bbrandonsmom Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Other than learning about art through books and music, can I get some art/craft ideas? Or a good place to find them? I'm artsty, but when it comes to actually setting aside time and doing something, it seems daunting. I'd like to set aside an hour a few times a week for some creative art/craft time, but have no ideas. What do you do/use etc? Thanks. This would be for a 3.5 and almost 6yr old. They love arts/crafts too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 I've got a bunch of links on my blog that I keep for inspiration. I'll list them here. Art for Kids Art Lessons for Kids Art Projects for Kids Deep Space Sparkle Incredible Art Lessons Modern Art 4 Kids Teach Kids Art The Artful Parent Crafts for Kids Filth Wizardry The Crafty Crow zakka life Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 My children like when I cut construction paper into the shapes needed to reconstruct the animals on the "find the shape" pages of Wild Animal Babies. They then glue the shapes together. We also had a lot of fun with some of the MEP Reception lessons. One lesson had the children create clay/play-doh animals. Stringing beads on laces or pipe cleaners is also popular. Pipe cleaners can be bent into hearts, shamrocks, eggs, or other shapes. They also like when I give them paint and brushes, sponges, or other objects to dip in the paint. Some children like if you give them an box of odds and ends and let them create what they want. Include different textured papers and fabrics, cardboard/cardstock, egg cartons, ribbons, glitter, glue, google eyes, pipe cleaners, beads, buttons, yarn, whatever else you have and can spare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckabell Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 We did a fun craft at storytime today. There were three bowls of tempera paint (red, blue, and yellow) and three tennis balls. The teacher put a large piece of heavy white paper at the bottom of a box (think diaper box) and then the teacher covered each of the balls in paint and put one ball at a time into the box. The kids then tipped the box around so that the ball would roll and cover the paper in paint. They did that with all of the colors and the kids had a lot of fun. It was also less messy as the kids didn't directly touch the paint. The teacher used large serving spoons to put the balls in and get them out so that she didn't get messy either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Scholastic is selling monthly idea books for $1.00 a piece right now, that include holiday and seasonal color, cut and paste crafts. It doesn't get cheaper or easier than this :-) http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/dollardeals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nancyb Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I follow The Crafty Crow for inspiration. I asked for art and craft supplies for Christmas. We got lots of fun kits. This one has provided lots of fun http://www.amazon.com/Alex-Toys-Giant-Busy-Box/dp/B001AQDA50/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297910476&sr=8-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emilia Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I do lots of arts and crafts with my daughter. I get books from the library on crafts and artists. We may do 10 crafts a week or none. I find this book to be EXTREMLY helpful in exploring creativity: Doing Art Together by Muriel Silberstein-Storfer It is a book on the parent-child workshop that was taught at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I have used it with young children and with elder adults. It is well written. Includes famous works of art and student examples. It gives helpful hints to help keep student paintings from going muddy. I encourage unabashed crafting. I am a bit more strict when it comes to drawing. I want her to enjoy herself but I want her to learn to draw (I believe it is as easy to learn to draw as it is to learn to read). So most of the time we are using books form the library to make a cats out of cotton balls but once a week we get serious and practice seeing and drawing. I like Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain for that. I tailor the concepts for a 5 year old. I also like The Natural Way to Draw Kimon Nicholaides. This book was not written to be taught to preschooler's but it's a great read on how to capture not only the form but also the essence of your subject...food for thought? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LillyMama Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 I am not crafty so these might be stinky ideas-my suggestions will all fall in the craft area and not be very close to the art area... I'm also assuming that your kids are similar to my 4 and 5 year old in terms of attention span and aptitude, which is obviously not a guarantee. For holidays I go pick up a $4 foam sticker kit from WalMart or Hobby Lobby. These make tree ornaments or cards or picture frames, etc. from that foamy paper stuff. My kids love that stuff because it's simple for the younger fingers and also because the kids can either do it exactly as described or get all creative and funky with it. I keep a supply of that foam paper and stickers and glue and glitter on hand because we can always find something to do with those. And they're pretty indestructible for smaller hands. Then we mail them off to the grandparents so I don't get nasty-grams that no one's heard from us in a month. Haha. I also have a few Letter of the Month/Week/etc books that were passed down for me, Mailbox brand I think? These are great for the smaller kids because they usually have a couple crafty type ideas for each letter. They're not all obviously "letter" crafts so you don't really have to worry about them fitting in with your schoolwork. Mailbox books, in general, have fun and relatively simple crafts and they also have theme books if you want to work that way. For example, they have a book on seasons and weather with crafts that go with them. Take my suggestions with a grain of salt- we do crafts as child-distraction and mom-feels-guilty-because-we-haven't done-crafts activities in our house. SO not my thing. I'm jealous you have a love for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmeraldGirl Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 A friend recently introduced this site http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/ to me and showed me all the projects she has done with her 5 kids (all under 9 yrs) and I was impressed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susesmiles Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 We get ideas from Family Fun magazine. You can get a subscription, which is great because my kids look through it and decide what they'd like to do OR you can visit their site on-line for free and get the same information :) Also, about once a year I place a big order with Oriental Trading. They have great art/craft projects for a good price. They often have free shipping specials, so watch for one of those. Plus they have a website so you can order on-line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EppieJ Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 (edited) Some great books to have on hand for that age: Scribble Cookies Kids Create Mudworks These books have craft ideas and tons of recipes for various kinds of dough (salt dough, play dough, dough made from everything from sawdust to dryer lint to peanut butter!) for various purposes, as well as other concoctions. You can probably find them at your local library or check them out on Amazon. Another book we've used is How to Teach Art to Children. This book will teach about color, line, texture, etc. through hands-on activities. You can take a look at it on Amazon. Edited February 19, 2011 by EppieJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbrandonsmom Posted February 19, 2011 Author Share Posted February 19, 2011 Awesome, thanks! How do you guys schedule time for art/craft? On a whim or try to actually fit it in a few times a week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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