New and Improved Art Bots

After making some modifications to their original Art Bots, the boys came up with a design that fixes the two biggest flaws.

The first big flaw was that the wires would get tangled in the “feet” of our bot causing it to tip over. Oh, the frustration. We tried tape and rubber bands with minimal success. In the new design, you just stuff all of the battery pack and wires into the cup and problem solved!

The second problem was the stability. The markers are easier to tape onto the container than they are to foam. The design also allows for enough wiggle to make the bot fun, but not so much that it falls. You can see that we needed to add a popsicle stick to support the motor.

I would love to see any variations your kiddos come up with!

If you haven’t already, you should absolutely sign up for Supercharged Science’s mailing list for all sorts of FREE instructional videos. I have never gotten an email from Aurora that was junk, they truly are an awesome company with a great philosophy….no pressure to buy anything…e.v.e.r. All Aurora's videos have useful information and great video links to make cool projects like this!

We are linked up to Adventures in Mommydom Science Sunday!

Artist Study–Pablo Picasso

Our version of Picasso’s Hands with Flowers.

1. Trace hands with pencil on heavy paper. We use Canson’s “Biggie” Paper
2. Outline the hands with a sharpie. (We actually didn’t do this and I wish I had.)
3. Paint hands. I let the kids mix a tiny bit or orange with white until they had a color they liked.
4. Cut out the hands.
5. Paint flowers on another sheet of heavy paper.
6. Glue the hands over the flowers. We covered ours with Modge Podge too.

We linked up Jolanthe's Preschool Corner!

Want a Project that Will Keep the Kids Busy for Hours? Giant Paper Mache Dragons!

Isn’t he cute?

We recently moved to an old Victorian house that our kids nicknamed the “castle”.  (Psst.  Don’t tell them it isn’t a real castle, the WILL argue with you.)  Dylan decided we should make an enormous dragon so that its head was sticking out of the top story and into the house and his tail was wrapped around the outside.  While I think that is a fabulous idea, my husband didn’t agree and so we came up with Fred. 

The idea was inspired by Gourmet Paper Mache’s incredible paper mache art.  This guy is AMAZING, a true artist.  The boys have watched all of his videos countless times.

Creating the dragon was easy and almost 100% kid made.  I did interfere once and poor Fred now has six legs because of it!  Guess I should have listened to the 6 year old.  Oops.

Supplies needed:

• Tomato Cage
• Plastic grocery bags (or any other materials you wish to recycle
• Masking tape, LOTS of masking tape
• Paper for the outside.  We reused the craft paper from our move, but paper grocery bags or “craft” paper would work just as well.
• Elmer’s Paper Mache Paste.  I don’t mess with that flour/water stuff….too messy for me.

Step 1:  Flip the tomato cage upside down.

Step 2:  Fill plastic bags with paper (or other plastic bags) and tape them together to form the bulk of the body.  It doesn’t need to be perfect at this point.  Just get it on there.

Step 3: Add paper and tape and then MORE paper and tape and even MORE paper and tape until you start to create a shape you like.  Honestly, I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to stay our of the way and let the kids have at it.  I just kept taking biting my tongue and drinking Chai Tea and it turned out fabulous…even without my “help.”  Dylan is my little perfectionist and kept putting on more layers until he thought it was just  right.

Step 4:   Paper Mache.  We use Elmer’s Paper Mache Paste for all of our paper mache.  I just can’t deal with the goopy, powdery mess flour makes.  Elmer’s Paper Mache Paste is cheap, can be stored for future use and is WAY cleaner.

Step 5: Paint.  Acrylics (yes, the paints that stain clothes) are the best.  Otherwise, you’ll need to cover your finished creation with Modge Podge.

Have Fun!  We are already starting to plan our next project!

Art roBots!

Science + Art = BIG fun!
These wiggling, jiggling robots have been a HUGE hit at our house this week.

