Leaf Glitter

This was a fantastic project!  The kids and I went for several walks in the surrounding neighborhoods for a couple of weeks in the fantastic fall weather.  We gathered leaves of every size, shape, color that we could find and brought it back to our room.
We chose the biggest ones to glue on our paper, then the rest we crunched up and made Leaf Glitter!
The kids then made swirling lines with the glue (with help) around their big leaf and sprinkled on the leaf glitter.  They turned out wonderfully!

Fall Sensory Bin

The kids loved playing around the pumpkins so much in our last project that I made a sensory bin of fall leaves (fake, it was too wet outside for real ones), and pumpkins (gourds) I picked up in the produce section of our grochery store.  This lasted for 3 weeks and I just threw out a pumpkin or 2 a week as they started to go bad.  The kids loved it!  They were able to explore different shapes, weights, textures, all sorts of things.

Art for You Fundraising Project 2012

This is a fundraiser we do every fall.  Each class comes up with a project for their kids to do with certain restrictions (size, craft items allowed, etc), and has all their kids do one.  Then the parents get to order anything from T-shirts to coffee mugs, to tote bags, and so much more with this art image on it.  We send off the orders and a few weeks later (in plenty of time for Christmas gifts!), the items come back and get handed out.  This is what our class chose to do:

While you can't see their faces in the pictures (security reasons), what you are missing is priceless.  The expressions of wonder and ooooooooooo while I'm painting their feet were great!

They each chose the colors they wanted for their hand flowers.

Added names and dates for the finishing touch.  Wonderful project all around!

Free form art time

Some times you just have to pull out random things and let the little ones use their own imagination and see where it takes you.

Mess-less Finger painting

It was 5 senses week at school.  Finger painting is such a great thing for using a lot of the 5 senses, but can get really messy, especially with my age group (toddlers).  So found this great idea instead.  Squirt 2 different color paints into a ziploc bag.  Flatten it and get out as much air as possible when sealing it closed.  Put a white piece of paper on the table, then lay the bag on top and tape to the table.

The kids get to experience the touch of squishy paint, see the mixing colors, and have a blast playing.  I had these ready before they arrived and it really helped in drop off.  Absolutely no tears or reluctant good byes on these days!  The kids played together on some of them too.  Plus, when we had to take them off of the table for lunch time, I just put them up on the wall and they were able to play with them there the rest of the day.

First Day Hand print Poem

I found this poem online and really liked it for our first day of school craft.  At this age I LOVE doing hand print art, as I'm sure you'll notice.  Got a great deal on glitter decorated card stock in the scrapbook area for the backing.  Cut it all to size and Presto!

Play dough squishy balloons

Made these play dough stuffed balloons for the little guys to hold on to and squeeze and play with.  Saw on Pinterest (of course) the great idea of putting little faces on them as well.  It was a little difficult to hold the balloon open with both hands at the same time as trying to put play dough into it, but I managed to get it done with only minimal injuries to myself.  Not only does this help with building the muscles in their hands, will also be bringing these guys out to talk about feelings with the toddlers.  So much easier to have examples for them!

Discovery Jars ("dry")

These have been some of the most popular items in the room so far.  I have these out on the table from the beginning and only put them away when it's time for lunch and nap.  I found the jars at the dollar store near me and filled them with a variety of different objects and things to fill around them.

There are dinosaurs, colored dice, a ball and jacks set, buttons, beads and bells, even just a bag of poms that were special shiny ones.  Some are in beans, some in rice, some just by themselves.  All the lids are super glued shut for safety and I am keeping a close eye on them everyday to make sure no cracks appear (just in case they get dropped on the floor too many times).

Not pictured here are the "wet" ones I also made.  Glitter jars that swirl, beads and sequins and even butterflies that float all around when turned.  Those I'm holding back for now, and will be a floor only jar so less chance of being pushed off the table.  Will post pictures of those when they come out.