Old Claypots, Meet Old Craypas

I wanted to use up the last Craypas in order to justify opening our shiny new craypas that I bought at ICHE.

Decorating clay pots with craypas or oil pastels is awesome! The colors stay bright even through rain (and snow).

Thanks Aunt Teri!

We love Aunt Teri, she always gets the greatest presents. (Of course, we love her for other reasons too!) She gave Nathan sock puppets for his birthday. We were supposed to make sock puppets when we were doing our unit study on, "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", but we never got around to it. So THANKS Aunt Teri for hooking us up.
The boys took their sock puppets EVERYWHERE (even digging in the dirt) this week. I think next week we are going to do, "A day in the life of" with our sock puppets.

More from Art School

Hermit Crab

Timmy the Turtle

Humpback Whale
Tiger Fish

Blue + Yellow = Green

It didn't work out how I had planned, but they got the idea.

(Really, we do get out of our PJs)

Brother Robots

Robots have been very in style around here lately. We made this version out of left over Christmas boxes. I drew and cut the shapes and then left the boys paint on glue and glitter. DMan found all of the eyes and buttons from our art junk box. I got this idea from Allie and she used magnets so her children could mix and match the parts. Great idea, but I couldn't find any extra magnets so I just used brads for the arms and legs. I think they are pretty cute!

Wax Resist Painting

I have been meaning to try this for some time now. You need paper, water colors (water and food coloring works too), a white wax candle, and a paint brush.

First, rub the candle on the paper and then paint with the water color.

It's a pretty cool effect..... Dylan got frustrated right away. In hindsight, I should have used a white crayon rather than a wax candle since the candle was too awkward to hold. He ended up writing "zoo" with the candle and just using it at the top of his picture. Then he just went on drawing.....

Nathan gave the candle a try, but then decided to make "Monster Houses" instead.

I am going to try this again with crayon and write secret messages to the boys. I think that will be a big hit.

Did I Mention That I Love Dylan's Art Class?

I know I have, but really, it is AWESOME! This past Fall Dylan took LiterARTure. Every week the teacher reads a book and then the class creates art based on that book. Very cool. Next week he is going to start a new class called Coral Reef Art Exploration. I am so excited to get back into a routine and he truly misses art school.

Here are some pics from the Fall. The first one, he did a week after his 4th birthday. I think is is amazing, although I am a bit biased.

Christmas Ornaments

I got this idea for Christmas ornaments from my PMOMS friend, Kathy. She has awesome art ideas for the prek crowd. Nathan especially loved this.

We wrapped foil into balls and around pipe cleaners.

We painted our balls and sprinkled them with glitter. I think these are the prettiest decorations that we made this year!