summer – Page 3

Craft Spotlight: Fingerpaint Flower

Big, bold and bright, Fingerpaint Flowers are the perfect art activity to paint out in the spring air! The best part about fingerpainting outside is that it adds another dimension of sensory development: not only are students using fingerpaints to stimulate finger movement, but the warmth of the sunlight will warm up the paint and the fingerpainting paper!

You don’t have to get the students to paint the entire flower. It can serve as a group activity! For younger students, paint sections of the flower petals. Some students may get a bit overwhelmed by the size of the fingerpainting canvas. Focus each student on painting one small space at a time, like one petal out of the whole flower. This will help students to narrow down their fingerpainting.

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The R75422 Big! Huge! Fingerpaint Flowers can be painted then used as classroom decorations. Make a giant fingerpaint flower garden!

Once the paint on the Fingerpaint Flower is dry, paste other materials such as yarn, scrap paper, sequins, glitter glue and more to decorate! Add fun designs or patterns to the flower petals with markers or crayons.

To view more ideas in the instructional guide, click here!

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Posted on April 15, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Ms. Johnston’s class makes our Tessellations!

Today we get to show off more Tessellations fun with art projects from Ms. Johnston’s class!

This post, titled “Tessellations are so fun!” was published on May 9th, 2012 and was posted on Mrs. Johnston’s Blog: Adventures in Fifth Grade. Click here to visit the link!

Our R5863 Animal Tessellations are a hit in classrooms! These beautiful animal patterns can be combined to create repeated patterned shapes, known as tessellations.

Great for inter-subject learning! Combine math and art together to foster enjoyable learning for your students. Teach your students about mathematical tessellations using the guide provided.

View the complete R5863 Animal Tessellations PDF guide here!

Tracing the Tessellations designs are a great way to encourage critical thinking skills in patterning and symmetry designs. Tessellations are all about repeating patterns. First, trace the outline of your chosen design onto a sheet of paper.

Remove the design, then find common lines to re-position your template on. Trace a second design right beside the first using these common designs.

Later, once you are finished filling your sheet of paper with Tessellations designs, color the designs in!

Thanks to Ms. Johnston for sharing her students’ work!

Images and original post © Mrs. Johnston’s Blog: Adventures in Fifth Grade

This post was not sponsored for a review. At LittleFingersBigArt, our mission is to present to our readers and viewers the newest and most creative craft ideas that fans of Roylco have made on their own. Our goal is to allow you and other educators and parents to reuse our products in fun ways so that children always get the best educational experience from them!

We’d love to see more ideas like this one! If you’ve got a brilliant craft idea or have made a version of one of our crafts that you would like to share with us, send an email to subscriber@roylco.ca with photos, descriptions or a link to your work. We will create a feature post and link back to you with full credit. We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on April 4, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Craft Spotlight: My Garden Stained Glass Frames

Beautiful stained glass frames can be made by cutting out bits of 15257 Stained Glass Paper to fill in the gaps of the frame design. We got some great shots of the Art Campers hanging up the 52089 My Garden Stained Glass Frames in the garden!

The My Garden Stained Glass Frames come in 8 designs. Your students can choose between a bee, spiderweb, dragonfly, butterfly and various flower designs! These Stained Glass Frames feature pre-punched holes, so you can hang your students’ finished frames from the ceiling in your classroom.

First, trace the gaps of the stained glass frames onto a sheet of Stained Glass Paper. Cut a bit of a border around the outline. Spread some glue around the border and press onto the back of the stained glass frame.

Be sure to change up the colors of the stained glass paper that you use. That way, the design will really stand out!

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Posted on March 31, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Drip Drip Splatter Splash uses our Color Diffusing Paper!

Create awesome effects on Color Diffusing Paper! The Drip, Drip, Splatter, Splash blog posted their butterfly artwork which used Color Diffusing Paper, permanent marker and watercolor paints.

The post was published on April 17, 2013 and is entitled, “Butterfly Art.” Click here to visit the page!

Using permanent marker helps to create definite lines that students can use as guidelines for painting. We suggest to first have your design sketched out onto scrap paper. Once you are satisfied with the look, place a sheet of Color Diffusing Paper on top. Trace the outlines with black marker onto the Color Diffusing Paper.

Watercolor paints work best with the Diffusing Paper as it gets absorbed into and throughout the paper. This neat effect is due to the process of diffusion. Diffusion happens when the particles in watercolors meet a material like diffusing paper that has little to no water content. As a result, it is always trying to fill in that area with watercolor particles.

The first part of the post shows a beautiful picture of the various butterfly renditions made with Color Diffusing Paper. Scroll further down the post to see other variations made with different materials!

Thanks to Shelly P for sharing her work!

Images and original post © Drip, Drip, Splatter Splash

Posted on March 28, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Personalized Art Totes!