Making an Art Bot is super simple!

You'll need:
1 clothes pin
1 1.5-3 V DC motor (these can be found at Radio Shack for about 3 bucks)
1 Old plastic cup (the kind they put drinks in at a restaurant) or a Foam block
1 Battery pack that holds 2 AA batteries
2 AA batteries
2 Alligator clips with wires
some old markers
Hot glue gun
Tape

Step 1: Hot Glue the clothes pin to the motor. Make certain not to glue the shaft to the motor case. Just give the shaft a turn or two while the glue is drying and it should be good.

Close up of the clothes pin attached to the motor shaft.

Step 2: Glue the motor and battery case to the foam block or top of the plastic cup. Once you get your Art Bot all set up, you may want to change the positions of these. No problem, rip them off and move them around!

Here you can see how the entire top of the bot is put together.

Step 3: Connect one side of one battery case to the motor and then connect the other side to the battery case wires. Repeat on the other side. This is a good time to pop the batteries in and see if your bot works!
Step 4: Attach the pens. We used tape so the boys could easily change them around, but you could use hot glue or simply just shove them in the foam.
Step 5: Lay out a big sheet of paper and let your Art Bots go free!

Check out more art bots on Kathy's website.

Old Claypots, Meet Old Craypas

I wanted to use up the last Craypas in order to justify opening our shiny new craypas that I bought at ICHE.

Decorating clay pots with craypas or oil pastels is awesome! The colors stay bright even through rain (and snow).

Thanks Aunt Teri!

We love Aunt Teri, she always gets the greatest presents. (Of course, we love her for other reasons too!) She gave Nathan sock puppets for his birthday. We were supposed to make sock puppets when we were doing our unit study on, "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", but we never got around to it. So THANKS Aunt Teri for hooking us up.
The boys took their sock puppets EVERYWHERE (even digging in the dirt) this week. I think next week we are going to do, "A day in the life of" with our sock puppets.

Blue = Yellow = Green

It didn't work out how I had planned, but they got the idea.

(Really, we do get out of our PJs)

More from Art School

Hermit Crab

Timmy the Turtle

Humpback Whale
Tiger Fish

Brother Robots

Robots have been very in style around here lately. We made this version out of left over Christmas boxes. I drew and cut the shapes and then left the boys paint on glue and glitter. DMan found all of the eyes and buttons from our art junk box. I got this idea from Allie and she used magnets so her children could mix and match the parts. Great idea, but I couldn't find any extra magnets so I just used brads for the arms and legs. I think they are pretty cute!

Wax Resist Painting

I have been meaning to try this for some time now. You need paper, water colors (water and food coloring works too), a white wax candle, and a paint brush.

First, rub the candle on the paper and then paint with the water color.

It's a pretty cool effect..... Dylan got frustrated right away. In hindsight, I should have used a white crayon rather than a wax candle since the candle was too awkward to hold. He ended up writing "zoo" with the candle and just using it at the top of his picture. Then he just went on drawing.....

Nathan gave the candle a try, but then decided to make "Monster Houses" instead.

I am going to try this again with crayon and write secret messages to the boys. I think that will be a big hit.

Foil Christmas Balls

I got this idea for Christmas ornaments from my PMOMS friend, Kathy. She has awesome art ideas for the prek crowd. Nathan especially loved this.

We wrapped foil into balls and around pipe cleaners.

We painted our balls and sprinkled them with glitter. I think these are the prettiest decorations that we made this year!

Did I Mention that I LOVE Dylan's Art Class?

I know I have, but really, it is AWESOME! This past Fall Dylan took LiterARTure. Every week the teacher reads a book and then the class creates art based on that book. Very cool. Next week he is going to start a new class called Coral Reef Art Exploration. I am so excited to get back into a routine and he truly misses art school.

Here are some pics from the Fall. The first one, he did a week after his 4th birthday. I think is is amazing, although I am a bit biased.