Creative Arts - Monday

Nothing like starting off the week with a little art!

My only problem with art projects becomes displaying all the creations Little Miss I makes. I need help from all of you readers. Outside of the classic place of pride  the refrigerator, where do you let your little ones show off their mad artistic skills?  Leave me a comment with ideas for display!

Now, on to today's craft!

Art

PBS Skill Targeted:

Uses art media to manage feelings (e.g., enjoys making holes in clay when frustrated, scribbles on paper and part of the table top when excited).

Uses a variety of art tools to draw, paint, sculpt and make collages, concentrating on the process rather than the product (e.g., scribble paints on butcher paper).

Activity:
Cardboard Tube People

Hats Tipped To:
Fun Family Crafts

Directions:
We've been saving old toilet paper and paper towel tube around here for awhile for some great project, so I was delighted to find this awesome - and kid-fun-friendly- activity. PLUS - using materials that would normally just end up in the garbage can sends great messages to our kids about rediscovery and recycling!

You can find the original tutorial here:

Materials:
Anything and everything! Gather up the odds and ends you have lying around, some googley eyes, craft foam, paper products, and scraps of material are a good place to start.

Using your bar toilet paper tube positioned upright, you will create the body for your cardboard tube people. You can paint the tubes to emulate skin color first if you like, or draw your faces right on the cardboard itself.Wrap the tube in foam, paper or material to create clothing. Create hats and hair from yarn, cotton balls, tape  or leave your tube bald as can be.

The pictures below give you an idea of the possibilities!

Music

PBS Skill Targeted: Enjoys singing aloud (e.g., hums simple tunes, initiates singing with an adult).

Activity:
Old McDonald Had A Farm

Directions:
Does your kiddo have a MILLION stuffed animals? Mine does.

Round up some of the stuffed animals today to use as props when singing Old McDonald.

These are some of Miss I's animals that we plan to use today.

Sing Old McDonald, but instead of saying the name of the animal in each verse, hold up a stuffed animal and let your child identify it.

Mamma: "Old McDonald had a farm, E I E I O. And on that farm he had a ___( hold up as snake)____
Kiddo: "Snake!"
Mamma: "E I E I O With a sssssss here and a sssssss there..."

You get the idea, while making the animal sound you can tickle your singing partners with the animal, or pass the stuffed animal back and forth.

Movement

PBS Skill Targeted:  Responds with body movements to changes in music's tempo, loudness, and style (e.g., starts flapping arms and stomping feet as music increases in loudness and pace).

Activity:
See Me Run

Directions:
This activity suggestion is also a bit o a product plug. We love music in this house and own lots of toddle friendly CD's, but the See Me Sing collection by Brite is my hand-down-favorite. Trouble is that it is a bugger to find!

The collection has lots of great songs that promote learning and movement.  Our favorite is Watch Me Sing Volume 1

Miss I's favorite right now is See Me Run -really, we do this multiple times a day. I love it because she loves it (k, so I also love it because it really wears her out and promises an awesome afternoon nap)

Check out this YouTube video posted by another mom whose kiddos love this collection.

  You can also preview the other songs on the collection visiting this site. If you like what you hear and think it might resonate with your child and get them moving and dancing, you can purchase the MP3 download of the collection for approximately 10 dollars. In my opinion? Completely worth it.