stART- Coffee Filter Butterflies

A story + Art = A great stART!!!

To celebrate the start of spring we read some Butterfly books...(unfortunately the weather did not get the memo...and actually snowed here in NY )... This week one of the Butterfly books we read was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle... the caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly...

For this weeks project, I had both classes make Coffee Filter Butterflies.... We have done coffee filter crafts quite a bit and I love how fun they are! The kids colored with WASHABLE markers on the white coffee filters, then they sprayed (misted) them to make the colors run... When the filters where mostly dried we gently folded them and put the clothespin and pipe-cleaner on them...

The Tot School Beginnings kids seemed to enjoy the project...but the Preschoolers really liked it and loved flying around the room with them after class..

Braeden coloring his coffee filter...

After they finished coloring, they liked using the spray bottle to mist them...

Braeden misting his project...

Braeden with his finished Butterfly...

The girls coloring their filters...

Ryleigh starting to mist her project... you can see from the picture how the markers look before they got wet....

After the colors started to run...

Ready to attach her clothespin and pipe-cleaner....

The girls' finished butterflies...* I have been nominated for Babbles Top 50 Mom Blogs...if you get a chance please vote for me...I am currently #83....

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

stART- Little Cloud by Eric Carle

A Story + Art = A great stART!

This week we read The Little Cloud by Eric Carle. In it the Little Cloud separates from the bigger clouds and takes on many shapes (an airplane, a rabbit, etc.). Fear not...it goes back with the bigger clouds at the end... For our project this week, I had the girls paint clouds (or the appearance of) outdoors on packing paper. They painted the colors with paintbrushes and sponges. Then they used bubble wrap to paint with white...to make cloud shapes... The different textures added to the depth of the painting...and they each had fun with the bubble wrap...

Painting with some colors...

Laying the bubble wrap down...

Lifting it up...

The finished project.... what do you think the cloud looks like?
I think it looks like the Letter Y.

For more great stART projects check out A Mommy's Adventures

stART - The Very Lonely Firefly

A story + Art = A great stART!!!

For this week's project we read The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle and did A shape Firefly.... I thought it would be great color/shape/follow directions review as well as a cute project.... Ryleigh's favorite part of the story is the end...where the fireflies all light up...

The Firefly is made up entirely by shapes of different color: Hearts, Oval, Circles, Rectangles, Triangle, Stars...I chose different colors to represent the color style found in most Eric Carle books....

Putting on the wings...(small hearts ontop of bigger hearts)...
Putting on the body (oval)...

Putting on the light-up part..(triangle)...
I had them also add a yellow circle sticker for the actual light...

Putting on the eyes (circles)...

Putting the felt legs on (rectangles)...

Putting on stars...because fireflies are out at night...

Our finished firefly...

For other great stART projects check out A Mommy's Adventures!
Also linking up to

stART- The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A Story + Art = A Great stART!

This week we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. In it the Caterpillar eats and eats until he is no longer hungry...and then becomes a beautiful butterfly. For our art project we did foot print butterflies. I have seen them on many blogs and loving hand and foot prints the way I do...it was only a matter of time....

Ryleigh LOVED this project...and Braeden did his very first stART project...he was less then thrilled...but now we have a cute baby feet butterfly... I did the ART part of the stART project while some of the girls were over for "school"/"playing projects"...anyway...we are having a small problem loading my pictures onto the computer so Michelle was nice enough to send me a finished picture that she took so I could put the post up for Thursday.....Thanks Michelle!!!

Ryleigh's Butterfly is in Yellow and Braeden's is in Blue
Ryleigh 35 3/4 Months...Braeden 8 1/2 Months...

For more great stART projects check out A Mommy's Adventures!

stART - 10 Little Rubber Ducks

A story + Art = a great stART!

This week for our stART project, we read 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle and did Duck Prints. The story is about 10 Rubber Ducks who accidentally get tossed into the ocean during shipment...and about the adventures they each have. Ryleigh LOVES this book...mainly because she loves rubber ducks...we have lots floating around the house...all sizes, colors and themes.... Anyway....I had Ryleigh paint the ducks different colors and use them as stamps....she enjoyed the project...

Ryleigh painting the bottom of the duck

The finished picture...including the ducks...(she said that they are parked)...

**edited to add that clean up is a breeze....we used washable paint so no duckies were permanently painted for the making of this project!

For more great stART projects go to A Mommy's Adventures

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!