How To Paint Monet's Waterlillies With Children

by 16 Comments

The rather inspiring RedTedArt has started a new project up and it is one that I was happy to jump on board with straightaway. She would like us to investigate the Great Artists with our children and see what art work we can help them create based on the painting that we've explored.

I've discussed this with Maggy and her plan is not to set a theme or artists to study each time, apart from the first post where she's intending to give us the suggestion of Jackson Pollock. He's a bit modern and out there for me and I wasn't initially bitten by this idea, but since she suggested it I've thought some more and will join in. However, there is one that screamed out loud to me that I had to pick as my first project and Maggy approved.

You see in the National Museum of Wales' art gallery is this beauty:

Monet's waterlillies for children

How on earth could I refuse the call of an original Monet?

And so a few weeks ago we popped into Cardiff on the train, trekked over to the museum and sat down and read Laurence Anholt's children's book about Monet: The Magical Garden of Claude Monet. It was incredibly quiet there that day, just a few 'ladies what lunch' having a saunter, and an elderly, deaf attendant who watched us reading and looking at the painting before coming over to chat to us.

The Boy loved looking at the painting but the magnificence and significance of it, and his surroundings completely escaped him. Because let's face it, he's two and it's just some splodges of paint really.

However, since then, he hasn't stopped 'reading' the book to himself and chatting about when we went to the museum. Admittedly, sometimes he's waffling on about the dinosaurs we saw, but generally the event sunk in. And so on the weekend we settled down in the kitchen with a plethora of materials and an image of the painting (thank you iPad).

Monet's waterlillies for childrenAs a class teacher, art lessons consist of me pointing to the art cupboard and the different paper types on the shelf and allowing the children to select for themselves. The Boy is two so I'd provided him with a selection of paint colours, paper colours and types for him to choose from, but I was still controlling the materials. As he gets older, he'll have more choice.

We discussed the colours in the painting, the brush strokes and what he could see. Then he had a go himself.

Monet's waterlillies for children

He experimented with different brush strokes and use of the sponge.

Monet's waterlillies for children

He got to practise his scissor, and ripping, skills.

Monet's waterlillies for children

He used collage materials for the leaves and then painted the lillies on top.

Monet's waterlillies for childrenAnd then, because Monet didn't have it but we both know he'd have used it if he could have, we sprinkled on glitter to make the water sparkle!

Monet's waterlillies for children

What do you think of our masterpiece?

—

I'm linking this up to RedTedArt's Great Artists.

Red Ted Art

Rainbow Weaving (Scrap Art)

by 19 Comments

A fortnight ago, I read this post about scrap centres from The Alexander Residence. It reminded me about the recycling centre that I used to visit when I was training to be a nursery nurse, and I wondered if sixteen years later, it was still going. It is, and it's been improved. I had a little think about what activity we could do using the resources that we'd be able to find there.

Then the next day, a post from the Goddess that is Cathy at The Nurture Store popped into my inbox about the new Kids Art Explorers' Challenge. The theme was paper-free art, and suddenly I knew exactly what I was going to be doing with The Boy.

His favourite song at the moment is the 'Mo-mo' song from 'Show Me, Show Me'. We both pretend to be robots, put on our best mechanical voice and do robot arms while singing about the colours of the rainbow. It's quite amusing and I'm trying to get it on video to post, but he runs away screaming whenever I produce the FlipCam lately.

When we finally managed to get to our local scrap centre we had great fun delving in all the bins, finding treasures, discussing what we could use them for, getting over excited with various materials that we had no use for (let alone space) and saving oodles and oodles of dosh.

Originally I'd intended to do this activity on the patio using the bamboo fence. But it's currently submerged in eleventy billion feet of water so I tied netting up against the bannister upstairs on the landing and we did the activity there instead.

I knew the iPad was an essential educational tool! We gathered our resources together, examined a reference picture and discussed which colours we needed. An interesting discussion about what colour indigo is ensued and then a discussion about the difference between that and violet. Try and explain hues to a two year old.

Life became a lot easier for both The Boy and me once I'd remembered he is left-handed and realised that threading from left-right was causing him issues. One of the many things that need reversing when teaching a left-hander.

