Red, White & Blue Sensory Art

So, in preparation for the 4th of July weekend we made some red, white and blue art inspired by fireworks this week. We worked mainly with tempera paint in hot pink, white and blue with painting tools that were not your normal paintbrushes.

 

 

I passed around a large Ziploc bag filled with bendy straws and everyone was asked to choose five. We held them together and taped them with masking tape right by the bend. Then the straws were bent out into a starburst pattern.

 

 

We passed around paper plates of paint, dipped our strawburst and then stamped it onto our construction paper (some stamped and some smeared; we make sure to comment about these differences during our show and tell portion of each session)

 

 

I had premade some pompom daubers by pinching different size pompoms with clothespins and secured them with masking tape.

 

 

And this project we used pipe cleaners to create our firework effect. 

 

 

 

We made the "fireworks" with paint and the pipe cleaner tool, and the dauber we used glue and sprinkled with glitter to finish.

 



 

I am always amazed at the individuality of each painting, even though we use the same limited amount of supplies!

Sensory Art

This week's group art was student-led. Here are the supplies we had at our disposal:

I pre-selected pages from magazines that had large images of high interest objects, along with cardstock, tissue paper squares (that we had previously made by practicing our cutting skills), markers, stickers, white paint, glue, foam shapes, plastic lacing, hole punch, and scissors. 

Here are the masterpieces that were created!

I handed out the cardstock and the kids wrote their names on the back. We then flipped over our papers. The kids chose the magazine page they wanted to embellish. We put glue "all over" the back of the magazine page and adhered the cardstock. Each child identified and chose a foam block which we dipped into the paint and either stamped or smeared onto their page. I pinched four holes across and six holes down each side of the papers and the kids laced around the edges. They then finished by embellishing with the tissue paper squares and stickers.

This is the end of the spring semester. I'm gearing up for summer camp and many fun and interesting new sensory ideas!

Spin art

This week's sensory art was dizzying. We handed out plates and wrote our names on the back. I let the kids choose a stencil and they traced them on the center front. Then we handed the supplies back to the front and passed out the scissors. We snipped the plates towards the center all the way around, so that we could fit the plates into the salad spinner and capture the paint for maximum coverage. 

One by one, we put our plates into the salad spinner, spooned a primary color onto the plate, closed the lid, and let it rip! We repeated two more times with the other primary colors. Red, yellow, and blue turned into a full spectrum of color! We had a smaller group than normal, so each kid had a chance to make 2 plates!

Part of my sensory art class is not only trying to find different ways to use common art materials, but how to use everyday items in an artful way. Here's an example:

I had prepared some cardboard shapes (an egg and a bunny) which we traced them onto cardstock with marker. The students identified six different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. I prepared three palettes with pairs of primary colors and passed them out. Instead of paintbrushes, we used plastic Easter eggs! Using the rounded top and bottom as our vessel to transfer the paint from palette to paper, the  paint started to blend into secondary colors. Once the students were done painting I traded the used eggs and palettes for clean eggs and palettes with glue. I had the students open the eggs and differentiate the big half and little half. Another layer of texture was added to their artwork by dipping the open circular edge of the plastic egg into the glue and stamping it onto their paper. We then sprinkled, shook, and tapped glitter onto the page and the excess into the trash. 

After we create, we always share our art with our friends and compliment each other by using our new vocabulary. This class we got to highlight tracing, paintstrokes, primary and secondary colors, stamping and definition.