Monthly Archives: September 2011

Scented Play Dough

1 Reply

The idea of adding scent to play dough isn’t new; I’ve seen it scented with peppermint more than once. N’s teacher let me know on Sunday that he’d need some play dough for a class activity on Wednesday–we keep him on a gluten-free diet, and even though he’s not eating the play dough, there’s something about having him play with a ball of wheat that seems not-so-smart. He only needed a small amount each of three colors, but of course it’s made in batches (I used this recipe). I also wanted to double the recipe so G could play with some at home and there was extra to keep on hand in school for next time.

I placed all the ingredients for a double recipe in one pan. When it had warmed and mixed to reach the consistency of pancake batter, I added a couple drops of lavender oil–such a calming, soothing scent. Then I ladled some of the batter into two more pans, and then I added the food coloring, one color per pan. The beautiful (and beautifully scented!) result is in the picture above.

Field Trip: Explore This Museum!

1 Reply

Yesterday we all visited the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum of Art for a family open house. Various activities were going on throughout the afternoon. When we arrived, a Tours for Tots group was just gathering. G noticed the assemblage of people her size and went to join them, so her dad went on the half-hour tour with her, and the boys and I headed to the classroom (which is right off a gallery, not isolated from the exhibits) to see what the day’s activity was all about.

Immediately upon seeing those books, I thought of How To Be An Explorer of The World by Keri Smith. (My husband did, too; we own a copy.) But this booklet was written specifically with the Museum’s current exhibit, Made in the UK, in mind. So the various explorations are keyed into specific works of art, asking us (of course I took one too!) to look closely at, for example, the Roger Hiorns sculpture (number 6 on this PDF image sheet). “What do you notice about the piece?”

Says N, age 7: It has pompoms. It is made up of sticks.

Says V, age 9: It is three metal poles. The blue is pom-poms, but far away it looks like flowers or torn-apart balls. The pom-poms look like they are hanging off strings. Crystals on pom-poms.

Says me: Looks like rock candy. Crystals. Rusty in spots. Coral. Organic. Upside down. Blue, green. Grown on wood? Looks grown, not made.

Turns out the artist dipped dried thistles in a solution that grows crystals, then attached the thistles onto the poles. (I found this page that explains more. It’s similar to what we read at RISD, but I wasn’t taking notes then!) I would say we were pretty observant in our investigation!

The green postcard in the photo above has tips for closer looking on the back.

It starts with “Look: What do you notice? Draw: Find a line within the artwork, trace it in the air with your finger. Draw: Draw that same line on your paper.” And it goes on from there. We didn’t have time to use the postcard today, but I think it’s fabulous.

I also think the construction of this book is fabulous. The cover is cardstock, a piece a bit longer than the page pieces, so that the back cover can be folded over a bit and stapled, forming a flap to tuck the front cover into. The pages are held in with a rubber band, and when we were finished exploring the exhibit, we went back to the classroom, where tables were set up with pieces of paper and tape so that kids could add more pages to their booklets. V added pages, plus a pocket.

(We love pockets in our notebooks.) The simple construction means this would be easy to do at home–in fact, think of the possibilities of creating one of these yourself, catered to your own surroundings. It doesn’t have to be for works of art in a museum. You could make an Exploration Book for a walk in the park or your neighborhood, with activities to help you and your children stop and observe (I definitely recommend the Keri Smith book for inspiration). Making some of these is now on my (long) list of Ideas to Try.

N was happy to find a selection of colored pencils back in the classroom, because he’d been a little frustrated about drawing what he saw in the gallery, using only a regular pencil. He was anxious to add some color.

He then went on to make a tape sculpture and several 2-dimensional tape drawings and then a drawing on vellum with pastels, because vellum is so cool (I think so too).

G, of course, knew exactly what to do with all that colored tape.

The colored tape we have is all the same width, and how exciting to have a variety of lines to work with! We might need to expand our supplies.

