Inspired by the Sahara desert of Africa, we explored both fine and course sand to create textured paint!  Working with fine motor skills children used small spoons to scoop and dump their desired amount of sand within their paint.....or sometimes scooping paint into the sand, or even dumping sand right on top of the canvas. Proclamations of discoveries and observations could be heard around the room, as children freely experimented with the media...."this feels rough!"..."I put yellow in the blue and it turned GREEN!"

We discussed the word texture, feeling the different sands and how the texture changed when added to the paint.  How does it feel?...smooth, rough, scratchy, soft...?

Children were invited to interact with the animal transparencies on the light table.  Some children decided to work on their fine motor skills by tracing the outline of the animal and letters.  Younger children enjoyed working on both fine and gross motor skills as they painted directly on the light table. You could overhear small voices exclaiming, "Elephant! Zebra! Lion!"  Our homeschool classes carefully painted within the animal outlines and we decided to create mono-prints!

We had a wonderful 3 days filled with loads of art making, laughter, and friendship!  Children had opportunities to engage in sensory and creative play as well as experiment with a variety of media and tools as they embraced the creative process!  

We examined snowflakes and children were asked, "what facts do you know about snowflakes?"  They shared their ideas on how they form, their uniqueness, and what they are made of...and what fun they are to catch on one's tongue!  We then talked about symmetry, finding symmetrical objects and noticing the symmetry within snowflake patterns.  We also introduced positive and negative space within this project.  Campers worked with multiple stencils, sponges, brushes, and brayers to explore these basic elements of design.

We started the day by practicing with sketching pencils and learning how to control our pencils in order to draw light sketching lines.  After children were invited to chose an item from a variety of winter themed objects placed around the studio.  Campers were encouraged to draw "what they see"  noticing details, and filling their page.  They enjoyed putting objects together to create their own still life! 

The children were so excited to paint on the easels!  They were invited to chose their subject matter, approach, and tools to use on their canvas painting.  It was so much fun walking around seeing this hightened level of engagement and each canvas so individual and unique.  A few students kept coming back to this project....spending a total of 3 hours on their canvas!  One of our students had the idea to wrap his canvas to give as a gift!  We followed his lead and each child designed their own wrapping paper, wrapped up their paintings, and left with the most precious gifts to give to their loved ones!