Toddler Art: Merry Grinchmas!

I had a couple new faces for this month's Toddler Art and they made great additions to the group. We read a board book Grinch story for our theme and then we made two Grinch inspired crafts.

In I Am Max by Astrid Holm, the book explains the Grinch and his dog Max in Dr. Seuss rhyming fashion. The toddlers listened very well to the book and enjoyed the familiar illustrations.

For our first craft, we just had to make a simple Grinch face. I used light green paper plates and cut-out pieces. The kids got their motor skills practice in with the help of a parent.

Our last craft was well-appreciated by parents. The toddlers used tissue paper and a heart to make the Grinch's big heart. The toddlers were able to do this craft practically on their own and all of them turned out cute.

I try to find a balance of a cute craft and toddler ability for this program and it's always a plus when I come across a number of craft ideas that fit this criteria.

Merry Grinchmas!

Preschool Picasso: Nature

Instead of doing a spring theme, I decided to go along with a nature theme for both this month's Preschool Picasso and Toddler Art. There were quite a number of excellent books to use for this theme, but The Weaver by Qian Shi was the best fit for nature and our crafts. The Weaver tells the story about a spider named Stanley and how he collects all these things in nature for his web.

Our first craft tied in perfectly with the story since we made nature sun catchers out of contact paper, paper plates, and dandelions and leaves from nature. This craft was a bit much prep wise, but it was well worth it to have a unique craft that everyone enjoyed.

For our second craft, I used card stock, die-cut flowers, and paint. The group used their fingertips to add paint to their flower petals and painted grass, leaves, and stems. I originally had the idea to use dandelions to paint with, but they wilted too quickly for my liking.

I think the most difficult part of this program was gathering the leaves and dandelions and pre-sticking the contact paper onto the paper plates so the parents only had to add the second layer of contact paper when their child was finished decorating. It was a little stressful worrying about if the leaves looked wilty and if we had enough, but everyone enjoyed the craft and I had enough supplies.

Other books:

Finding Wild Megan Wagner Lloyd

A Web Isabelle Simler

Tiny, Perfect Things M.H. Clark

A Funny Little Bird Jennifer Yerkes

Toddler Art: Story Characters

Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley was the perfect length of book for the toddlers and I was pleased with the craft ideas that were paired along with this book. The kids enjoyed hearing this book read out loud and had the variety of two different types of crafts to choose from or to do both. Both crafts were to make the Big Green Monster. 

One craft involved paint and the other involved tissue paper. All of their crafts turned out really cute and they had fun with the paint. I also liked how this craft allowed them to work with paint differently by smooching their paint around their folded cardstock. It was a different way of working with paint for them. 

Mostly everyone chose to do both crafts, but some parents just wanted to stick with the paper plate and tissue paper monster. 

I also had an opportunity to read the story again to those who arrived late. 

Go Away, Big Green Monster!