RISD is making a great effort to make families feel welcome and engaged in the museum. It can be a bit of a challenge for us to get there–it’s about 45 minutes each way, and parking is always tough in the city–but it’s well worth the effort. I’m still trying to figure out a way to get G to more Tours for Tots, because they end at about the same time I need to be picking up my big kids from school, but N and I are planning on taking a class together, which I think will be fun for both of us.

What sort of Explorer book might you create? Does your local art museum support families? If so, how? (And if not, could you suggest some ideas?!)

Painted Jar Jack-o-Lanterns

2 Replies

Yesterday G asked to paint, so as I often do, I asked her what kind of paint she’d like to use–watercolors or tempera? She said neither, and although she’d forgotten the name, she quickly managed to communicate that she wanted to use the liquid craft acrylics. Because those aren’t always the best on paper, I thought for a minute about how else she could use them. They’re really great, for instance, with wood… and then I remembered that the latest issue of Family Fun included an activity using craft acrylics and I described it to G.

So, this project is much more crafty than what I usually post, but it was still kid-led, so I include it anyway.

Materials: Glass jar, painter’s tape, liquid acrylic craft paint

Family Fun’s directions can be found here. We varied only slightly. G picked what color she wanted to paint her jars–red for one, orange for the other–and she placed the tape on for the faces. I cut out some triangles, circles, and squares and placed them on the edge of the table for her. I decided against cutting out a definite mouth shape, like in the example, because I didn’t want there to be any “right” place that any individual shape had to go. We talked a bit about where our eyes, nose, and mouth are on our faces–two eyes at the top, nose in the middle, and mouth at the bottom.

After G placed the tape, I made sure the edges were smoothed down and she painted. Once the paint was dry, we peeled off the tape together (tweezers helped) and then I put tea lights inside and we admired her jars.

The face is quite clear on the orange jar. On the red jar, it’s a little lopsided but still clear, and up above on the ridged part, she placed a square next to each eye–these are arms, she told me.

G is almost three (one more month!), and while I don’t “do lessons” with my preschool-aged kids, I do incorporate a bit more as they get older. So while there was no purpose to this activity beyond painting and having fun, we did incorporate some learning–a bit of shape review and observation of faces and their parts. This gave her the opportunity to create a face in a way that is easier for her than drawing right now, and I think we’ll do some more variations on that idea.

How have you modified crafts to meet your child’s needs?

Vegetable Print Wrapping Paper

4 Replies

A cousin is turning three, so G and I decided to make some special wrapping paper. We chose red and blue, but you could make wrapping paper holiday-specific based on the colors you choose.

Materials: Big piece of paper–I cut a piece from a tall roll of white paper that I found at Staples; tempera paint; veggies (we used a carrot, a piece of celery, and a small potato)

The process is fairly straight-forward! We cut the veggies, dipped them in paint, and printed. We didn’t get fancy with the cutting, since I wanted this to be something G could do–and she did. I had a photo, but my camera ate it. We used a safety knife I bought years ago for my oldest, but it’s got large serrations and doesn’t make terribly smooth cuts. Next time I’ll let her use my favorite paring knife, which is old and not pointy sharp.

Anyway, she began with the carrot. When she filled up the area she could reach, I rotated the paper a quarter turn.

After three quarter turns, she’d filled the paper. I did some too. When the prints were dry, we wrapped the presents.

Our extra piece is in the front. G pushed the button for this picture.

One of those boxes holds some Crayola Washable Finger Paints in tubes. G really likes squeezing the paint out herself. We’ll be handing the mom a roll of freezer paper and one of aluminum foil (mainly because I think the three-year-old would be mystified to open those, no?). The freezer paper is good for finger painting–one side is slippery, for the paint to really slide around on, but if you choose the papery side, you have that plasticy backing, so the paint won’t soak through. The aluminum foil is another interesting surface on which to finger paint.

G did this just the other day–aluminum foil on the left, freezer paper on the right, and regular paper up above, which she used for some hand-printing. With the primaries, it’s fun to put two colors near each other so your child gets the delight of making a new color as she smears her hands through the paint.

We hope the birthday boy has a good time painting!