Welcome to the first monday column on craft! I am really excited to be sharing our craft with you every week and to also share your craft too! Yes, that means you can send me an email with your craft ideas, your images of completed projects you may have done with your little ones, even craft they may have done at school that will give other parents ideas on craft. I want this post to be fun, inspirational and a place where you know you can come to when it is a rainy day.
Last week was the first week of Autumn in Australia so I instantly had a theme to work with. I do like to try and have a theme for our craft. Although of course there are days where I just give Keely the paints, crayons etc and let her do anything she would like to do. So I am sure there will be weeks on this new column where I share some of the things she has drawn or painted with no direction from me.
As I am receiving lots of stock for the new winter ranges for the shop I have lots of boxes hanging around. I had a piece of cardboard that I picked up, I collected the crayons from the cupboard and handed Keely them. I explained to her about Autumn and how the leaves change colours and fall off the trees. I told her how beautiful and colourful they can be before they turn to brown. I drew outlines of leaves and asked if she would like to colour them in the way she thought the leaves would look in Autumn. Once she had coloured them in we cut them out and stuck them to some green paper. We then went outside and collected some sticks, which we glued onto her Autumn picture.
This was simple and it was a great activity to do as she could reflect on what she thought Autumn was and how she thought the leaves would look as they changed colour.
The next day we went out and collected leaves and found lots of lovely colours, yellow, red, orange, green and of course brown. It was nice for Keely to see how the leaves had all fallen off the trees and how they start to turn to brown once they fall on the ground. This in itself is a great way to spend some of your day as they are out in nature and learning at the same time. We have the leaves here at home, we are yet to do something with them, but I am sure they will be stuck to paper; simple yet fun for the little ones.
you are so crafty hayley, i love what you do with your kids, you seem very patient too! i love your photo's of the craft on the line xx
ReplyDeleteGreat idea Hayley!
ReplyDeleteI used to do an Autumn art activity with my kinders which is qute simple as well.
I woud have leaf templates already cut and the children would use brown, red, yellow to sponge onto the leaves and it would create beautifully rich colour combinations. They would use the sponge to 'dab' the paint on for texture.
Once dry, they would scrunch the leaves to give them a crumpled look.
On a separate piece of paper they wouyld use the same sponging technique to create a sky background. I would put out blue and white and they would combine these to make the background. Using white gave them the chance to tint and we would always end up with lots of different shades of blue skies.
When everything was dry, my students would then glue the leaves onto the background to create a 3D effect of Autumn leaves falling (leaves would just have glue in the centre so they did not sit flat against the sky.
Very easy and result was always beautiful. Also introduces children to 'tinting', primary and secondary colours, dimension and different painting techniques.
I should give it a go with Poppy this year. Will send in pics if I do.
Oh fantastic, Kellie and Hayley! Hayley, I'm fairly new to your blog, I love it. May I ask how old Keely is? My daughter is 3 and a half, I wonder if she'd "get" it?
ReplyDeleteHi Blythe!
ReplyDeleteIt is fun, I think your daughter will get it! Keely is 4, turned 4 in January. I think even the simple task of going and collecting leaves and showing her the different colours is fun enough. Keely has loved gluing things down for a long time now and you can get her to stick them on the paper. You can also put cotton wool balls for clouds too, that is always fun, especially if she loves the whole gluing thing!
Welcome to the blog too! x