Art Explorers - Modern Mona Lisa

This was a really nice program celebrating the birth month of Leonardo da Vinci, who was born on April 15, 1452. I had good registration for this program, but some had to cancel the day before.

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 years
• Must register prior to program due to limited space.
• If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Modern Mona Lisa

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
Many of the children already were familiar with the Mona Lisa so I decided to give them some interesting facts to make them think. For example, she did, in fact, at one point had eyebrows! (Source: here and here). I also shared info about Leonardo da Vinci, especially about everything he did from being an artists to an inventor to being a scientist! The children were fascinated with his Mirror Writing.

INSPIRATION 
I found the idea of the project while searching the web and Pinterest. These two websites were my main source of inspiration for the project:

• Art with Mrs. Seitz - Mona Lisa Parodies
• http://artwithmrsseitz.blogspot.com/2013/02/mona-lisa-parodies.html?m=1

• Art Projects for Kids - Fun with Mona Lisa
• https://artprojectsforkids.org/make-a-mona-lisa-free-download/

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Art Paper 
• Print out copies of Mona Lisa's head, hands, and arms (color or black & white, your choice)
• Glue sticks 
• Scissors 
• Pencils
• Crayons
• Markers 

Instruction
Step 1: Cut out Mona Lisa's head and hands (you can use just the hands or have hands with the arms attached). 

Step 2: Sketch/draw your overall design of how you want your Mona Lisa to look (pose her doing something fun, like skateboarding!), and add a background!

Step 3: Add coloring using crayons and/or markers. I did both for this project. Markers were used to make bold color accents and the crayons for a softer colors.


HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 8 children, 6 adults
The children did a great job! I used the inspiration prompt like "What would she be doing when she wasn't having her portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci?" and "What would she look like if she was...?". Some artists drew and colored a modernized portrait of her while others showed her being comfy in her bedroom. One boy showed her practicing black bet karate, which was so cool! In other drawing there was an illustrated love of eating "Chez Doodles"! This was a fun program because you got to see the imagination flow.

Art Explorers - Van Gogh Sunflowers

This was probably one of the coolest art program that we did this past year. Unfortunately, I was sick on program day and I had to have a fellow Children's Librarian lead the class. All reports and photos from the day showed that it was awesome!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 years
• Must register prior to program due to limited space.
• If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Van Gogh Sunflowers

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
There was a brief overview of Vincent Van Gogh is for his style of painting before introducing his Sunflowers. It is said that Van Gogh painted many of his sunflowers to right before his friend Paul Gaughin arrived in Arles (source: here) 

INSPIRATION 
I found the idea from seeing instructions on how to paint easy fireworks from the following websites, and I thought that making flowers would be fantastic!: 

• Learning 4 Kids - Painting Fireworks
• https://www.learning4kids.net/2015/12/27/painting-fireworks/ 

• Dayna Bayna - Easy Fireworks Painting 
• https://www.danyabanya.com/fireworks-painting/

• The Parenting Patch - Patriotic Toilet Paper Roll Fireworks Paint Crafts 
• https://parentingpatch.com/patriotic-toilet-paper-roll-fireworks-paint-craft/

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Tempera or acrylic paint
• Mixed Media paper 
• Toilet Paper Tubes, with a line, 1.5 inches from the edge, drawn around
• Safety Scissors
• Paint Brushes  
• Water cups 
• Plastic or paper plates for the paint 
• Paper Towels 
• Aprons 

Instruction
Step 1: Like in the Inspiration websites/videos, children will cut little slits up to the 1.5 inch line around the toilet paper tube.

Step 2: With paint(s) on a plate, dab the tp tube applicator in the paint then then dab the paint on the art paper. Twist the tube around to get carrying colors and flower pedals. Repeat until desired look and number of flowers.

Step 3: Using a paint brush, paint a vase and flower stems. Add a background if you want!


HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 20 children, 11 adults
This was very well attended program! Paint tends to be a big draw for children, as well as Van Gogh. The children quickly went to work and painted amazing works of art!

