Starry Night at PlayAway

Happy Hooligans inspired our star theme at PlayAway this week. I loved her activity so much, I thought why not try our hand at Van Gogh's The Starry Night.

Supplies: Cardboard (I used cereal boxes) wrapped with tin foil, washable paint, cotton balls and/or paint brushes, and star cutouts (optional).


I made this a two step process. We will paint one day, let it dry, and then glue our stars on the next day. Today we painted. I placed drops of blue and black paint on the cardboard that is covered with tin foil and had my friends paint with cotton balls.

Then I added drops of white and yellow. At this point many of my friends decided they did not like to get messy, therefore switching to paintbrushes. The paintbrushes gave more of the Starry Night feel to the painting.

After they dried we glued on our stars.

Our sensory bin was full of our magical purple sand and stars. I had three star cookie cutters and a handful of foam stars that we use in lacing. Caution the foam stars are very small. Always have an adult supervising small children or they can choke. We counted our stars, and we compared sizes of stars. My friends loved this one so much they spent 10-15 minutes at our sensory table.

We supplemented our theme with a few great books:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Cabera is a fun twist on the original song. I did sing the entire book and it seem to do the trick. All my friends sat for the entire book; no small job for 1-2 year olds.

I will post our complete project when we finish next week. 

Here are some other great star activities by great kid bloggers:


The Imagination Tree: Van Gogh Finger Painting

Happy Whimsical Hearts: Magical Starry Night 

Glitter Stockings

We have been making a lot of ornaments these past few weeks. This glitter stocking is simple, cute and almost mess free. Insert squeals of joy here.

Supplies: glitter, plastic storage bags, double sided tape, and thick paper to make a stocking. Our stockings were pre-made and purchased at Michael's.

First place the double sided tape on your stocking. Do only as many pieces as you want of that color of glitter. Don't do what I did the first time and load up the stocking with tape. It was still cute, but only one color. 

Next place the stocking in a plastic storage bag. Make sure the seal is closed tightly or glitter will be every where. Now tell your child to shake it like crazy!

Repeat the process and change colors of glitter. 

It is that simple. You would think I would have a finished product picture. Nope. I forgot to take one because we were having so much fun with other stuff. 

Next time I would bring along glue dots to make different dots all over rather than just stripes. 

Have you made a glitter ornament?

Trucks!

I love Trucks for a class theme. It is simple, very engaging, and it keeps my friends attention for such a long time.

Supplies: Finger Paint (mine was homemade), trucks, and thick paper.

Sorry about how dark it is, it was a phone photo.

Put a few spoonfuls of finer paint onto the paper. Give your child a truck and tell them it is okay to paint with it. Trust me, they will want permission. This art activity was purely for the sensory aspect. Depending on the paint you use, you may or may not want to keep it.

Some friends painted for a minute or two, others painted for twenty. I am not kidding either, one of my friends sat at the table for twenty minutes while the rest of us moved on.

I then had my friends take their truck to the car wash; a simple dish pan filled with water and a few drops of Ivory soap. This activity was just as much fun as painting with the trucks. Warning, you will need smocks and a lot of towels.

We finished off our theme with a Truck Goes Rattley Bumpba by Jonathon London and free play with play trucks. Class was a huge hit.

Have you painted with trucks before?