NEWSLETTER

Happy Valentine's Day!

These past two weeks were spent in art heaven! 

The children used a variety of materials to create decorative hearts and valentine art for their families. Check out their process, the materials they used and the skills they practiced:

Base Material: Paper Hearts

Tools: Q-Tips and Cotton Balls attached to Clothespins

Art Material: Paint

Process: "Dab Dab Dab" was the repeated language as the children applied the paint to the hearts. This repeated motion created a unique art piece that the children noticed right away. They moved their hands at different speeds on different areas of the heart, which was great fine motor and hand-eye coordination practice. 

Base Material: Outline of a heart

Tools: Paper strips that they cut into pieces; Scissors

Art Material: Glue

Process: The children practiced cutting long strips of paper into small pieces. The repeated motion of short cuts is a different type of cutting practice and one that typically develops before sustained cutting (longer lines to cut). The arrangement of paper pieces was each child's choice as they practiced hand-eye coordination to get the pieces inside the heart. 

Base Material: Foam hearts

Tools: Stickers, gems and sticks

Art Material: Glue

Process: This art experience was totally open-ended, allowing all of the creativity to flow. The children were tasked to apply dots of glue on the foam heart and then place their chosen material on it. This allowed them to see where the material would be before putting it on (easy to wipe off the glue and change spots) and then carefully aim the material to be on top of the glue (hand-eye coordination and visual-spatial awareness). They picked up one material at a time using their pincer grasp for some extra fine motor practice.