Art Explorers - Picasso Portraits

This was a really fun program. I'm in love with my portrait, even though I think the eye for the blue part of the face could down a little (I just didn't want to freak the children out too much!). I love so much, in fact, that when I was taking pictures of the blog I could not find it anywhere! Panic! I eventually found it out in another pile safe and sound. Whew!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Picasso Portraits

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
As I typically do, I give a brief overview of the artist's life and works of art. I had printed out a bunch of portraits (non-nude ones) to show the progression of Picasso's portrait styles.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Multi Medium Paper 
• Acrylic Paint  
• Pencil
• Black Crayon 

I started out using a pencil to draw my portrait. It helped a lot having an example of how to make it. For example, I saw these online over at Deep Space Sparkle and Studio Sprout. Once I got the basic outline of my portrait done I went over the pencil with a black crayon. Then it was onto painting! I did my best to mix up the colors and make it appear to have two faces in one head. I gotta say that it was pretty cool! The key here is to make sure to go with the flow an it does accept that it does not have to be perfect looking! Why? Because it's so funky cool and Picasso-y!

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 16 children, 4 adults
This was one of my more popular programs. Pretty much I find when a project can potentially be very messy, it means that it's going to popular! The children did a really great job creating their portraits and painting! Love!

Art Explorers - Matisse Collages

 The goal of this program was to not only promote the famous artist who made awesome collages in his older years, but also to help me with the all the construction paper scraps from my old storytimes.

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Matisse Collages

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

Do you see any animals in the lower green collage?
I made the purple deer by pure luck.
So I decided to add in more.

INTRODUCTION 
What's awesome is there is a LOT of books about Henri Matisse that range from artist biographies to educational picture books: Matisse's Garden by Samantha Friedman, Blue & Other Colors with Henri Matisse, Matisse: The King of Color by Laurence Anholt, and Colorful Dreamer: The Story of Artist Henri Matisse by Marjorie Blain Parker. I shared info with the children about he was a great painter, but after he had fallen ill he started to cut out painted paper to make large collages.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Construction paper - both new sheets and scraps 
• Scissors 
• Glue sticks 

 It's very basic. Pick out a base, which is a new sheet of construction paper. Then use the paper scraps to cut out random shapes. A lot of Matisse's shapes were not completely representational so I tried my best to make everything not represent anything exactly, but it just so happened I cut out a shape that that looked like a perfect deer head. So I added in other animals to help give an example to the children that they can add in some things. Matisse did make an apple shape, which always looked like a radish to me.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 8 children, 5 adults
This was a good program. It was small in attendance, but not my worst. Some children did have difficulty listening to me about using the paper scraps instead of new paper. Also, these children did had some trouble understanding that we were making collages and not giant paper crafts that look like Spongebob or a flag. The lesson here is to just go with it and try to encourage them, but if they don't do it right then just leave them to their work (especially if their parent is in the room). All the other children in the group did a great job working on their work of art, and were proud of their results. Initially I was worried I didn't have enough scraps, but because of the group size I had the perfect amount.

The Three Little Pigs - A Storytime Outline

This was a fun storytime! I basically found various versions of the tale "The Three Little Pigs" to introduce the children the idea that there are different ways to the tell the same story. I started out with our memory box then telling the classic tale with puppets before we went to our first book.


The children really liked this program. In fact they wanted to not do any in-between activity songs or rhymes. We pretty read through all the books before the craft. The last book The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs did take some time, and the children were losing interest, we didn't end up doing the the STEAM activity - building blocks. Oh well.

ORAL STORY
The Three Little Pigs 
I told this story with puppets. Three adorable pig puppets, which all the children cooed over and an awesome wolf puppet. The children were given props, which were pictures of a wolf (laminated) an glued to a craft stick to help them act the "And I'll huff, and I'll puff and I'll blooow your house down" parts of the story.

BOOKS
The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale written and illus. by Steven Guarnaccia 
Surprisingly, the children wanted to read this one first! Which was great because I wanted to as well.

The Three Horrid Little Pigs written and illus. by Liz Pichon 
As I mentioned before the children wanted to skip our in-between-books song and go straight onto another story. So we read this one next. The children understood that the pigs did not have very nice manners at first.

The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs written by Jon Scieszka and illus. by Lane Smith
The majority of the children wanted another story before our craft. So we read this one, which was a bit too long for the end. I sped through the book because the story was long and I wasn't sure if the children were understanding it.

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

FLANNEL BOARD 
N/A

ACTIVITIES
Memory Box 
The item that was inside the box was one of my cute pig puppets. 

