After our book, I gave each child a piece of canvas and asked them to draw their own cloud. This was a great starter drawing task for preschoolers because a cloud shape is open to interpretation. As long as the line gets closed into a shape, their cloud can look like anything. There was no "right way."

We took our cloud drawings to the table and flipped them over, so we were working on the opposite side of the canvas. Students were given oil pastels and encouraged to add lots of color. We talked about how clouds can be many colors and we can use our imagination to create a cloud of our own.

To add another layer of interest, we then added tempera paint on top of the oil pastels, and then glitter of course, because every class loves glitter.

If I were doing this project with older children, I would have them cut out their cloud shapes themselves. But because many of our Mini Makers were new to scissors, and our material was very tough to cut, I cut the clouds for them, trying to stay as true to the shape they drew as I could. To cut out the clouds, I folded the fabric in half so that each child had two identical pieces of cloud that could then be stapled together and stuffed. I stapled half of the cloud together and left the other half ready for them to stuff.

When students arrived for the next class, they selected ribbons they wished to add to their cloud. We imagined whether rain, snow, or rainbows might be falling from then clouds. Mini maker added their ribbon to tape and their adult helper hot glued the tape strip inside their cloud. Then students stuffed their cloud and worked with their adult to staple it closed. 

It was such a busy class, I completely forgot to take pictures. One parent was kind enough to share a picture of their finished cloud at home. Even though we were all making clouds, there was a huge variety, as if each cloud created its very own weather.

Our first project explored who we are within our immediate community. Preschool drawings of families have to be one of my favorite things. I love how some people are big and others are very small and have no arms. I love how the pictures don't really match reality but represent a young person's worldview. I wanted to capture these whimsical drawings in a way that could be proudly displayed.

We started the background of this project on Day One of the workshop, using an open-ended process I've done many times before. Mini makers were given small canvases, squares of bleeding tissue paper, water, and brushes. When Mini Makers placed the tissue paper on their canvas and brushed over it with water, the color would bleed and transfer onto the canvas. At this point, we put the canvases aside to dry.

On Day Two, Mini Makers used sharpies on top of the dry canvas to draw their families. We talked about how families can look very different from each other. We read 'The Family Book' by Todd Parr to launch this discussion.

After the family pictures were drawn, I put out sequins for the kids to add a little pizzaz to their portraits.

Our second project explored our inside-self. On Day One, I gave the kids paper and crayons and asked them to fill their paper with shapes and colors of their imagination. If I asked an adult to do this, they would definitely over think it. But Mini Makers took the prompt and immediately got to work.

While Mini Makers were working with the crayons, I put the adults to work interviewing their kiddo. Kids were asked a variety of questions about their interests and opinions.

Before kids left on Day One, I made sure to snap a few pictures of each kid on their way out the door.

Our third project engaged Mini Makers to examine the details that make up their faces. We started with a template of a head and shoulders. I put out paint in a variety of skin colors and asked the kids to explore and find the shade that worked for them. I encouraged them to actually put some of the paint on their skin to compare. When they were satisfied with the paint color, they painted the template. We put these aside to dry.

On this same day, Mini Makers also painted a background for their self-portrait using any color that appealed to them.

On Day Two, Mini Makers glued their naked person onto their dry background. Using a variety of collage materials, they got creative with how to build facial features, add clothes, and represent hair.

Some of the kids asked if they could use colors that were different from their own hair or eyes. I encouraged them to create themselves in anyway they pleased. Artists often use self-portraits as a way of expressing various aspects of themselves and their identities beyond the surface of their physical appearance. ​

Once self-portraits were complete, it was time to add the portrait to a shadow box. I had prepared the shadow boxes ahead of time, using cereal boxes and a white paint primer. I thought the portraits looked very polished with the crisp white of the shadow box. But for additional self-expression, I gave early finishers the option of decorating the box with quick-drying tempera paint sticks.

These self-portraits were so beautiful and a great snap-shot of a moment in time.

While I wanted kids to feel free to create in a way that feels good to them, preschoolers tend to go overboard when given free rein of too many options.  Like when they have all the paint colors and it just becomes brown. With this in mind, I built lots of layers into my lesson plan so that there were natural stopping points and there was no need to verbally limit.