Admiring our handiwork and our beautiful rainbow!

This was a really enjoyable activity and The Boy loves sitting and feeling the different textures in the rainbow along with singing Mo-mo's song. The total cost of the resources for the activity was £1. (Just ignore the cost of the iPad)

You can search for your own nearest scrap centre here.

—

I'm linking this up to The Nurture Store's Kids Art Explorers Project.

Five Things To Do Before You're Three

by 15 Comments

I was chatting with my sister-in-law earlier and she mentioned something that she'd read through her work (outdoor adventure leader for children with behavioural problems) which I found fascinating, and wanted to share.

The National Trust, as a part of their nationwide campaign to encourage outdoor adventure and play in our couch-potato children, has published a list of 50 Things To Do Before You're 11¾. I'm a big fan of Country Kids over on Coombe Mill and try and take part most weeks with photos and posts of The Boy having fun outdoors and generally getting mucky. This list has a great range of things on there, quite a few of which he's already experienced:

Climb a tree (04/11/12), roll down a really big hill, camp out in the wild, build a den, skim a stone, run around in the rain, fly a kite, catch a fish with a net, eat an apple straight from a tree, play conkers, throw some snow, hunt for treasure on the beach, make a mud pie, dam a stream, go sledging, bury someone in the sand, set up a snail race, balance on a fallen tree, swing on a rope swing, make a mud slide, eat blackberries growing in the wild, take a look inside a tree, visit an island, feel like you’re flying in the wind, make a grass trumpet, hunt for fossils and bones, watch the sun wake up, climb a huge hill, get behind a waterfall, feed a bird from your hand (09/12 – Coombe Mill), hunt for bugs, find some frogspawn, catch a butterfly in a net, track wild animals, discover what’s in a pond, call an owl, check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool, bring up a butterfly, catch a crab, go on a nature walk at night, plant it grow it eat it, go wild swimming, go rafting, light a fire without matches, find your way with a map and compass, try bouldering, cook on a campfire, try abseiling, find a geocache, canoe down a river.

There's obviously quite a few things on that list that are a bit tricky for a two and three-quarter year old to do, but he's got nine years to scare the hell out of me and try abseiling and canoe down a river. However, I'm going to set him a little target of five things from the list to do before he's three years old in six and a half weeks time (eeek!):

I reckon they're achievable?

What five things are you going to do with your tiddler from the list?

—

Learning Through Play: Colours

by 10 Comments

Last Friday the theme on #MarchPhotoADay on Instagram was 'red'. I debated his red jumper, a red flower in the garden, blah, blah, blah. All very boring. Then it struck me when I was tidying up the threading and beading we'd been doing. I picked up the red lace and the red cotton reel and had a moment of inspiration.

I took the lace into the living room where The Boy was playing, put it down in a circle and asked him if he could find me anything red. He looked around the room and found one or two things, but needed a little help to see anything that wasn't shouting out to him. Then given a little more prompting he found a plethora of things, including my toes and his! I lined up the iPod ready to take a snap and he stopped me as he wanted his VTech to take one too.

Hopefully, it's obvious which one is whose!

He then ran off to find another coloured lace and we spent the next thirty minutes sorting things into colours.

He had loads of fun and I can't recommend it highly enough as an activity. It's excellent for pre-mathematical development; identifying colours and sorting accordingly so.

Have fun!

Learning Through Play: Changing Shape

by 17 Comments

Before I became a primary school teacher, I trained as a nursery nurse and studied the importance of play as a part of a child's development. Learning through play is a subject close to my heart, and it's what the Foundation Phase (nursery and reception) teaching is all about nowadays. In my school, we embrace it up to the end of infants. I'm used to it, I love it, I provide The Boy with loads of opportunities for it, and yet I always forget to blog about it.

Which is daft.

However, last week on one of my favourite sites ever, I came across this little gem and immediately purchased the necessary equipment to make it happen. And then I sat and pondered exactly what to do with these tiny little beads that were not much bigger than hundreds and thousands. Luckily Cathy at The Nurture Store is a kindly soul who was more than happy to bounce ideas back and for' with me.