STEAM ACTIVITIES
Watch Me Grow in Storytime 
This is one of my new STEAM elements for storytime. I made a growth chart from a free printable I found through Pinterest (link to blog post here). The children love it! I used my die cutter to make little blue birds for the children to wright their name on. Then we measured everyone to see how tall we are at the beginning of the storytime season.

Name Box Color Sort
I got this idea from a coworker who provides toddler and preschool storytime at her branch location.  She has been working on my Early Literacy elements for her program, and one of her ideas was having the children work on their writing skills. They would do this by writing their name on a shape and dropping into a name box. I added more to this idea by making different colored slots on my box and the children were given different colored shapes. They have not only write their name but they have slip their shape into the corresponding colored. 

How Many Stories Read/Told
I've been doing this for the past year. I have the children work on their math skills by counting the number of books we have read and the number of stories that were told without a book and add it to last week's total.

Building Blocks 
I didn't do this because we ran out of time. But! The plan was to have the children work on building a house for all our piggy puppets. I know that some child would probably take the wolf puppet and plow down the house after it was built, but that may be to be expected.

CRAFT
"The Three Little Pig" story sequence pictures
I found this via Pinterest - a link to Kindergarten Nana (link here) who shared a scan of a printable page that had six panels that told the story of the three little pigs.The children liked this craft a lot. Some needed a little help, my looking at my example, to get their sequence right. However, that being said, everyone got it right without help!

Book images were found on www.goodreads.com here, here, and here.

Art Explorers - Compass Art

I found this idea during my daily Pinterest scrolling, and it was perfect for something different! Plus, I was able to add in a STEAM element, which made me and my PSA happy! Yay!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Compass Art


PROJECT EXAMPLE 

I love this. The colors and everything.
Even though this messy baby circle in the middle.

INTRODUCTION 
I struggled a little with what I should talk about when it came to what a compass is because I knew some children wouldn't know what a compass is cause they're too young. Thankfully my Library Assistant, Nicole, helped with that. Basically, a compass is used to make a perfect circle of different sizes. Who uses a compass? Mathematicians. Architects. The children seemed to have gotten it. Additionally, I explained to them how a compass worked.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Watercolor paper
• Watercolor paint
• Watercolor paint brushes 
• Compass - little pencil removed 
• Cup of water

Your little watercolor paint brushes are, more than likely, too skinny for the thingamigig that holds the compass pencils. So! You will need to tape it to the that arm. Have the children dip the brush tip into the water and a paint. Then let them go to town on making different size circles all over the paper.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 6 children, 2 adults
It was pretty well. Everyone did a great job using the compass to make their circles. Some children thought it was nifty that there were numbers on the compass, which helped tell you how large of a circle you would make. All the artists were able to make a work of art that was all circles. They then had the option to do another on the back side of their paper or to paint whatever they wanted. Some did two circle paintings while some opted for an actual pictures.

Art Explorers - Chihuly Chandeliers

I saw this idea a loooooong time ago and was just waiting for the time to implement it in the Art Explorers program. It was such a fun an cool project! 

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Chihuly Chandeliers

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
Since Dale Chihuly is a modern artist I did not really have very many books to share with the children. We did have a wonderful color photo oversize from our adult collection at the Central Library. Some children were fortunate enough to have a field trip to the Dallas Arboretum when it had a Chihuly exhibit in their gardens.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Laminate scraps  
• Permanent marker
• Scissors 
• Hole punch
• Yarn  

 The children were given four or five pieces of laminate scraps (my library system as a laminating machine and after someone uses it I had them send me their scraps). They drew a spiral design with a sharpie then they colored it in any fashion they wanted with the markers. When they were done they had to cut out their spirals. I helped them hole punch the center of each spiral. The children then thread the spirals onto a length of year that had a big knot at one end. It is perfectly OK and encouraged for the spirals be of different sizes and to get tangled among each other. That is how it creates the cool curly-cue "glass" design.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 18 children, 4 adults
Everyone thought it was the coolest project! There were so many cool chandeliers to be seen. I did prop up my emergency door and had a fan going in the room because having 18 children using smelly permanent makers in a very small room had the potential to have some very giggly kids and adults or to have headaches.

