Recently I created a foxy, fall project with a fun crew of 5-7 year olds. Before drawing and painting, we read How to Find a Fox by Kate Gardner, featuring stunning photographs taken by Ossi Saarinen.  We learned a lot about foxes, laughed a little, and noticed what colors foxes had on them.

Then we drew foxes together with black oil pastels. I used this great step-by-step guide from Art Projects for Kids. They have so many great drawing tutorials.

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After drawing, I let the artists tell me what colors of liquid tempera paint they would like to use for their fox.  Many of them chose to mix their own version of red-orange or yellow-orange, with small areas of black and white.

In our next class, we tackled the background.  We used a square of cardboard to paint tree trunks onto blue paper.  Scraping the cardboard creates a rough, bark-like texture.  We used white paint, with a bit of black for shading/texture.   I then showed them how to stamp with a large flat brush to create fall leaves.  We painted a canopy of leaves on the trunks, and piles of fallen leaves on the ground.

Then on to the finishing touches.  The artists cut out their foxes and glued them onto their backgrounds.  They then had a chance to use oil pastels to add any final touches and details.

I also did this project with a younger group of 4-5 year olds.  We changed up the background, drawing brown trees with oil pastels, and fingerpainting on the leaves (though some weren’t excited about the mess of finger-painting, and so I also offered q-tips.). I also simplified it by just giving them orange paint for the foxes instead of having them mix their own.

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​Our focus yesterday in the Mini Makers class was Lines.  We were inspired by the book Lines That Wiggle by Candace Whitman.  It’s super charming and has lovely illustrations. 

After reading the book, my 4-5 year olds were eager to look around the room and point out all the different kinds of lines they could find — wavy, straight, zig-zag, dotted, curly . . .

Now for the project that was inspired by the book.  Our materials were . . .

• 8x10 black cardstock
• scraps of painted paper and construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• oil pastels

First, they filled their black paper with as many different kinds of lines as they could manage. I encouraged them to use a variety of colors, and even to overlap lines.

Then we made 3-D lines (and we discussed 2-D vs. 3-D, and that 3-D artworks are called sculptures).  One key step is to count to 10 slowly every time you glue a side down, otherwise it will pop right off when you attempt to glue the other side.

The kids really got into these paper sculptures.  It was a bit of an engineering puzzle for them to figure out different ways they wanted their lines to go.

(Project inspiration came from this blog post)

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Stuck indoors on a rainy Saturday in October?  I feel you.  Here’s a fun and simple project that the whole family can be apart of — Boo Bunting!  Bonus: the finished product makes for a cute and classy Halloween decoration.

I got the idea from this blog post, which includes a free ghost printable.  I knew it would be much more fun for my family to draw our own ghosts, but the printable is there for you if that’s what you’d prefer.

Here are the materials we used . . .

• white cardstock
• black cardstock
• twine
• Black Sharpies
• Silver sharpie
• Scissors
• Tape

First, I assigned Ryan and Ransom to draw ghosts with black sharpies, while I measured our mantle to see how long our garland should be. (As an art teacher, I have to point out that drawing ghosts uses organic shapes, rather than geometric shapes).  

I laid the measured twine on the floor, so we could plan our pattern and make sure we made enough ghosts.  I also cut out some triangles from the black cardstock and wrote “BOO!” on them with a silver sharpie, while the guys cut out their ghosts, to give our bunting a little variety.

We laid out all the ghosts and triangles along the twine to make sure we had enough, and then taped the twine to the back of each piece. (Originally we tried to use clothespins, but found that they covered up the ghosts faces.)

​Viola, easy and fun Halloween Boo Bunting!

It’s super satisfying to create something all together that we are all proud of. 

A fun book to pair with this project? How to Make Friends with a Ghost by Rebecca Green.

(This blog post contains affiliate links. If you purchase an item from one of those links, it helps support what we do at Bright Art Studio.  I will only link to products that I would buy myself.)

Last week our Mini Makers class (4-6 year olds) made some clay pinch pots.  I have never done this project with such a young group and was so impressed with how well they did.

The pinch pot is a classic intro-level clay project. You simply start with a ball of clay, press your thumb inside to create a small hole, and then continue to pinch with your thumb inside, turning it around like a steering wheel, until you have a small pot.  You can use the surface of the table to tap the top and bottoms to make it level.

​I found this great visual explanation on Mini Matisse.

I don’t have a kiln, so we used air dry clay instead.  After forming the pots, I provided pony beads, jewels, and sequins for the students to press into the clay and bedazzle their creations.  

I love how the little pots each have their own personality.  

Now that the clay has hardened, I plan on sealing them by painting on a coat of clear varnish on each pot.

A great picture book to read with this project is The Pot that Juan Built.  I worried my little folks would find the repetition in the book a bit tedious (because I think that when I’m reading aloud), but they were super into it.  It follows the process of creating a clay pot, from finding the clay underground to baking it in a fire. And I love that it features a real ceramic artist from Mexico, Juan Quezada.