Toddler Art: Vincent van Gogh

This was another great group and some new faces. They listened very well to the board book, In the Garden with van Gogh by Julie Mergberg and were excited to get to their crafts. The book was perfect for this age group because it rhymed and showed his paintings, although I wish it would have been bigger for the kids to see the pictures better. There are more in this book series that I have a feeling I will be using for future programs. 

For the first craft, we did some process art and finger painting. I pre-made foil taped onto cardstock for the kids to use blue and white paint to mix and swirl their colors like van Gogh's Starry Night. I also provided q-tips and pom poms with clothespins for those to try out a variety of ways that would work for them. These turned out pretty because of the foil, but this craft's main focus was on having fun with it in the moment and using their motor skills.

The second craft was inspired by van Gogh's sunflower paintings. Each in the group were able to make a sunflower using construction paper, yellow tissue paper, and brown paint with q-tips. This gave them extra painting time and they had fun doting their brown paint on the middle of their sunflowers.

At the end of craft time, we had play time and the group really enjoyed this part and did a great job with sharing toys and interacting with each other.