Presidents' Day Crafts

We talked about presidents today, particularly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The kids learned about them when we went to Mt. Rushmore, but I just wanted to refresh their memories. For our crafts, I had seen a few president crafts that I liked (here and here) and so I kind of took what I liked from them, added a few of my own ideas, and came up with these:

As the kids were dropped off in the morning, I had them paint a small paper plate with peach paint. (Actually, it was white with a little orange mixed in.) They were all dry by the time we got together for art time. First they drew faces on with markers.

Then they had to choose if they wanted to make Washington or Lincoln. For Lincoln, I had black rectangles cut from construction paper. One was big and tall and the other was skinny. I also had black tissue paper squares and glue.

The kids glued the rectangles together to make a hat and then glued it to the top of the plate.

Then they scrunched up the tissue paper, dipped it in glue, and put it on the rim of the plate for Lincoln's hair and beard.

For Washington, I cut out small blue hats and strips of yellow paper. I also put out cotton balls for his hair.

The kids glued the hat to the top of the plate, then glued the yellow strip on. I trimmed them after they dried. Then they glued cotton balls to the sides of the plate.

Then I asked the kids what they would do if they were president and wrote it on a scroll (found here). Most of the kids didn't seem to understand the question, but I wrote their answers down anyway. Here is one of my favorites: What would you do if you were President?

Then I displayed them in the hall for everyone to see.

I wasn't planning on doing any crafts for Presidents' Day* and had only decided last night that I probably should. I wasn't sure I could get everything ready in time this morning, but it all worked out and I think they turned out pretty cute!

*I read several news articles today about how it isn't Presidents' Day, but rather Washington's Birthday, and how we should really only be celebrating and honoring George Washington. I never heard that before. Hmmm...

YAH: Silhouette Art

Here's a quick Young-at-Heart post to show you what I made my husband for Valentine's Day. We normally don't exchange gifts, but I wanted to do a little somethin'. We have two cats who are the loves of our lives,

and for awhile now I've wanted to make some sort of silhouette art with them. So I've been taking pictures of their profiles and found two that worked perfectly. I used a greeting card software to make the pictures the right size, then I printed it out (just in black and white), cut it out, flipped it over, positioned the heads just right and traced it on black card stock paper, which I already had on hand.

Then I cut out the heads. I found a floating frame that I bought years ago and never used, so I put the silhouettes in that. My plan was to hang it in our bedroom, which has Victorian red walls. The black against the red looks great!

Of course, I could not get a picture head-on because of the flash, so I apologize for the bad angles.

It took me about 10 minutes and didn't cost me a thing! Our cats do this nose-to-nose thing often, but I can never get a picture of it. So this was the next best thing. Oh, and here is what my husband got me:

Ahh, be still my bamboo heart :)

Negative Art

I found this very cool art piece from Dilly-Dali Art. They sprayed their hands with white paint onto black paper and it looked awesome! So I tried that with my kids today. Although I loved the look of having a bunch of hands on one big sheet of paper, I also wanted each of them to have their own to take home. So I put white paint in a spray bottle and added a little water. Then the kids took turns spraying each other's hands on black paper.

When they took their hands away, they loved what was left behind (not to mention how cool their splattered arms and hands looked!).

I put them up really close together so it looked like one big art piece.

My only disappointment with this is that I think I added too much water. Or maybe construction paper absorbs too much. I just wish the white was whiter, you know? But it still looks cool!



Art With Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day! I found this really cool project made with nothing but hearts. I would love to make something like that for myself someday, but I wondered if my kids would be able to do it as well. So first I made a couple simple ones of my own. I cut out a ton of hearts, and I did this by folding the paper and only cutting half a heart because I needed the fold in there anyway. Then I glued down one side of the heart, and continued to go in a circle until I had a "flower."

As cool as that was, I wanted to see what it looked like with the hearts opened further. So I fanned them out



and really liked the result, especially the all-red one.

So I let the kids give it a try and told them they could keep the hearts folded or fan them out. To make it easier I had them put a dot on their paper to be the center of the flower. Then they just had to glue the hearts around the dot. Also, I drew an X on the side of the heart that needed glue so they would all face the same way.

It worked pretty well! A few of the younger ones had trouble, but even without the flower shape, the folded hearts looked cool. Then the kids decorated the rest of the paper with some foam stickers.

This was actually the front of the card they made for their parents. On the inside, I had them make their hand prints into a heart and then used glitter glue to outline it.

I also wanted to show you a couple of the homemade valentines I got from the kids.

Both are made with pretzel sticks. Cute, right?

My Valentines

I wanted to show you the valentines I made for the kids in my class. I got the idea from here. As soon as I saw the bubble gum, chocolate kiss, and the words "blow me a kiss," I was hooked. I usually go for a non-candy type valentine (like heart-shaped straws or pinwheels), but I decided to try something different this year. It was a bit more expensive. Actually, a lot more expensive. But I really like them so I'm letting that slide. I bought three bags of gumballs and a pack of cellophane bags from Party City.

I loved the idea of using candy tubes, like my inspiration, but I had to cut costs somewhere. I combined all the gumballs in a big bowl. It turned out quite pretty!

Anyway, I cut about 2 inches or so off the top of the bags, added 6 gumballs to each, and threw in a couple chocolate and caramel kisses.

I used the twister just until I had the ribbon ready. I printed out some cards on my computer and punched a hole on one end.

On the back side, I used my frog stamp (all the kids know I love frogs!) and added a little heart.

Then I tied them on the bag with some curling ribbon.

They may not be as cute as my inspiration, but I like how they turned out. Although, after I bought all the gumballs I saw this, which uses bubbles instead of gum. Oh, how I wish I saw that before! It would have been cheaper and a lot less sugar! Maybe next year...

Valentine Fish

There are lots of things you can make with hearts of different sizes. Today we made fish. Kissing fish, actually. I cut out a bunch of hearts.

The smaller ones were made with a hole punch. The kids used the hearts to make fish. They either made one

or two that were glued together with another heart in the middle.

Then I hung them from the ceiling for some lovely decoration. And yes, a few of them look like birds, but they're still cute!

Dental Floss Painting

Here's a quick art project you can do if you are doing a dental theme, or if you are just looking for something different to paint with. Put some dental floss in paint and drag it across your paper!

The spoons are needed to push the floss into the paint because it's so light, it will just sit on top. We used red and pink because we were in a valetiney mood.

This is very similar to when we painted with noodles. And the results are just as cool.