For our 'Cardboard Shape Collage,' we worked on each layer separately. On Day One, Mini Makers worked as a collective to paint variously shaped cardboard scraps. Students were allowed to paint the scraps any color they wanted. I only asked that they try to paint the entire shape. We did not try to keep track of who's shape was who's. I wanted to kids to be able to freely pick through the shapes when they were dry.

At another station on Day One, Mini Makers worked on the background for their 'Cardboard Shape Collage.' I wanted to give them an opportunity to try out a new technique, so for our background, we did scrape painting. The kids used spoons to make blobs of paint on their cardboard. Then they used a smaller piece of cardboard to scrape the paint across the board. Students could choose to scrape again using the paint they still had on their scraper, or wipe the scraper clean and add more blobs. I again encouraged the kids to completely fill their background with scraped paint.

On Day Two, when kids arrived, I had the dry cardboard shapes out on the table - ready for another layer. I demonstrated on the board how to make some simple patterns. I encouraged students to draw lines, dots, or simple patterns on top of the dry paint using metallic sharpie markers. When kids were done, they could choose any shapes that appealed to them and glue the shapes to their dried scrape painted background. 

Our second project, an 'Abstract on Canvas,' started with Modge Podge and crepe paper. On Day One of the workshop, Mini Makers were invited to freely glue crepe paper on a canvas. Because of the linear nature of crepe paper, this project led to a discussion of 'line.' Which way do lines travel? Do they go up and down? Can they go sideways? Can they go in a few different directions? Do they have to be straight?

I encouraged kids to glue both underneath their crepe paper and on top of their crepe paper. This really sealed the crepe paper onto the canvas.

The dried crepe paper created a really nice texture on the canvas. On Day Two, students were invited to add glitter glue, sequins, and tissue paper in any way that appealed to them.

When I was brainstorming our third project, months before the workshop, I couldn't get the idea of melting crayons out of my head. I think it's because I had cleaned out my own kid's art station at home and was wondering what projects I could do with a bunch of crayon nubs.

Most crayon melting projects I found online involved an oven, which wasn't going to work at the studio. I thought about my embossing gun, which is a tool used to melt a special kind of glitter. It's bit like a hair dryer, but blows less air, so as not to disturb what it is melting. I got to thinking, "What if I grated crayon really small and we melted these small bits?" When I tested it I thought, "This looks very galactic." And the project started forming from there.

On Day Two of our workshop, I gave each child paint within a pallete of space colors. Students used a sponge to apply the paint. This gave the painting a nice, soft texture. It also blended the colors really well.

Once the whole page was covered in paint, the kids were ready for the crayon. It didn't matter that the paint was still wet. In fact, the wet paint actually helped the crayon stick to the paper instead on blowing away.

Before class, I grated the crayons and sorted them by color it in little plastic cups. Mini Makers simply grabbed pinches of crayon and sprinkled it all over their paper. Once satisfied, they were able to use the embossing gun to slowly melt the crayon bits into what looks like stars and star dust.
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It was a super fun process and I'm sure to repeat this technique in the future!

Our two-day abstract art workshop was a hit. Mini Makers were invited to follow their creative intuition, rather than attempt a recognizable reality. A lot was gained from this workshop beyond just their beautiful work. Playing with the idea of abstract allowed Mini Makers to explore, learn, and grow in imagination.

​To begin, I asked students to limit themselves to either cool colors or warm colors. For our first layer, I asked them to make any shapes they please, but to make sure the shapes do not overlap. We talked about how a shape can be geometric or organic. It was up to them what type of shapes they used.

​Students were asked to paint the smaller piece of cardboard using the opposite color pallet.

​On day two of our workshop, the paintings were dry and ready for another layer. When students arrived, we talked about pattern. I gave each student a template sheet of various patterns they could try. Using metallic gold and silver markers, students added a variety of patterns within the shapes on their background.

Some early finishers decided to use ribbon and yarn to embellish their work. I loved how one student used the yarn to sew additional lines to both the background and foreground.

To finish our abstract workshop, I wanted the kids to play with a new technique - scrape painting. In our last minutes of class, we used a cardboard scaper to drag dots of paint across the page. I encouraged kids to experiment with placement of dots, angle of the scraper, and direction of movement.

