Easy Crows for Fall

Working with threes can always be a challenge. I have a 30 minute time slot to do art each week with the three year old classes.  I am usually by myself and I like projects that can be completed in one session.  A couple of weeks before we did scarecrow faces with paper plates.  This week we made crows out of construction paper. I cut the crows body by making a 5 inch black circle and the head was a two inch black circle. I cut the wings from black construction paper and the beaks and feet from yellow.  I do not use a template as I like the small differences that come from free handing with the scissors. It causes the crows take on different personalities.  I gave the kids the large black circle with a black crayon and a purple crayon. They colored the black construction paper so their birds had a shiny waxy look. I told them that crow feathers have touches of purple when the light shines on them.  They glued on the head and the wings. Then they glued on googly eyes, the beak and the feet.  We  talked about crows and we practiced the  cawing sound of a crow.  We also watched a short video of the Scottish children's song,  The Three Crows. We acted out Five Little Crows on the Scarecrows Nose.  I left out parts purposely so that they will fill in the words in the finger play.

Spiders for the Threes

 Materials:

small paper plate

black construction legs (8 per spider)

googly eyes

small black construction paper head (one per spider) 1 1/2 diameter

crayons mulicolored

black tempura paint

brushes

glue

white yarn

Have students color in any way they desire on top of paper plate.  Bright colors work best. Paint top of construction plate with black paint and set aside. 

Let dry for a few minutes.

Give each student 8 legs and a head, a piece of yarn and two googly eyes. 

Glue yarn at top of spider and put head on top of the end of the yarn.  Add the googly eyes.

Glue on legs, four to a side. They look better if the end of legs touch or are closer together.  

Dry and hang up.

String Art

 

Dip small pieces yarn or string into tempura paint and lay them onto the paper. Do this with multiple colors and then place a piece of paper on top of the yarn and press down to create a print. Multiple prints can be made if desired.  Experiment with different colors. This is a great for process art.  These pictures look nice matted on colored construction paper.  

Fall Trees with Painted Papers

 

Cut out a brown paper tree trunk shape and add brown crayon for texture. Add blue paint to 3/4 of the top of the paper with two fingers. Add green and yellow paint to the bottom part of the paper.  With your fingers pull the green and yellow paint to create the illusion of grass.  Glue down your trunk. Wad small squares of yellow, orange, red and brown paper and then glue them to the top of the tree.  Then wad squares of painted paper and glue onto your fall tree.  Wadding the paper is great for muscle development in the young child.

I had painted paper that I prepped ahead of time. The students could make their own painted paper to use.  

Extra activities could include reading books or poems about fall.  Also the kids enjoy this song about the seasons. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-zOCgn5CyA  

Painted paper feathers for Mr. Tom Turkey

 I save background paper that I have used to keep water color off of the table.  I also save unfinished art work, and sometimes I make painted paper using leftover paint.  These were used to cut out the turkey feathers prior to art class.  For the turkeys we drew a large circle and then a small circle for the head. They add two eyes and a beak and legs. The turkeys were colored with crayon and yellow could be added for straw at the turkey's feet.  Next they chose feathers and glued them on the turkey.

Preschool Pumpkin Art

For this project we took a paper plate and colored heavily with yellow orange and green in any random spot that the threes chose to color.  Next we added orange, yellow and a dab of red paint that they spread with two fingers.  Then we added a green construction leaf that I hand cut and a brown construction stem. They dabbed green paint on the leaf.  Last with my help we made the ridges on the pumpkins using the eraser end of a pencil.  

We discussed real pumpkins and the basic shape of a pumpkin.  This is a good art project to do after you have cut open a pumpkin for examination.  
 

Andy Warhol for Preschoolers

I introduced Andy Warhol to the four year old students by showing some them first a picture of Andy Warhol and then introducing some of his art work. I lightly explained that his style of art was pop art.   We also watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKXEYTmIHU4

about the cats that Andy and his mom made into a book.  We also watched the story about Andy Warhol that was written by his nephew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMDQaD8uNGQ&t=39s

For this project I folded the paper into 1/4's and then the kids drew lines on the fold.  Next we painted each rectangle a different color using tempera paint.   After that we painted our hands a contrasting color and made a handprint on each of the rectangles of color. Last we painted our hands black and popped a handprint on top of the brightly colored one.