge.  What the children come up with always astounds me.  It's so lovely that so many of them continue to create and stretch their imaginations even during the term break.

Our theme this time was to make something with an Easter Egg Wrapper (nearly all of the children in my classes celebrate Easter and if they didn't I said they could use foil instead).

I find it extremely difficult to choose the winners as they are all so good!  Loving the bright colours of the Easter Egg wrappers...

The winners were:

Equal 1st Place - Caitlyn & Zara

Zara

Caitlyn

2nd Place -Lizzie

3rd Place - Esme

4th Place - Mia K

Highly Commended: Jess, Louise, Evie, Romani, Georgia and Mia B

Jess

Evie

Romani

Louise

Georgia

Mia B

And other amazing entries:

Liam

Clemmie

Ruby

Matilda

Lali

James

Harriet

Leo

Well done to everyone who entered - they were all excellent!

Cheers
Fiona

Colourful Paper Mache Cats

How funky are these CATS!  These tied in nicely with our term Cats theme (inspired by the Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei Cats exhibition on in Melbourne at the moment).

The kids have been begging me to do paper mache so I devised a paper mache cat project.  I often get my ideas from others (thanks everyone for being so good and sharing ideas) however this one I did come up with all on my own so here are the instructions.

 
Before starting we watched a couple of youtube videos by Dan Reeder for inspiration.  His paper mache creations are amazing!

What you need:

• empty water bottles (with rice in the bottom to keep them standing upright)
• masking tape
• brown paper bags (small lunch sized ones)
• newspaper
• stiff cardboard
• aluminum foil
• paper mache paste (I made my own just mixing flour and water)
• spray paint (you could use normal paint just takes longer to dry)
• accessories (feathers, eyes, jewels, fabric, pipe cleaners, wire, noses, buttons, ribbon, glitter, beads etc)
• hot glue gun or white glue

How To:
Week 1:  

• Make the forms using the water bottles, newspaper scrunched for a head and foil / cardboard for the ears and tail.  Use masking tape to attach everything.  I went around the room and helped with this as needed and ensured bits were stuck on well enough.
• Tear up two brown paper bags into strips (the kids did this themselves)
• Coat paper strips with paper mache paste and apply one layer over entire form
• Allow to dry

Containers of paper mache paste - just plain flour and water mixed

Cats before decorating

 Week 2:

• Tear up two brown paper bags 
• Coat paper strips with paper mache paste and apply a second layer over entire form
• Allow to dry

* we finished our Romero Britto Hearts and did Andy Warhol Watercolour cats at the end of this lesson if finished early

Week 3:

• Spray cats with spray paint (low toxic sugar spray, using masks and outside)
• Leave to dry outside for 5 mins and then bring inside to add accessories
• For the eyes and noses we used the ones you buy for teddies and I drilled a hole in the paper mache for them to be pushed in.
• The kids then got really creative using fabric for clothes, feathers for the hair or hats, wire whiskers (some were pushed in some were glued) etc

The Results:
They all have such cute different personalities.  I made the children leave them in the studio for a week so we could all admire them.  Great effort everyone!

Cheers
Fiona