By Amanda Crowe, Assistant Educator
Follow-up to “Winter Wonderland” Playdate, Thursday, February 6, 2014
When ice storms block your children from going outside, you can still give them the opportunity to be spontaneous and creative with nature by bringing the outside in.
Snow. One of the most elemental, memorable art mediums from your childhood. Recreate those memories for your little ones by making your bathtub the canvas! With easy clean up and minimal effort, your child can be the bathtub graffiti artist of your household.
Materials needed:
- Large empty container for carrying snow
- Spray bottles filled with water and various colors
Note: Dilute a few drops of food coloring or liquid watercolor into each bottle. Crayola poster paints watered down will also work. Test surfaces for staining first before painting.
- If spray bottles are unavailable, use old ketchup or mustard bottles, squeezable jelly containers, a turkey baster or ear and nose syringe
- Bathtub full of snow
- Apron and towels
- Extras: Popsicle or craft sticks, marbles, toy people and animals, sand toys such as small buckets and shovels, stuff from the kitchen such as measuring spoons and rolling pins, essential oils such as lavender or peppermint, and, of course, glitter.
HOW TO:
For starters, I like to mix up three bottles of primary colors: red, yellow and blue. That way, your child is not only creating, but learning about color mixing and combinations. The more colors, the better. But even one bottle of colored “paint” will do.
For an educational yet playful experience, try lining up the bottles on the tub’s edge. Refer to the spray bottles as your child’s “artist tools,” the colored water as the “color palette,” and the white snow as “your canvas.”
Now…start spraying!
Additional Idea Prompts:
Remember, you can adjust the spray nozzle for a lesson about lines – fat, thin, wiggly. Or create a splatter effect and discuss street artists who use graffiti as a form of expression. Use the toy animals to make painted animal tracks. Arrange random toys to make a collage. Hide items and take turns counting how many your child finds. Spell words in the snow using magnetic letters or alphabet blocks. Create a LEGO Arctic landscape. Once the fun starts, there are endless opportunities for spending meaningful time playing in the snow together.
If the snow is too cold for little hands, try an alternative:
Shaving cream and baking soda. Stir equal amounts of each until the snow becomes a thick, mousse consistency. This “snow” can also be combined with food coloring or watercolor paint. Try fingerpainting with it on sturdy paper plates for a snowy masterpiece you can keep – as it will air dry and harden overnight.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Kids Studio: Lego Landscape
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Give your “mini figures” their own mini world by creating a diorama—an entire landscape in a box that you can carry with you. The imaginative world you design may appear as a freeze frame in history or tell a story about the future, or both! Build your dream-like diorama using a blend of mediums and materials, including: Lego bricks, acrylic paint, clay, plaster, found and recycled objects and wire. Key sculptural works in the Museum’s collection as well as the current exhibition of artist Diana Al-Hadid’s “Nolli’s Orders” will be explored.
Studio class is 12-3 pm. Cost per class $10/member child, $15/non-member child. Registration is required. Ages 5-7.
Story Time in the Galleries
Thursday, February 20, 2014
The Quilt, by Ann Jonas: A small African-American girl is overjoyed with the new patchwork quilt her parents have made. As she sleeps, it comes alive, turning into a fantastical dreamscape she must enter in order to find her beloved stuffed dog. Travel to the studio after the story and share stories with local quilters while you make your own “no-sew” story quilt.
No registration required.
Story Time is 11:15 am – 12:15 pm on the third Thursday of each month, when the museum offers complimentary gallery admission to all visitors. No registration required. ALL AGES welcome!
Family Day: Printmakingpalooza!
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Have you ever used a rubber stamp or peeled silly putty off newspaper? If you answered yes, then you’ve created a print. Experimenting with printmaking allows young artists to try out different techniques and to see cause and effect in action more dramatically than with simply painting or drawing. Your budding master printmaker will enjoy testing unusual mediums like Jell-O and shaving cream at our printmaking “buffet,” which includes: mono-printing on the tabletop, gyotaku, or Japanese fish rubbing, printing with wheels, mirror-image string prints, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, and muffin tin printing, and macaroni collagraphs.
12-4 pm. Admission is free for families. No registration required. ALL AGES welcome!
Lego Landscape