Time Off

As most of you know sadly for now I have had to stop Art en Casa as in August me and Jose will be having our first baby. I have greatly enjoyed the last 3 years of meeting many new young artists and forming friendships with their parents. I think of the children often and hope one day soon to start up again. Please feel free to e mail me if you ever need any creative ideas for your little ones.

un beso grande 

Food Art

 Last week we used food to help us get creative. We used fruit and vegetables to make a funny face then used collage to make pieces of fruit to stick into a basket. Next we dyed pasta and cheerios to make necklaces. The children loved to thread on this larger scale much better than the sowing last week. Sadly only a week left before the holidays as most ex-pats head out of Ba for the winter.

Underwater

Underwater madness took place this week. We started off making our very own aquariums by cutting open and painting an old cereal box. We then drew and cut out some fish, hanging them up with some thread. In background we added more fish and on the ground some shells and starfish. I then tried to have the children sow up some 3D fish from 2 pieces of rubber card stuffed with newspaper but this was a disaster as needles kept falling off and many knots formed so in the end we had to give up and just staple them together ! We finished with an underwater collage. 

Life drawing/Famous artists

 Life drawing is the best way to get children to improve their observation and basic art skills. I usually set up 3 or 4 simple objects in the middle of the table and then explain to the children that they must copy what they see being very carful to draw things in proportion to each other, focus on 'size' of each object. Manouk who is a very gifted 5 year old drew a lovely piece which she then painted. After our drawing exercise we looked at famous artists like Van Gogh and had a go painting over a basic photocopy of his work Starry Night.

Faces and Masks

 This last week we looked at making faces. We started off making a small flip book by labeling the different parts of the face on the front cover then on the first page  we made our first face from cutting out different parts  from magazines, on the next page we drew a face with pencil then on the last page we drew another with felt tip pens. To finish the flip book you cut across the face under the eyes and nose so that you can flip the page to match up different face parts. After this we painted a face on a piece of card wrapped in tin foil to create a 'funny face'. We finished off making a festive mask which was printed out and the children just had to decorate with crayon, glitter and shiny paper.

Animal fun

Having 'animals' as a topic always allows many creative activities. We started by matching up flash cards, pictures of animals with their names by sounding out the first few letters. We then went on to use paper bags to make puppet animals from cows, zebras, cats and dogs, whatever the children wanted. Next we used newspaper wrapped in bubble wrap to make funny crocodiles/lizards. Lastly we went back to basics and free drew our own giraffes which we then cut out and stuck on black card adding some fun feathers, beads, seeds and matchsticks.

Getting messy

I came across this picture from last year and thought would be nice to post.

We miss you Fin !

Franca and Lupe naming the different parts of the body using post-its. 

Around the World

Looking at a Map of the world is always a great way to start a class. I love seeing which countries the children can point out and how they are always amazed by how many counties there actually are. After exploring the world map we made our own flags then cut out min flags to stick on a simple map of the world which was printed on A3 for each child. We finished by making paper dolls from China, but sadly ran out of time to make a match stick collage of Big Ben.

Happy Easter

Even though this monday was a holiday 'Malvinas day' we decided to go ahead and have a fun Easter class. We stared off making our own Easter egg baskets by drawing images and patterns with crayons then painting over with water colours. When dry we put green crate paper in the inside and assembled the basket adding a paper handle. Then it was time to make some eggs to go in the basket. On the first eggs while still hot we used crayons so that it would 'melt' on and form a strong colour. On the next we stuck on small stars before leaving the egg to dye in colour. After a few minutes we took it out and peeled off the stars to leave white ones on the egg. We also made Easter cards, with a chick hiding in an egg, which you could open and close using the leaver. We finished off the class with an Easter egg hunt !

Flying high

I had wanted to work with paper mache this week by making Hot air ballons with the children. But after my trial try, the week before I realized how hard and long it takes to actually make a good paper mache craft. I decided this would be too hard for the age I have [ but always fun to do with over 7s'] so went back to researching simpler ways to make a Hot air ballon. I found this great website -

http://www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1047

Which shows you how to make one by covering a ballon with watered down glue, sicking on crate paper and once its dry adding star stickers. Its lots of fun to do and is harder than it looks. An adult will have to add the string and basket at the end.

Still in Ba !

I am happy to say that due to some personal circumstances we have had to delay our move to Brazil which means I am here in Ba for the next few months. I have therefor decided to start up Art en Casa again for the time we are here. I hope you will join us for the start of classes at the end of this month March 26th 2012. Looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.

un beso

Bella