Warm and Cool Butterflies

This is a project I did with 100 kinders last week.




They got to do some painting, some printmaking, cutting and pasting and they turned out terrific.

Here are some of the butterflies in process.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- canvas board
- paper
- acrylic paint in warm and cool colours
- pool noodles, paper rolls, and/or other round items for printmaking
- pencil and scissors
- tacky glue
- scraps of coloured paper
- buttons
- large glass gems, flat on one side
- pipe cleaners
- pony beads
- glue gun, to be used by adult only
- Mod podge

PROCEDURE:

Whenever I'm shopping for supplies at the Dollar store (which is often) I pick up canvas board.

It is a great deal. The 5"X 7" pack gives you 3 boards for a dollar, the 7"X 9"gives you 2 for a dollar.

For this project we are using the 7"x 9". You could also just do this on paper if you prefer.

I had a discussion with the kids about warm and cool colours.

We want our background in cool colours and our butterflies in warm colours.

The kids picked either blue or green for the background.

They painted the canvas board with a big brush.

I then handed out light blue paint or dark green paint.  I advised the kids they had to stay in their colour selection, no blue and green mixed.

We then used sponges and added some variation to our canvas board.


Set aside to dry.

I handed out paper to all the kids, we discussed warm colours again.  I grouped the kids at the tables by what warm colour they wanted to use. (Red, Orange, Pink)


I held back yellow for our printmaking.

We painted the paper in our warm colour.

I handed out cut up pool noodles and paper tubes.

We switched warm colours between the tables and I added yellow.

The kids then stamped on circles.





Set aside to dry.  All of our papers and canvas board dried in about 45 minutes during which the kids had snack and recess.

Hand back the painted pieces.

Fold the warm painted paper.

I had the kids turn their papers so the fold was on the left.

I explained to the Kinders that we can make a butterfly using the number 3.


We wanted large 3's not tiny ones.

The kids then cut out their 3, cutting it while folded in one go.

They measured it on their background canvas, if it was too big we trimmed it down.  The butterfly could be horizontal or vertical.



We then glued them on.

I took some black card stock and ran it through my crimper.

The kids then cut the body of the butterfly from this paper.  We talked about how it is a long hotdog shape.



Glue this is place.

To make the head of the butterfly I gave a large glass gem to each student.

They traced around it on a little piece of paper.

The kids drew on faces on the paper using sharpie and pencil crayons.





The circles were then cut out.

Using Mod podge paint the flat side of the large gem.

Then place the face on the Mod podge.


The Mod podge will dry clear and you will see the face through the gem.

Glue head into place using tacky glue.

The kids glued on a few buttons.

I gave them scraps of coloured paper so they could add to their butterfly.

Take a pipe cleaner, cut in half and have an adult glue gun it in place above the head.

At the top of the pipe cleaner add a bead, fold over a little bit of the end to hold the pipe cleaner in place.

Glue a piece of ribbon to the back of the canvas for a hanger.

Finally you can add a coat of Mod podge to add that nice shiny finish and glue everything down really well.

That's it.


Great work Kindergarten!

See you next time.


Gail