Thursday, February 3, 2011

mini monets

I found a new love this week, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Self, meet liquid watercolor. Self, why haven't you heeded the advice of others for the last 10 years and bought this stuff before?!
This week my Kindergarten and First graders are reading the book "Philippe in Monet's Garden". It's a lovely story about a frog who is being bullied and makes a safe haven in Monet's garden. We're at a crossroads here at my school with bullying and name-calling, so it fit in very nicely! (And who says Art doesn't encompass multiple disciplines?!)
We looked at the Waterlilies series pretty closely. We talked about the different animals and insects that might call waterlilies home. The kids had to draw (at least) 8 waterlilies in pink, yellow, and white oil pastels. They used green to draw some lilly pads for the flowers to sit on.
Then enter "my new love": the liquid watercolor. Oh my. It paints like buttah, without the mess of water, watercolor sets, etc. The best part is that I diluted enough for all my kids to use today and tomorrow as well...without the waste!
This project will be the first of a few focusing on Claude Monet for my little guys. They were really "impressed" with their own results!

4 comments:

  1. These came out really nice. I am going to have to look for this book as this would be a good theme for my students as well. I also like the book Linnea in Monet's Garden. This would look really cute with a frog added in too!

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  2. Have the book...it is wonderful! Planning this in about 2 weeks. However, we will use construction paper crayons and the liquid watercolor...both are fantastic! Your kids watercolors are beautiful!

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  3. I love that dye, it creates the most amazing colours and can be bold or delicate depending on the dilution. But I wouldn't say it is without mess! It sticks to skin like nothing else and requires some washing to remove it. With 45minute art sessions with no time allocated for change over it means there are quite a few blue handed children running about the place, lucky it is non toxic!

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  4. Oh my goodness, I just stumbled onto your site in a search for how to expose my young children to art and make it fun for them. Your lesson plans are amazing and make it easy for teaching to a group or just one child. I am especially happy that you have it broken up by age group! Thank you for posting all of this incredible information online!!

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