{Artistic Expression} Painting with Shapes

It's been several weeks since we dragged the paints out to have a bit of fun.  Since today was a dreary, rainy day in our neck of the woods, I thought we would try a simple art activity that I came across on Lessons Learnt Journal a few months back.  She did an a fun activity with her toddler called block printing that I adapted to fit the supplies that we had lying around the house.  All you need to for this project is paper, foam shapes, and paint. (Well, a few wet wipes wouldn't hurt either!)

I set up this art activity for both mother and son because I love to have a little fun right there beside you! Since you're still learning your shapes, I thought that sticking to only circles would be a good idea for today. (Tomorrow we'll try squares!) I began making dots all over the paper with my circles, and you joined right in.  You dotted, rolled, and smeared the circles all around on the paper.  You even tried stacking the them in you spare time! After you got tired of that, you decided that hand prints were the way to go.  It was really interesting to see how you decided to use the objects that were given to you without any input from me.  I did, however, talk to you about what I was doing, while asking you questions about yours. In the end, we had two lovely pieces of art that you created, plus one that Mom made as well!        

Variations:

~ Try cutting out different shapes using a sponge and paint with those.
~ Make circles using cork. (Putti's World)
~ Create shapes with only your finger as the brush.
~ Use a stamp pad instead of paint.
~ Mom can trace different shapes onto the paper with a pencil and the child can paint them.
~ Find a potato and turn it into a circle stamp. 

Extensions:

~ Play connect the dots with the circles that you painted.
~ Wait until your circles are dry, then paint with another shape. 
~ Turn the circles into faces!
~ Use your finished product to make a card (or bookmarks) and send it to a loved one.
~ Talk about the different colors that you painted with and try mixing them to make new colors.


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