Z - 4 Ways

This week in my one-on-one art session we worked on flexibility and small variations. Our base for each project was the letter Z. I prepared a few sheets with a highlighted cut line or draw line.

Our first Z, we traced the draw line repeatedly with different markers (first hand-over-hand and then independently) to practice our line direction and lifting our arm of the table, as to make big line motions smoothly. Next, I directed to cut the two highlighted triangles on each side of the paper.

The next Z was created with masking tape. I cut and placed the pieces in the letter shape. Markers were then used to color all over in all the colors. Once we identified that the instructions had been met, by finding white space and naming the colors while comparing with our markers, we removed the tape.

The third Z used another prepared paper. I selected sheets of small stickers and instructed that they need to be placed inside the lines. Once the space was filled, glue and glitter were used to outline the letter.

Our fourth and final Z involved string pony beads on pipe cleaners. To give fingers a break from all the fine motor of beading, we hole punched the four corners of a piece of cardstock.

We threaded the ends of the pipe cleaners through the holes to form our letter.

To secure, I twisted the joining pipe cleaners together and taped all the ends with packaging tape to the back of the paper.

Chalk - 2 Ways

Continuing with our summer theme, we worked with colored sidewalk chalk. Our first creation started with a sheet of white cardstock and drawing with chalk in at least two colors and all over the paper. I had the kids take turns and trade the pieces of chalk, as to encourage speech and socialization skills. Then, we took turns spritzing our papers with a spray bottle filled with water. The chalk simulated a watercolor effect.  

Our second piece of art started with black construction paper. We always start each new paper by writing our name on the back. This is difficult with our paper choice today, so we wrote on white paper, cut it out, and glued it to the back. Our routine is still in tact, phew. I passed out small cups filled with water and then the chalk pieces. This time we dipped the chalk into the water and then drew on our paper. This made the colors more vibrant and saturated. While the paper was still wet we drizzled glue and sprinkled glitter.

Red, White & Blue Sensory Art

So, in preparation for the 4th of July weekend we made some red, white and blue art inspired by fireworks this week. We worked mainly with tempera paint in hot pink, white and blue with painting tools that were not your normal paintbrushes.

I passed around a large Ziploc bag filled with bendy straws and everyone was asked to choose five. We held them together and taped them with masking tape right by the bend. Then the straws were bent out into a starburst pattern.

We passed around paper plates of paint, dipped our strawburst and then stamped it onto our construction paper (some stamped and some smeared; we make sure to comment about these differences during our show and tell portion of each session)

I had premade some pompom daubers by pinching different size pompoms with clothespins and secured them with masking tape.

And this project we used pipe cleaners to create our firework effect. 

We made the "fireworks" with paint and the pipe cleaner tool, and the dauber we used glue and sprinkled with glitter to finish.



I am always amazed at the individuality of each painting, even though we use the same limited amount of supplies!