Spin art

This week's sensory art was dizzying. We handed out plates and wrote our names on the back. I let the kids choose a stencil and they traced them on the center front. Then we handed the supplies back to the front and passed out the scissors. We snipped the plates towards the center all the way around, so that we could fit the plates into the salad spinner and capture the paint for maximum coverage. 

One by one, we put our plates into the salad spinner, spooned a primary color onto the plate, closed the lid, and let it rip! We repeated two more times with the other primary colors. Red, yellow, and blue turned into a full spectrum of color! We had a smaller group than normal, so each kid had a chance to make 2 plates!

Layering

I absolutely love that the same supplies can yield such different pieces of art!

We used quite a few different techniques. I started off by handing out white crayons  and had the kids draw randomly. It was somewhat confusing, since their drawings were white on white. 

Next, we passed around paintbrushes and watercolors. The instructions given were that they had to use at least two different colors and paint the whole front of the paper. 

Finally, I handed out a choice of stencils and sharpies. The kids placed and traced. 

What do I do with all of these eggs?

So, Easter has come and gone. The candy has been eaten and now I have all these plastic eggs hanging around. 

It seems that each year they multiple while they are in storage, so I wanted to use them in sensory art in an creative way. I sorted through all the eggs and decided to use the ones that had a safety holes in them. These are originally meant to ensure that if a half were to get lodged in a child's mouth, they could still breathe (a possibility with my group of kids). Today these holes will also serve as pre-made lacing holes.

I had all the eggs in an Easter basket, which was passed around the table. Each student was asked to choose 6 eggs. They were then asked to separate the halves and sort the big and little halves. I asked them to trade halves so that they all had the same sized. I passed out pairs of pipe cleaners that were twisted a few times approximately 2 inches from one end. They then threaded the pipe cleaners through the all the egg halves. I then secured the pipe cleaners by twisting the last inch together. I handed out an opposing egg half to connect with the last piece. Finally, we spaced out the eggs to give the worm some "wiggle room".

Easter Art

Part of my sensory art class is not only trying to find different ways to use common art materials, but how to use everyday items in an artful way. Here's an example:

I had prepared some cardboard shapes (an egg and a bunny) which we traced them onto cardstock with marker. The students identified six different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. I prepared three palettes with pairs of primary colors and passed them out. Instead of paintbrushes, we used plastic Easter eggs! Using the rounded top and bottom as our vessel to transfer the paint from palette to paper, the  paint started to blend into secondary colors. Once the students were done painting I traded the used eggs and palettes for clean eggs and palettes with glue. I had the students open the eggs and differentiate the big half and little half. Another layer of texture was added to their artwork by dipping the open circular edge of the plastic egg into the glue and stamping it onto their paper. We then sprinkled, shook, and tapped glitter onto the page and the excess into the trash. 

After we create, we always share our art with our friends and compliment each other by using our new vocabulary. This class we got to highlight tracing, paintstrokes, primary and secondary colors, stamping and definition.