~In memory of Great Nana Lollback~
Following a death in the family, Maddie and I wanted to create something special in their memory as a gift. Instead of a bunch of flowers that would die we decided to paint some of their favourite flowers that would bloom forever instead.
Creating Art together was a special bonding time and allowed us to talk about any thoughts or feelings.
Ages: 3+
(See Handy Tips at the bottom for ideas to extend or simplify for your child)
Materials: Canvas, Watercolour Paints (we used Micador Watercolours), permanent marker, water, dropper (or whatever you'd like to paint with)
Draw your design on your canvas with the permanent marker.
(I drew the rose and Maddie drew hearts all around it)
Using the dropper to add water to the watercolour paints
Marvelling at the colour separating
Ready to paint side-by-side.
Practicing fine motor skills and coordination adding small amount of liquid colour onto the canvas.
It takes coordination and control to get small amount of the desired colours
The colours mixed forming new colours as they ran into one another
It took a lot of control for her to keep the colours inside the lines using the dropper to spread the colour to the edges.
We have the best conversations when we're working creatively side-by-side
The cool thing about using a dropper is that if you over flood the area you can suck some of the colour back up.
We finished our paintings but Maddie decided that they seemed unfinished on the white background
We decided upon a blue background and using a wide sponge brush to sweep it on.
It is tricky to add the background in at the end. Next time we will paint a background on first.
Dried and ready to be wrapped. We wrote special messages on the back of the canvases first.
Handy Tips:
- Simplify this activity by using a brush or cotton bud to apply the water colour paint and use a simple design on the canvas.
- Extend this activity by having the child draw their design first and allow them to play around with different methods of applying the watercolour paint
- Good to Know. Canvas did not absorb the watercolour liquid so if you use a lot of liquid they will take quite some time to dry. The great thing about using watercolours is that you can clean away any mistakes with water. Next time we paint with these materials we will be using cotton buds to apply the paint instead of droppers which were a little fiddly.
- Talk with your child about what they are doing. This will help them understand the physical and mental processes they are going through as well as giving them the vocabulary to describe it. It is also a great time to talk with children about sensitive issues and their feelings.
- Use new language and descriptive words like, "flood", "apply", "spread" "absorb" etc. This will help with their language development.
- Still feeling creative? Here are some of our other arty ideas for kids.
(click on the pictures to go to the post)
- Still feeling creative? Here are some of our other arty ideas for kids.
(click on the pictures to go to the post)
Happy creating,
Debs :)
Look where else we are. Are you following along? :)
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