The scrape paintings were so beautiful! Students left the abstract workshop with huge smiles and a confidence in their creative abilities.

​Our Mini Makers “Super Sticky” 2-Day workshop was every bit as fun as I dreamed. This workshop mulled around in my brain for a while before it became a reality. I was inspired by the book ‘Too Much Glue’ by Jason Lefebvre, as well as my years of experience watching preschoolers use glue. I wanted to give our Mini Makers the opportunity to play and experiment with glue, showcasing it as its own form of media.

Before we began, we talked about how oil and water can't stand to be around each other. What better way to understand that than to actually put them together. First, students used a dropper to drip vegetable oil onto a piece of watercolor paper. 

Now having a foundational understanding that oil and water don't mix, kids created a picture with oil pastels and then painted over it with watercolors. Like scientists, I asked them to make a prediction about what might happen. Most of them were able to guess that the oil pastels and watercolors wouldn't want to mix.

Let's move on to a project that actually absorbs. For our third station, we used coffee filters and markers to create chromatography art. Before we began, I reminded kids that some colors are made up of other others - like purple is made of red and blue. I explained that marker manufacturers add lots of hidden colors to a marker to get their color just right. 
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​For our project, we colored a coffee filter all over.

Then we folded it into fourths and clipped it to a popsicle stick. We then secured the popsicle stick over a cup and just barely dipped the tip of the coffee filter into the water. ​

Kids watched water travel up as the coffee filter absorbed the water. I explained that the water would separate the many colors in the marker and would give us a surprise design. I wish I gotten a picture of the end results!​

For our early finishers, I had one last absorption project. First students made a design on their paper with glue. Then we covered the glue with salt. I showed each child how to gently dab a paintbrush onto the salt with watercolors. Like magic, the color traveled along the salt.

It was such a fun class to start in the new studio location and end the school year.

Marble runs are great for open-ended building. They’re an example of a STEM toy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). And, they’re a lot of fun, both for kids and adults. This was a great tool to start a conversation about force. There is a lot a variation in how the marble travels - slopes, bends, twists, turns, gravity, heights, etc.

​To simplify the definition for my young students, I described force as "a push or a pull." I asked the kids to stand up and jump. What force pulled us back to Earth? One bright six year old knew it was gravity!

I encouraged students to experiment with the height of the drop. What makes the best splat? Most kids had never been allowed such a messy experiment and it raised a lot of laughs.

Gravity also played a star role in our drip paintings. This station was setup with canvases propped up on table top easels. Using pipettes with liquid watercolors, students gently released the paint at the top, allowing gravity to pull the paint down the canvas. After kids were satisfied with the amount of drips, we put these canvases aside to dry and would come back to them at the end of the class.

Before introducing our spin art station, I asked kids to stand with their arms loose at their side and then spin themselves. What happened to their arms? Their arms were pulled outward. When objects spin, there is a pull from the center to the outside. So what happens when we put paint on paper and then spin it? Most kids guessed that the paint would be pulled towards the sides.

At our fourth and last station, we played with pendulum painting. This took a bit of experimentation because the paint consistency had to be just right. If the paint was too thick, the pendulum only dripped dots. If the paint was too thin with water, the paint poured immediately through, making puddles.

Students showed a lot of perseverance, using trial and error to get the paint just right. It was fun to watch their face light up when they perfected the paint consistency and the pendulum drew beautiful designs on the floor.

We ended class by coming back to our drip paintings. I asked students what they thought their drips looked like. Were they like rain drops? Did they resemble flower stems? Using this prompt, students were then given the freedom to add various collage materials. 

A clear favorite art material was glitter!

These drip paintings were so beautiful and magical. Each art piece was unique and completely created by the individual child. In this process, each student developed their creativity and built up their confidence in their abilities.

Even though the first station was very simple, students chose to explore this station for a while. Like marble painting, the station was laid out with paper taped to trays and two marble magnets. Unlike marble painting though, the marbles were controlled by a magnet wand under the trays. It was fun to watch the marbles wobble and dance across the page. ​

Scientific drawings can be a great learning tool and can be done at any age. Very young children are likely to add details that aren't really there. That's okay at this stage. Introducing scientific drawings is a great first step to becoming a future scientist or engineer.