Art Explorers - Greek Vases

Went back to the ancient times to look for art inspiration!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Greek Vases

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
I shared some information about the progression of the style and design of vases over the centuries, and that even though we now consider them works of art, they were simply used as everyday items with decorations.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Scratch board, cut in the shape of a Greek vase 
• Greek vase shape printed on scrap paper (for practice)
•  Pencils - tips dull 
• Latex or latex-free gloves

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 10 children, 4 adults
Everyone loved used the scratch board. Who doesn't? One boy explained that they were "Pretty awesome!", which totally made the program. Some children did a great job working with making abstract or geometric designs on their vases. Some came up with a story, such as Star Wars or a literal representation of something, such as a galaxy.

I had latex-free clothes available for the children to wear because I discovered that during the process of making the example that grease from your hands stops you from scratching off the black layer. Boo!

Art Explorers - Kandinsky Circles

Circles, circles, circles everywhere! This coincided with International Dot Day to boot!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Kandinsky Circles

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

The colors are little faded, especially the purple. Invest in some nice
acid free and fade-resistant papers for art programs.

INTRODUCTION 
I highlighted Wassily Kandinsky's "Color Study. Squares with concentric circles" for this program. As usual I introduced the artist and a bit about his life and career along with the painting we're taking inspiration from. 

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Construction paper 
• Butcher paper (optional) 
• Pre-cut squares 
• Scissors
• Glue sticks 

 I used brown butcher paper as our base. Mine comes on a large roll. If you don't have that then you can use just a piece of construction paper of any size as your base. I precut twelve squares to fit on the butcher paper to help speed up the process. The children would paste the squares to the base before working on their circles. I had scrap construction paper and new constriction paper for the children to cut out there circles of varying sizes to create their layers of circles.

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 18 children, 3 adults
The children really liked it. Some had difficulty using my small safety scissors, but that is all I had to work with. The children felt really proud of their works of art. Some needed a little help getting all of their circles done, which I knew would happen. Thankfully I had prepped various size circles before hand. Some children ventured out of the circle realm and added in other designs in the circles too.

Art Explorers - Alphabet Art

I consider this program a great introduction to a "wax resist" method of painting!

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Alphabet Art

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
I've known of Jasper Johns since my college days. I came across some ideas on Pinterest for using some of his paintings as inspiration, especially his Alphabet (one inspiration source: ARTASTIC! Ms.Oetken's Artists). I shared with the children his life and career.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Watercolor paper 
• crayons
• watercolor paint 

 Using waterolor paper as their base I had the children draw a grid (some opted not too) before they wrote out the alphabet. I suggested using more than one color to help thicken the line and to create more contrasted. The same went with the letters. If there was space at the bottom of their paper the children added shapes, like hearts and stars, or numbers or their name. Once they drew everything they wanted with crayons the painting began!

HOW DID IT GO?
Attendance: 19 children, 3 adults

I think everyone really liked it. During the painting process I was able to show some children how they could make the nifty "tied-died" effect that you can do with watercolor paint, which garnered a lot of "That's cool!" responses.

Art Explorers - Comic Book Art

This was my first Art Explorers idea that I created. My example is pretty much was totally awesome and one of my favorites because of the humor!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Comic Book Art (aka graphic novels!)

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
I began with the program a quick explanation of what comic books/graphic novels are. Obviously, you have to ask the question, "Does anyone read graphic novels or comic books or comics in the newspaper?" and generally all hands will jump up in excitement. Who doesn't like comics? I focused more on graphic novels that did not involve a superhero. Books that I highlighted included, "Calvin & Hobbes," "The Graveyard Book," and so on. I also explained that certain style like Pokemon or other manga books you actually read from back to front instead of the typical front to back. I also explained to the parents who sat in the back that reading graphic novels is actually good reading because the readers have to decode what is happening in the story by looking at the pictures and reading through the limited dialog text or no text at all if it's a wordless graphic novel.

HOW TO MAKE IT 
Supplies: 

• Comic panel templates - printed on copy paper and/or card stock 
• Pencils
• Black pens 
• Stapler

I found a link via Pinterest that took me to the blog Inner Child Fun - Free Printable Comic Pages to make my templates. I printed out all of the inside panels on regular copy paper (double sided) and the cover on card stock. The children could use as many panels as they needed for their book, but they started out with two pages (that's 8 book pages of panels) to tell their story. The children could draw their story before folding the papers and stapling them together to make the book or they could do that first. I preferred having them make the book first so that they don't get their panels mixed up when the book is made.

