Preschool Children, Painting, and Watercolors

How many of you have bought those cool watercolors in the box for your young children? Who remembers painting watercolors with the metal Prang watercolors? We can still buy the Prang watercolors but they will stain clothes. Crayola has better watercolors for young children and Sargeants can be found also.

Did anyone have a classroom teacher say not to mix the colors? I know they do and I understand why they say it. If the children aren’t taught good brush handling skills, they will dip the bush into every single solitary color in the watercolor box. What happens? The colors are no longer clean but muddy or even black!  If the children are taught how to use the brush, eventually good brush painting skills will be a habit.

I found the best way for me to teach good brush painting skills was at the beginning of the school year. I would give the children a dry brush and a cup of water and a sponge. We would practice dipping the brush into the water and drying it on the sponge. Next we would pretend paint in the air, dip in the water, swish the brush to clean, dry it on the sponge, and pretend to dip the brush in the paint.

After practicing we would then paint with our watercolors. The following is a photograph of my granddaughter painting with her watercolors. She is mixing her colors on her watercolor paper.

This photo is her painting almost finished!

Another method for teaching children not to mix up the colors is by teaching them how to make colors through the color wheel. I will post more on this subject again. Mizz Mac

For more of Mizz Mac’s lessons or projects, check out her store on www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/Gena-Mcwilliams.

It's Cherry Blossom time!

It’s Cherry Blossom time in Macon, Georgia! The birds are chirping outside my window and the sun is trying to come out. Spring must be coming soon.

I haven’t seen any cherry blossom buds yet. Have you?

I do have an easy art project for drawing cherry blossom trees with the little ones.

All you will need is a small sheet of watercolor paper or construction paper, a brown and a pink crayon or oil pastel, and an 8-color watercolor box with a paintbrush.

First place a pad of paper on your workspace. Now lay the watercolor paper on top. Coloring with crayons or oil pastels is easier and smoother if done on top of a padded surface.

Directions:

Lay the free hand and wrist on the watercolor paper. Trace around the free hand and wrist with the brown crayon or oil pastel. Color the hand and wrist brown. This makes the tree trunk and limbs.

Draw crooked lines from the limbs (fingers) to make tree branches with the brown crayon or oil pastel.

Draw and color small pink circles with the pink crayon or oil pastel to make cherry blossoms.

Paint the sky with blue watercolor.

Let it dry and mount on construction paper or poster board.

This is an easy project for all ages. For another easy method try my Easy Smeasy Cherry Blossom Trees on https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Easy-Smeasy-Cherry-Blossom-Trees-1741136. It’s free!

Thank you, Mizz Mac

Easy Thanksgiving Art project

Thanksgiving- a time to be with family and friends, watch parades, and football!!

What to do with the children while waiting to eat??

My suggestion is to give them cut up vegetables to print! If there is a teenager around who could help, that would be even more fun!

The supplies needed:

A variety of cut up vegetables and fruit

9”x12” construction paper (an easy find at dollar stores or Walmart or Kmart in the kids craft sections)

Crayola kids washable tempera paint and Crayola plastic smocks (I found mine at Kmart)

1 styrofoam  or paper plate for each color of paint (I used the smaller size)

1 sponge for each paper plate

Directions:

Cover the work area.

Place one sponge on each plate and cover with paint. Sponges should be soaked in paint to act like an ink pad.

Place one cut up fruit or vegetable on each plate.

Give the children a sheet of paper. Tell the children to stamp the fruit or vegetable on the sponge first and then on the paper. They can stamp the fruit or vegetable several times or once to make a pattern.

Have them take turns stamping with each color. The fruit or vegetables stamping can be overlapped and one on top of the other.

When dry the art work can be embellished with crayons by coloring in the blank spaces.

Have a great Thanksgiving with your family! Mizz Mac

A Georgia Peachy Blog

The peaches are flowing in Middle Georgia! Our peach farms are packing their products to ship out! Did you know the Peach Festival cooked the world's largest peach cobbler this past weekend? Here is my grandmother's favorite recipe: 

Now all good Southern cooks are dump cooks which means we use approximately the right amount of ingredients and then change things as we see fit. My grandmother cooked with a gas stove that had no temperature control so check on the cobbler after 30 minutes cooking time! And don't forget to add a dollop of vanilla ice cream! 

Here's another Peachy tidbit- have you heard of the Eat A Peach album by the Allman Brothers? The Allman Brothers were brought to Macon, Georgia in the early 70's by their manager, Phil Walden of Capricorn Records. (Phil was my cousin's high school sweetheart and loved pulling my pigtails!) Before they got big and famous, the Allman Brothers would jam on Sunday afternoons in Central City Park. Wonderful Peachy Music!!

 Grab up your own basketful  of  Peachy free items from our blogs and enter our giveaway!

My Peachie freebie for you:http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mizz-Macs-Print-a-Peach-1279210

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