Paper Mache Eggs, for Easter or Spring

I love springtime crafts that more or less imitate nature. I experimented with covering plastic fillable easter eggs with paper mache, and came up with this simple decoration.

1. I used the recipe that I posted about here, and covered a few plastic eggs with small bits of newspaper and mache. Several layers are best so that no plastic is peeking through. Let dry completely. Note: This worked well even with kinders as their small hands could really squeeze the eggs to smooth the paper.
2. Brush the eggs with one main light acrylic color and let it dry. Then use a small amount of darker paint for texture. Brush it on so that the eggs look to have 50/50 covering and let dry.
3. Rub on some gold tempera paint by hand to give the eggs a little shine.
4. Use a natural looking, bumpy yarn and unroll it into a small round pile for the nest. The result is a really nice centerpiece for any table.

How to Draw a Truck

Every time I do a geometric drawing lesson like this, I am reminded that some students who yawn at the idea of drawing organic shapes, will work for hours on rectangular trucks or houses. It could be the sign of a future designer, which requires a more methodical set of drawing skills.

1. Working with letter size paper, I gave my kinders a Dixie cup to trace two wheels in the lower center of the paper. They drew the middle section of truck around them as shown in the diagram. 

2. The front and back of the truck are added.

3. The cab and window of the truck are drawn. A wavy or straight line is added for the road.

4. A profile of a driver is drawn, along with the back cab support.

5. Details or the truck and background complete the drawing. Students used a thin black marker to trace their drawing, and crayons to color it in.
Note: This lesson comes from Usborne’s “What Shall I Draw?” book, which has a lot of great drawing ideas.

Rainbow Painting

This project offers students a chance to practice either wet-on-wet or dry brush watercolor painting. I used both for my sample.
1. I had the students paint without the aid of a pencil outline. They began by painting the grass across the bottom of the sheet.
2. Students who preferred the wet-on-wet rainbow painted the red arc, then orange, yellow, green, blue and purple all just barely overlapping to let colors bleed a bit.

3. Students who opted for the dry brush rainbow painted every other arc, starting with red, a space, then yellow, a space, then blue. When dry, they filled in the spaces with orange and green and added the purple. This spacing allows the colors to dry a bit to avoid bleeding.

4. They finished the sky with a very watery blue.

Note: My favorite paint of the moment are Dick Blick Liquid Watercolors. The colors just are too vibrant for me to pass up.

Lettering 101

This is one of the lettering styles that is included in Cyndi Hansen’s “Letter Better” book, and I tried it just last week in a class. It has just three simple steps that even kinders can easily remember.

1. Stick letters are written in pencil.

2. The lines are traced with a black marker, and all end points are “capped” with black circles.

3. The letters are outlined, preferable with thinner marker, and filled in with colored pencils. Who needs a computer when you can make your own hip and colorful font?