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.

Preschool Picasso: Watercolors

This was Preschool Picasso's first time introducing watercolors to the group and I think it ended up being a fun change for the kids. We read Blue Chicken, about an artist painting a barnyard scene only to have one of it's chickens come to life and spill blue paint everywhere.

I wanted to using droppers for one craft activity and then have the group use the color pallets for another. For the first craft, I mixed blue watercolor paint with water and had the kids use eye droppers to drop paint all over their paper with chicken on it, just like in the book. The kids had fun using the droppers and everytime I've used these, they've always been well-liked.

For the second craft, they painted their own sunset for their barn. I put out the watercolor pallets and they had fun coming up with all sorts of techniques for making their sunset. Afterwards, they glued on the silhouette of a barn. I was glad this gave them an opportunity to create their art any way they liked with the watercolors.

Though there are tons of picture books using watercolors in illustrations, this one best fit what I was looking for-a short and sweet book that could easily tie-in with crafts.