stART - The Great Big Pumpkin

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!

For our story this week, we read Care Bears, The Great Big Pumpkin....I pretty much LOVE all that is Care Bear...so obviously I thought this book was adorable.... The Care Bears get ready for a Halloween party by getting their costumes ready (three of them go as stars) and picking out their pumpkins....For our project this week, we made magically appearing pumpkins... With white crayon I drew a jack-o-lantern on each of the girl's paper. (Without telling them what was on them)... Then they used watercolor to paint the paper and reveal the surprise... I have done this project (well similar- not with pumpkins) a few times and Ryleigh loves finding out what the picture is...

Ryleigh starting to watercolor...it was here that she decided it was a pumpkin....even though you can't actually see it yet...

Midway through the project... with a little brush it takes awhile...

The finished pumpkins... Ryleigh's is on the bottom...

*The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM is now on facebook---I would love it if you became a "fan"....

For more great stART posts check out A Mommy's Adventures!
For more fun projects check out My Delicious Ambiguity , ABC and 123... and JDaniel4's Mom

stART- Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

A Story + Art = a great stART!!!For our story this week we read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert... in which they plant many different flowers (and plants) that make up the colors of the rainbow. The book starts with seeds and ends with a beautiful garden rainbow. Ryleigh loves rainbows....so this book was an instant hit with her.

For our project I had the girls use star stickers of many different colors to represent the "seeds" of the garden/rainbow. Then they used watercolors to make the garden grow. At the end they had beautiful rainbow gardens (pictures)...

Ryleigh peeling the stickers off (a great fine motor activity)

Starting to paint her garden...

She was very meticulous and made sure that she painted all of the stars....

Ryleigh has been practicing writing her letters lately...
if you look closely you will see a "H" at the top of her painting...

The finished painting...a rainbow of colors...

For more great stART projects check out A Mommys Adventures!

For more toddler activities visit

stART - The Very Quiet Cricket

A Story + Art = A great stART!

The Very Quiet Cricket is written by Eric Carle. It is about a cricket who is born (hatched..or whathaveyou...) without being able to make a sound...he meets many creatures along his journeys...until he meets another cricket...then there is chirping... Ryleigh was not so into the story itself...but did like the illustrations.

For our stART project this week, Ryleigh painted with water color and then added sea salt...to create a unique pattern....as the pictures in the story are also uniquely patterned. As the sea salt dried the water color...it removed the color and created a very pretty pattern...and I am in no way biased....well....maybe a little;)

Ryleigh painting

Sea salt being added

Sea salt starting to dry with the painting...

The finished project....the salt created the white in the painting...

For more great stART projects visit A Mommy's Adventures!