January- What's New on the Art Shelves this Winter?

Pinpunching snowflakes and mittens. The mittens can be decorated with little dots or paper-punched snowflakes

Pinpunching a snowman and decorating with various items

Cutting coffee-filter snowflakes. I like to pre-fold and pre-draw the lines, then paperclip together to help the younger ones manage this work. Older children can be shown how to prepare the entire activity themselves.

I like to put out a new seasons craft every time the seasons change. This time we’re decorating the trees with dot painting.

Here the children can construct shapes by making little spheres with the playdoh and connecting them with the toothpicks. I made a template for them to get started with… but they can get quite creative with this work!

I’m looking forward to trying out this work with the children. This is designed to teach them how to control a paintbrush: use brush strokes, and clean the brush between colors.

I love this playdoh color mixing work. I prepare the little balls in advance because our class has so many young students, but older children should be able to get their own playdoh. Check your playdoh colors in advance- sometimes the ones labeled red are more orange and will give you a brown when mixed with blue. I use Crayola’s Model Magic for this activity. After the balls have been mixed, you can press them directly onto the paper and they will stick without any glue.