Autumn leaves – glitter on natural leaves

 

 

Glittered leaves using real leaves

You will need:
Real autumn leaves – large is better
Glue – I colour mine with paint
Sponges in pegs or paint brushes
Glitter – gold and red and glitter shakers
Tray to collect the excess glitter
 

Method:
I set out glue and glue brushes and real autumn leaves. The children dabbed on coloured glue and sprinkled the leaves with green and gold glitter. The excess glitter was tipped off onto a flat tray. I did not write the children’s names as the leaves were attached to a group autumn tree.

Notes:
Glitter is messy so work in an area that is easy to clean up
Supervise closely – children like to play with glitter and use plenty of it! And spread it everywhere!!
Having a few flat trays helps contain the glitter mess
Allow the children to create freely without being too prescriptive
Glitter shakers help with sprinkling the glitter
This is an excellent activity for the younger children but ration out the glitter to them in small cups

Once dry attach to a group Autumn tree trunk ( see previous blogs)

Themes: Autumn, Trees and wood

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn leaves – painting/printing

Autumn leaves – hand traced and sponge painted to be used for a group tree display

   

You will need:
A4 white paper
Black koki pen or wax crayon
Red and yellow paint
Sponges in pegs or sponge dobbers

To start off trace around each child’s hand using a koki pen or black wax crayon. You need a dark outline as the children will paint over the edges. Ask the child to spread their fingers apart and instead of creating a rounded finger tip make sharp points to create a hand-shaped leaf outline. Trace two hands on each page.

The children print the outline using the sponge dobbers or sponges in pegs. Encourage the children to print over the layers of colour to create orange. Continue until the outline is well covered with colour.

Once the painting is dry, teacher cuts out the leaves. Some children may manage to do this but it is quite difficult for the children to cut on their own.

Notes:
Some children chose to paint with the sponges rather than print which was still effective
Remind the children to print in the leaf shape
This activity works well with the younger age group but let them print the paper first and when dry trace their hands onto the painting and cut out
Display as a group tree collage
Some children chose to only use one colour
Some of the children chose to trace their own hands. Although they had rounded fingers, the leaves were still effective.

Complement the tree with glittered real leaves – see blogs – glittered autumn leaves and creating the tree trunk using a variety of brushes to paint with.

Themes: Autumn, Leaves, Colours, Trees and wood, Hands, Summer using greens instead of autumn colours, Fire – use the technique to create flames

CAPS Outcomes

Subject: Life Skills
Study area: Creative arts
Create in 2D
• Fine-motor and sensory co-ordination: (eye-hand-mind) manipulation of scissors and other tools and equipment.
• Drawing and painting using the week’s topic
• Painting: use pre-mixed tempera paint or coloured inks or dyes in primary and secondary colours to respond to the week’s topic
• Simple printmaking techniques to create informal pattern
• Draw and give own interpretation to drawings using the week’s topic using wax crayon, oil pastels and other drawing media
• Art elements: informal experience and use of shape in drawing and painting

Subject: Languages (Home)
Skill: Handwriting
• Develops small muscles and fine motor control skills
• Develops eye- hand co-ordination through play e.g. drawing and painting

 

 

Printing and painting with pot scourers

Printing and painting with pot scourers with glitter

Themes: My home, the five senses and hands. This would make a lovely background for a sky or water done in blues and whites. This technique can be used to colour a variety of shapes such as autumn colours on autumn leaf shapes, flower shapes, butterflies etc. The prints can be added to tree branches to make the tree top.

You will need: Paper, bright coloured thick ready mixed paint, pot scourers, flat plastic lids, glue and glitter. The scourer can be washed and reused. Dry well so they do not rust.

Age: This activity will work well with all the age ranges but I would recommend plastic scourers for the under two’s as they may put them into their mouths. The children enjoyed the unusual sensory experience and this activity attracted many boys to the activity!

I bought some inexpensive metal pot scourers which came in a set of 6. Plastic ones will be as effective.

I used black paper which contrasted nicely with the bright paint colours I selected.

I placed the paint on plastic ice-cream lids so it was easy to dip them into the paint.

The children printed and ‘painted’ with the pot scourers. I encouraged them to rotate the scourers which created interesting circle patterns of paint. Some children chose to use the scourer to spread the paint creating an interesting paint effect. Others chose to create a border around the edge of the paper.

Once the paintings had dried, we dipped the scourer into some glue and repeated the printing action to spread some glue onto the painting. The children sprinkled glitter onto the glue.

We ended up with beautiful paintings which were sparkly.
CAPS Outcomes

Subject: Life Skills 
Study area: Creative arts
Create in 2D
• Fine-motor and sensory co-ordination: (eye-hand-mind) manipulation of scissors and other tools and equipment.

Create in 2D
• Painting: use pre-mixed tempera paint or coloured inks or dyes in primary and secondary colours to respond to the week’s topic
• Simple printmaking techniques to create informal pattern
• Art elements: informal experience and use of shape in drawing and painting
• Use colour to create pattern

Subject: Languages (Home)
Skill: Handwriting
• Develops small muscles and fine motor control skills
• Develops eye- hand co-ordination through play e.g. drawing and painting

 

 

 

 

Sponge pictures – painting

The children had lots of fun creating art works using thin sponge cut into geometric and other shapes.
TIP: Make sure the children use plenty of glue to secure the shapes to the paper.

Here are some of their creations. The younger children just pasted the shapes in a random way while the older children created people, fish and spaceships.

        

One child decided to use the materials in a very different way! He spent ages painting and painting some more until his page and sponge shapes were completely saturated in paint. Then he ‘squeezed’ the sponge shapes and enjoyed watching the paint drip from them. Not quite what I had in mind, but a sensory activity for him which he enjoyed. He is 3 and 1/2 years old.

 

Themes: Myself, transport, space, autumn(cut leaf shapes), fish, shapes. This activity can be applied to many other themes too.

Perceptual skills: Planning, perseverance, small muscle development, position in space

CAPS:Outcomes
Subject: Life Skills
Study area: Creative arts
Create in 2D
• Drawing and painting using the week’s topic
• Painting: use pre-mixed tempera paint or coloured inks or dyes in primary and secondary colours to respond to the week’s topic
Create in 3D (constructing)
• Fine-motor and sensory co-ordination: (eye-hand-mind) manipulation of scissors and other tools and equipment.
• Encourage development of skills through manipulation of the materials
• Create freely using a range of materials: Sponge and paint
Art elements: informal experience and use of shape in drawing and painting