Store your art materials in personalized art totes! Make one for yourself (the ever-patient and longstanding art teacher) or invite your students to make one for you. The project is pretty simple and quick so students will love the opportunity to make more!

Age: 3+

Duration: 5-10 minutes

You’ll Need:

• Assorted rubbing plates: R5841 Optical Illusion Rubbing Plates / R5871 Organics Rubbing Plates / R5870 Linear Rubbing Plates / R5804 Flower Rubbing Plates

• Assorted stencils: R5615 Nature Stencils / R58621 Number Stencils / R58620 Fine Motor Skills Stencils / R5621 Rangoli Mega Stencils / R5618 Big Alphabet and Picture Stencils / R5522 Child’s First Stencil Set

• Crayons

• Dollar store / cloth totes

In this project, I’ll show you how to combine stencils and rubbing plates together to make authentic-looking prints. You can separate this combination into two activities, depending on their difficulty level: Younger children can use only stencils and crayons. Color the inside of the traced shape. Older children can use specific colors for certain parts of a rubbing plate pattern.

Here, I decided to make a leaf print on my art tote. To do this, I’ve selected a leaf stencil and chosen a rubbing plate pattern to match. In addition, I’ve picked two crayon shades of the color green.

First, trace the leaf shape onto the middle of one side of the tote. Make the outline dark enough so the edges are visible on all sides.

The rubbing plate fits so nicely into the tote bag, it was like it was meant to be!

The cloth will be a lot tougher than regular paper. Be sure to use the point of the crayon to bring the pattern out. Rub the pattern all around the inside of the stencil outline.

Repeat the same technique for the opposite side! Here, I’ve simply used a rubbing plate print and rubbed directly onto the tote, without need of a stencil. Younger students can try this technique, since it’s a basic way to decorate the art totes.

The next technique is a little tricky, however. Encourage older students to try this method out:

Slip an Illusion rubbing plate or something similar inside the tote. Pick out several vibrant crayon colors.

Rub certain sections of the art tote with one color, then switch to another color when you reach a different section of the rubbing pattern. Against the black tote, the neon colors just pop right out!

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Here’s a rubbing plate print from one of our Organics Rubbing Plates.

Use your art totes to store your art materials (such as the rubbing plates, loose crayons, markers, scrap paper and so on)!

Thanks for viewing our post! Subscribe to our blog for updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with new craft ideas! If you’ve made any projects using the materials in this post or would like to showcase your own ideas, send us an email to subscriber@roylco.ca!

Posted on March 5, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Colored Rice Stencil Shapes

Earlier this week, we posted a Craft Spotlight post on Colored Rice. Today we’ll show you how to use Colored Rice with our various stencil shapes to make decorative shapes for your classroom wall!

Age: 4+

Duration: 15-20 minutes

You’ll Need:

• R2114 Colored Rice

• R5522 Child’s First Stencil Set

• Construction paper / Card paper

• White glue

• Scissors

• Plastic bowls

• Paintbrush

• Paint tray

This activity encourages students to work through a multi-step process. The first step encourages children to use their fine motor skills while tracing the image in the stencil. The second is carefully layering glue onto the image. The third is dropping a little bit of rice at a time onto the image, being careful to hold the rice between joined fingers. Not only do you end up with a great result but students gain some fine motor experience as well!

It’s a good idea to keep all the work inside a paint tray to eliminate problems that may happen from potential spills or mess.

Choose your favorite stencil shape and place onto the card paper. Cover the inside of the stencil entirely with glue. Spread the glue using an old paint brush so you get an even layer.

Next, remove the stencil. Grab a pinch of Colored Rice and spread all over the card paper. Make sure you layer on as much as possible!

You have to ensure that the entire image is covered. The more Colored Rice you drop onto the image, the better chance you have of the rice adhering straight to the glue.

Wait for the glue to dry completely! Lift up the edge of the card paper and shake off the excess rice.

How brilliant is that! The Colored Rice has a wonderful multi-color blend that makes any shape stand out. The final step is to cut the shape out.

Cut around the rice shape to give it a small white border. Apply a bit of tape or sticky tack to the back of the shape and post it up on a classroom wall!

Combine several different shapes together!

Thanks for stopping by! If you’ve made a craft similar to this or would like to send us your ideas, drop us a line at subscriber@roylco.ca! We’d love to hear from you.

Posted on February 26, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Craft Spotlight: Colored Rice

R2114 Colored Rice doesn’t work just as a collage material. It produces artwork that can be used in sensory activities! Non-toxic and easy to use. Check out more below!

A basic way to use Colored Rice is to first draw a basic image onto construction paper. Construction paper holds up best against glue, which is what we will use to stick the rice on. When you’ve drawn out your simple shape onto the paper, prepare your glue.

First, make sure your workstation is completely covered in a plastic sheet or newspaper. This will be important for later on. We suggest using something to catch the excess rice in, such as our plastic paint trays! Drop the glue into a plastic bowl and use an old brush to spread it across all the interior parts of the shape.