As for the drawing potion of their creations I had them start out with pencils. If they wanted to, they could then go over the pencil lines with a black pen.

HOW DID IT GO?
 The kids LOVED it! There were so many cool story ideas going on. One girl made a story about a superhero helping the librarian fix a stapler, which was influenced by the fact that two of staplers broke at the beginning of the program (AH!). There were a couple of children who struggled with coming up with an idea, so I offered them prompts like. Pick and animal you like. Have them do something that they typically wouldn't do. That generally did the trick.

This was a pretty cool program, and I would definitely do this theme again.

Art Explorers - Mondrian Art

I didn't know much about Mondrian, but he's pretty awesome when you come to think of it. I still have the examples cause they're so much fun to look at!


PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Mondrain Art

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

INTRODUCTION 
Piet Mondrain  was our artist of the month. I gave a brief overview of his history, such as he started out painting similar to the Impressionists and Noe-Impressionsists before he started to venture into a complete form of abstract art. Plus, I added how he even stopped using the color green all together! For this project I focused on the painting "Composition with Re, Yellow and Blue," but I displayed pictures of his various paintings, especially his abstract ones.

HOW TO MAKE IT  
Supplies 

• White construction paper 
• crayons - black, yellow, red, blue 
• Rulers 

 I gave all the children two sheets of white construction paper, a ruler four crayons - black, yellow, red and blue. First they had to create their abstract grid with a black crayon and the ruler. Then they can color in the spaces with the colored crayons. They had the opportunity to make two complete Mondrian inspired works of art or they can draw an animal as their second picture and add a grid inside the animal (see my totally awesome sloth for example!).

HOW DID IT GO?
This went very well. Some of the children kept to the program and made the two pictures (one strict Mondrian style and one animal). Others decided to work on their color theory and create the color green and brown by mixing their crayon colors.

This was a very successful program. 

Art Explorers - Block Printing

I've been wanting to do a project like this for a while, and now was the perfect time. 

PROGRAM BASICS

• For children ages 6 through 12 yrs
• Must register prior to program due to limited space. If space allows, children can walk in day off. 
• 1 hour in length

THEME 
Block Printing

PROJECT EXAMPLE 

Top is the foam plate and the bottom is a print

INTRODUCTION 
I looked to children's book authors and illustrators like Eric Rohmann and Erin Stead for connection to literacy. Eric Rohmann's My Friend Rabbit has always stuck with me since the first time I read it in library school, and such a great example of block printing. But for Erin Stead fans, so is A Sick Day for Amos McGee. I explained to the young artists what block printing is and how it can be done with various tools and materials, such as wood block, linoleum blocks and ink. To create a work of art artists use the blocks to create layers of different lines and colors. One girl knew quite a bit about block printing because she had the opportunity to try it in school. They were actually allowed to use a real carving tool. I wasn't. Instead we used foam print plates and acrylic paint instead of ink.

HOW TO MAKE IT?
Supplies 

• Scratch-Foam Board Printing Plates - NASCO (link) or styrofoam plates from the grocery store
• Pencils - tips dull or a thin paint brush (use the handle tip) 
• Multi-Media art paper 
• Acrylic Paint  
• 1 - 2 box lid (like copy paper box lid) lined with aluminum foil 
• Brayer 
• Paper towels

HOW DID IT GO?
Another great success!!! Since it was December I made my prints look like evergreen trees and a snowman. Many of the children did something similar, such as a winter scene or snowflakes. They used a dull tipped pencil or a the end of a watercolor paint brush to create their design because they wouldn't puncture the foam. Once they had a design they came up my paint table, where I was. They were allowed to pick three colors of paint that we would layer onto the their plate by using a brayer. I would pour one color into the box lid and use the brayer, then add another color, then another color. I would show the children how the brayer work then would have them help me. Then we would lay the plate on the paper and apply pressure. We could get up to one or two prints from the paint. The children thought this was the coolest thing. The paint worked out well instead of ink because it was washable and less expensive.

I can't wait to do this one again!