Sand Art

This is just a quick post to share our last Desert theme art project. It's nothing that hasn't been done before. I put out glue bottles and bowls of colored sand. The kids could make designs with the glue and then sprinkle the sand on top. Then they had to quickly shake off the extra sand. If they took too long, the glue would drip down the paper! Although, that can look cool, too. The picture below is of a cactus in the desert. Even though I never said they had to make something that went with the theme, I sure love it when they do!

Tomorrow is my first day at my new center. I am so excited!!

Desert Sunsets

A few days ago we did a project involving coffee filters. Instead of coloring them with markers and spraying with water, we used droppers and colored water. To make a sunset sky, we used red and yellow water. The kids picked up some water in the dropper and slowly squirted it onto their coffee filter.

It's a good idea to put construction paper under the coffee filter to absorb the water. Otherwise you'd have a huge mess. Once the kids filled up their coffee filter completely, we let them dry. Then I cut off about an inch from the bottom so it would be flat. And I also glued it to white paper. It made the colors brighter than when the coffee filter was by itself. After nap, the kids added cacti and a "ground" that I had cut from black construction paper.

They turned out so pretty because in some spots the red and yellow mixed and made orange. And no two sunsets were alike.

Last year we did this for our Wild West theme, so I had also cut out cowboys and horses!

What a lot of work that was! If you have a Cricut machine, then it would be a breeze. But all I have is my scissors, so I kept it simple this year.

Side note: I think I must have put in a lot more food coloring last year and that's why the Wild West one is so bright. So I guess if you want it extra bright, use lots and lots of food coloring!

Alice the Camel Puppets

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I've been busy getting ready for my last day, which was today. It was hard to say goodbye to the kids and my co-teacher! But now I'm back with a bunch of art projects for my Desert theme and I will share them with you over the next couple of days.

First we learned all about camels. Then we made camel puppets! This puppet craft took me a whole week to figure out. I knew what I wanted to do, it just took a few trial-and-errors to get it right. First I drew a camel without the humps. I separated it into two parts: the head and front legs, and the tail and back legs. For the middle, I folded a brown rectangle accordion-style.

The X's are where the kids attached the rectangle with glue. Then they could decorate humps any way they wanted. They glued 2 of the humps on, one toward the front and one toward the back. The third hump was for the middle, but it needed to be detachable. So I used some yarn and taped it on. Then I added a tiny bit of poster putty.

I also attached jumbo craft sticks to the legs for handles.
Now here is our Alice the Camel story:

Alice the camel has 3 humps.

Alice the camel has 3 humps.

Alice the camel has 3 humps.

Go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has 2 humps...

Alice the camel has 1 hump...

Alice the camel has no humps...

'Cause Alice is a horse, of course!

Doesn't my helper have on a beautiful dress? Oh, I miss her already!

Anyway, this is what the back looks like when Alice only has two humps:

You use the poster putty to stick it to the back and it's out of sight. To go from two humps to one, you just move the craft sticks closer together and the middle rectangle folds up. And, well, you have to bend down the humps to go from one to none. Anyone have a better idea? I think if I do this again, I will make the camel on white paper and the kids can color that as well, instead of just the humps.

Another quick camel art project we did involved sand. I put out two pictures of camels, one with one hump and one with two humps. After the kids colored them, they painted a mixture of glue and water on the bottom of the paper. Then they sprinkled sand onto it.

Fun Fact: A camel's hump stores FAT, not water!

Prickly Cacti

Before I show you today's art project, I have some news to share. This is my last week with my Pre-K class. Yes, I am leaving. I have a good reason, though. I currently work 20 miles from home and the commute has gotten to be too much. Especially in the winter. So when a pre-k position opened up at a center 5 minutes from my house, I took it. I will still be doing the same things and hope to continue my blog, but two things will be different. I won't have a co-teacher, which means I'll have a new theme for you every week instead of every other. And the themes are center-wide and chosen by the administrator. She is open to new ideas, so I'm hoping I'll still be able to do the themes I love. I am excited for this change, but sad to be leaving my class. It's at a good time, though. Most of them will be leaving for kindergarten in a couple weeks.

But back to the blog. Today we started our Desert theme. I taught the kids about the Saguaro cactus and then we headed to the art table to make our own.

I drew a cactus on a piece of paper and put out some crayons. I knew I wanted a bumpy texture for the sand and cactus, but I didn't have any sand paper. Then I noticed our walls are textured! So I let the kids color on the walls!

Ooh, they loved doing that! They could also color other things in the background. Then I put forks in green paint and they pressed the forks onto the cactus. I also printed out an actual picture of a flower that grows on Saguaro cacti and each child glued one onto their picture.

We had colorful cacti, as well.

Fun Fact: It takes 60-75 years for the Saguaro cactus to grow its first arm. A cactus that has 5 arms is about 150 years old! Oh, and those white flowers? They bloom at night and last less than 24 hours.