Mind Games

Since we started the week with a Seuss-inspired Muffin Tin, it seemed only fitting to do an art project inspired by One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

First, we decided to make some zany creatures like the Yink and the Nook.

I set out a variety of collage materials – toilet paper tubes, plastic cups, googly eyes, pom poms, popsicle sticks, plastic lids – and two very full bottles of school glue.

The kids had a marvelous time choosing things and squeezing out obscene amounts of glue all over the place!

In fact, they enjoyed this so much that we have left the table of collage things out all week. I have had one or two moments where I realized GoGoGirl was Gluing Without Supervision, but we avoided any serious spills or gluing-the-lizards-to-the-couch incidents.

Here are just a couple of the kids’ creations. The house is slowly filling with aliens, robots, animals, monsters, farmers, and “girls from China who snore” – that’s GoGoGirl’s cupcake liner creation below.

In addition to this fun free-form art, I also did a week-long project with the kids.

First, we made handprints with paint.

When they were dry, we cut them out.

Another day, we used bubble wrap dipped in paint to create the background of the mural.

The kids love to play with the bubble wrap and pat it down onto the paper. Sometimes GoGoGirl gets a little over-enthusiastic and starts to smear it around, but with some encouragement she goes back to the gentle patting that makes nicer prints.

Another day, after the background was dry, we glued the handprints on and gave them some googly eyes. KarateKid decided to cut out some green paper for seaweed and make a really neat sea anemone in the middle. Here is our finished mural:

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

For more great story + art activities, visit A Mommy’s Adventures.