Primary Colors

For the first time I tried to pull off an "art group" like what the Artful Parent does and I think it was successful...at least in the sense that no blood was shed the children had a good time.

A friend of mine has 5 children (ages 1-7). The 7 yr. old was in school, so the other 4 came to do art with Mr. Intensity.

I met the children at the door with my apron on to help them realize that they'd come to learn, not just play. I welcomed them to an "art class" and asked for them to sit on the couch and use their best listening ears.

I introduced the primary colors first using colored water then combining colors to make the secondary colors.

Then we went to the table where I gave them blobs of play-doh to squish into secondary colors. I made the paint bags the night before and didn't think the colors blended well enough. Fortunately we had the right color play-doh so we used it.

The objective of the day was to simulate this project: A few minutes into painting, I realized that it was a bit over their heads. Lucas (in orange) would have been able to recreate it but the others didn't get it. And I'm OK with that.
They painted first on regular computer paper then I showed them the canvas. They were totally stoked about the canvas. "Can we hang it in our room?!" Don't tell the kids but I bought the canvas at Big Lots for $3/each.

On the left is Destany. Mr. Intensity is on the right, both working on their canvas.

Mya concentrated so well.

Lucas, though, won the concentration award. This boy is good with details!

Even Keandre got in on the fun. He chose to fingerpaint instead of using a brush.

Here's Mr. Intensity's finished project. We'll be bamming a nail tonight!

After the art session, the children made slushees. Well, we tried.

I had prepared sandwich zip-lock bags with about 3/4 c. of juice and nested that bag in a quart sized freezer bag with ice & rock salt. The idea was to squish it around for 3-5 minutes until the consistency of a slushee.

Mr. Intensity began to juggle then throw his across the room. He wasn't trying to be mean - just all boy. Next thing I know 3 of the children's bags are dripping b.c the ice punctured the bag(s). It was a mess.

I should have known better - to make them sit still and squish. But they had done so well at listening and obeying that I didn't want to squelch the silliness. It never dawned on me that the bags would break. Oh well.

The best part was they all had good attitudes about the foiled experiment. They loved the painting. Makes me want to try art group again.