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Once you have completely spread a layer of glue onto the shape you’ve drawn, sprinkle a large amount of Colored Rice all over the construction paper sheet. Let the rice sit onto the sheet until the glue is completely dry.

When the glue is dry, gently lift up one edge of the paper and allow the excess rice to shake off. The rest will stick to the parts of the image that were covered in glue.

To see more about this process, watch the video below!

Your students’ projects can be used as sensory images! Ask students to choose one simple shape each to make (such as stars, flowers, squares, circles, etc). Cut out small squares (about 4 x 4″) from construction paper and distribute one square to each student. Students can draw their chosen shape onto their square, cover the shape with glue and apply the rice to make the sensory images. Shake off the excess when the glue is dry.

Gather children into groups. One student in each group will be the leader. The leader will collect everyone’s sensory images and tell everyone to close their eyes. While no one is looking, the leader randomly distributes one sensory image to each student. Students must keep their eyes closed and feel over the rice texture to guess what shape it is!

Thanks for dropping by! Explore our site to see more crafts like this. If you were inspired to make something from this craft, send us photos of your work to subscriber@roylco.ca and we will publish a special post! We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on February 24, 2014February 12, 2020 by Raman

Crayon Shaving Stained Glass Paper

Last year, one of our most popular crafts used a technique with shaved crayon bits to make authentic-looking stained glass images. Try it out for yourself! The stained glass effect can be applied to any of our black-frame designs.

Age: 5+ (Adult Supervision Required)

Duration: 20-30 minutes

You’ll Need:

• R52087 Tropical Fish Stained Glass Frames / R52070 Stained Glass Frames /R52074 Junior Stained Glass Frames / R52093 Stained Glass Lantern

• Unlabeled crayon sticks

• Pencil sharpener

• Black marker

• Wax paper

• Paper towel

• Iron (CAUTION: Use adult supervision!)

• Scissors

• Glue

Stack the sheets of wax paper and staple them together if they aren’t already attached. Place several sheets of the paper towel on top of and below the wax paper sheets to minimize mess. Lift the top sheet up and crease along the spine to hold it in place above the second sheet of wax paper. This second sheet of wax paper will be your workspace.

Place the wax paper on an iron-safe surface, preferrably a craft table.

Use the pencil sharpener to sharpen the ends of the crayon. Hold the pencil sharpener and the crayon stick above the workspace so that the shavings fall onto the wax paper. Keep sharpening the crayon ends until you have just about covered the workspace area. Tip: Use different colors to make the best crayon shavings mix. In the next step after this one, I found that using fluorescent-colored crayons produced the best results. The colors were so bright and beautiful. If you never had a real use for fluorescent crayons (as the colors don’t show up so well on regular paper), save them instead for this project!

Once you have just about covered the sheet of wax paper, replace the first sheet of wax paper over top to cover. Make sure that the top and bottom of the wax paper sandwich is covered with paper towel. This is crucial for this next step. CAUTION: Using an iron requires adult supervision. Make sure you do not use any hot appliances without proper protection (oven mitts, for instance!).

Set the iron between the LOW and MEDIUM settings. Place the iron on top of the paper towel. Gradually push the iron across the paper towel in a zig-zagging motion. This will help to heat up the crayon wax to a liquid. While you push the iron across the sheet of paper, the crayon colors will converge and blend to create a wonderful stained glass look.

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When you have run the iron several times over the sheet of paper, remove the iron and have a look between the layers of wax paper to see how the crayon melt is forming. If it looks like it needs a little more work, fold the wax paper down and cover with the paper towel, then run over it with the iron.

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Place the stained glass design onto the crayon wax paper and adjust so that all the gaps are mostly covered by the color underneath. Use a black marker to trace around the outside edge of the stained glass design. This is a step that students will enjoy trying out for themselves as they can get to see how their finished art piece will look like.

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When you have finished tracing, cut out the crayon wax melt from the resulting outline. Hint: Make sure you keep track of what side of the stained glass design goes on top of the crayon wax melt. Use tape to secure the edges of the crayon wax melt and the stained glass design together.

Flip the design over to make sure none of the wax paper shows outside of the edges. Trim any excess off with your scissors or reapply and tape the wax melt onto the stained glass design.

Experiment with different colors and our other stained glass designs (the product numbers are available above in the materials list). The colors really are gorgeous! Hang the stained glass designs against a window to catch the light. When sunlight shines through the wax, the color will bounce off and reflect into the room. Enjoy the view. Talk to your students about the properties of light and color while creating the stained glass designs.

If you have a large window in your classroom, make an entire theme of stained glass designs to hang up! The view looks great both inside and out!

Thanks for stopping by! Give us your input or send us photos of your own projects to subscriber@roylco.ca. We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on February 19, 2014May 21, 2020 by Raman