Changing Shape with Water Beads

Water beads are strange little entities. Incredibly popular with florists for vase displays, they start out life as very small pellets. 'Soak each 5 gram portion in 1 litre of water and within 24 hours they will have absorbed the water and swollen in size.' In reality, they were full size within 10 hours and we only needed half the water.

We had great fun swirling and squidging them, watching them expand and change shape.

The next day we came back to them when they'd fully absorbed the water. I drained off the excess water and gave the tray full to The Boy to play with, along with some coloured bowls, spoons of different sizes and funnels. I left him to it for a little while, sitting back and noting what he was doing, only contributing when asked something. I wanted to see what he did, his thoughts and observations.

He realised straight away that they'd absorbed the water, and he loved the change in texture and size. He poured, stirred, squidged, bounced (rubbery now!) and had great fun pouring and playing. (Scientific development: changing shape)

After a while he asked what the bowls were for. I asked him what colours they were and if he noticed anything that was the same. He pointed out the colours of the beads, and started to try and pick them up with his fingers to put into the bowls. Thing is about these water beads? They're slippery little blighters and they kept popping out of his fingers. I asked if there was anything that he could use to help him get them out, and he chose to use the spoons. (This helps mathematical development: sorting into colours is a pre-maths skill. Also develops fine motor skills: hand-eye co-ordination and control)

The funnels were the best part of the exploring session. £1 for 2 from Ikea and he loved pouring them in and seeing them cascade out the bottom. One clear bead got stuck and he and Mr. TheBoyandMe decided to use it as a looking glass. They noticed fairly quickly that the image was upside down. Cute alert: The Boy tried to turn it around to make it go the right way up! (Scientific development: physical processes)

Water beads = great fun!

Our next step is to take a bowl of these, lay them out on a tray lined with kitchen towel and put them in the airing cupboard. We're going to try and get them to shrink back to their original size!

—

I'm linking this up to Science Sparks

Sciencesparks3

Create-A-World (Review)

by 5 Comments

When I was a little girl, one of the must-have toys at the time was Fuzzy Felts. I was absolutely desperate to have a set, but never managed it because they were quite pricey at the time.I'm 34 now and have always had a little part of me that wants a Fuzzy Felts set, even though in all honesty I know they were never quite as good as I anticipated.

Before Christmas, Whitestep heard my call and sent me a Fuzzy Felts set to play with and all was right with the world.

Ok, so a few things aren't strictly true about that statement.

  1. It's not a Fuzzy Felts set, it's something even better called Create  a World.
  2. They sent it to The Boy, dammit!

Create A World is a fantastic tool which helps to develop creative play. Like the classic 1980s toy, the pieces are made out of felt and are in the shape of people, animals, cars, the natural and manmade world, etc. but with the added and improved twist that they are much bigger and also printed on.

The playmat is designed to either go on the floor or fixed to a wall (velcro adhesive pads would be good for this) and is large measuring 90cm by 130cm. There are ninety printed and cut-out pieces to play with on the mat, creating worlds as varied as the beach, a mountain range, the moon, a swamp, an inner cityand fairy-tale castles. There are a wide selection of animals, people, vehicles and objects to help build up the worlds and develop story-telling. All the pieces are stored in a handy zipped pouch, and this pouch and the (folded) mat have a storage bag with handles.

I've given The Boy imaginative toys to role-play before and depending upon what they are, he either ignores them or enjoys them immensely. His PlayMobil house is one of the most successful toys ever, but his Happyland toys may as well not exist to be honest. Therefore when I presented him with the Create a World set, I had no idea how he would react.

He loves it!

The Create a World set helps to develop:

  • Imaginative play
  • Social skills and collaborative play when used by several children
  • Language skills through discussion, story-telling, nursery rhymes and acting out
  • Knowledge of their environment and the 'Wider World'

As a trained nursery nurse and teacher who studied the importance of play as a part of a child's development, I cannot rate this highly enough. If you're looking for a special birthday present, I'd seriously suggest investing in this toy which will be used in a variety of situations for years to come!

Create A World is available from Whitestep directly and is priced at £49.95.

I was sent this product for the purpose of the review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.