During the summer this year I decided to do theme weeks instead of the ABC's of Summer, like last year. I was inspired by this site, which got me all excited to spend the summer with my kids. The first few days of summer vacation were rough, with the change in routine for all of us, and the extra activity around the house, with kids coming and going, especially during my quiet time. But, thankfully, we've got some fun activities planned, with some educational material sneaked in. Sshh!
The first week was Art Week, mostly because it co-incided with Springville's Art City Days Children's Art Festival. We kicked off the week with shaving cream pictures.
First step is to spread shaving cream over a large surface. We used cookie sheets. Then you drop some food coloring in sporadically.
Next steip is to mix it ever so gently with a popsicle stick. Ok, some of us didn't get the concept and used our hands...
When you're satisfied with the mixing, gently place your white paper over the top and pat down. Next, scrape off the shaving cream...
and only the color will remain, making a lovely marbled paper!
Activity #2 was water gun painting. Ok, this one sounded cool, but totally didn't work. Here are the instructions anyway. Maybe someone else will have better luck with it.
Make colored water in separate bowls.
Tape butcher paper to a large, outdoor surface, like a fence. White is best, but we used what we had, hence the yellow. Next, fill up your guns with the chosen color. Doesn't this gang look dangerous?
Next, you squirt your picture onto the paper. This is the part that didn't work. After a short time, a water fight broke out instead. Scott got in on the action with his extra big water gun.
Irelynd took cover under her towell...
...which didn't help her evade the drenching.
On Friday we took our field trip to the Art Festival. It was a rainy, cold day, but the drizzle kept the crowds at bay. We made kites, Father's day cards, glue paintings, string art, sun visors, etc.
The babies were excited about the "ba-boots". With both babies fighting over Waverly's flower, they lasted about 23 minutes.
We also had our faces painted.
a dog...
peace signs...
and Brighton sits down and, when asked what he wanted on his face, goes "a cup." Everyone said "a cup?' Yep, a cup. He changed his mind and went with a tractor instead.
Art week was supposed to be over on Friday, but we had more to do. On Monday and Tuesday we studied the great artists: Picasso, Raphael, Seurat, Renoir and Monet. We first studied their art form and life, then tried to duplicate their artistic style. Scott thought it was cute to look out and see us reading under the tree, so he snuck a few shots.
For Monet and Renoir we used water colors and I told the kids to just look out the window and paint what they saw. For Seurat, we did dot painting with the end of an eraser and washable paints.
The only one I got a picture of was cubism. I had the kids cut facial features out of a magazine and piece them together to make a cubist face. Savannah' probably came closest, with her eyes being uneven, like Picasso paints his faces.
Tomorrow we will end Art Week with a study of Van Gogh. We're going to paint with thickened paint to simulate the texture his paintings all appear to have. That will end this week, and next week we are going to do Around the World week, studying different countries with food, music, and activities. We'll visit the Krishna Temple for India, and go to Spanish Fork's Iceland Day on Friday.
