O is for . . .

So I am a little behind on these posts and I need to pick up the pace a little bit. I have a goal to do two letters a week until I catch up. Wish me luck! :) 

The tricky part about that is some of these posts are going to be a little long.

 But let me tell you, this one is worth it. We did one of the coolest looking art projects we've ever done, and the big thing is that the kids did the work. Sometimes we do cool stuff, but I end up helping with part of it. For this one, I really didn't do much to help and they ended up looking awesome. You'll see as you scroll down. Trust me, it's awesome with color and texture so read on. 

O is for . . .

. . . orange olive paintings in the shape of an o.

 . . .octopus math. Click here. for a free printable. 

(When you click on the link, there are a lot of ads on the page. You want to click the small grey download button right beneath the box that says view document. You will need to sign in to download the paper. You can sign up for a free 4shared account or use your social media outlet to download. Please leave a message below if you have any problems or questions.) 

 . . . ocean art. 

I saw a tutorial for using salt to give a paper a batik fabric feel. When I looked up the tutorial it called for water color paper and liquid water colors. More power to this family for making authentic art, but we are construction paper and tempra paint kind of people over here. (Shhh, but water color paper and liquid water colors are kind of expensive to use for a preschool craft!) So I decided to try it the hard core preschool way - with construction paper and tempra paint. :) The extra cool thing about this way of painting is that each picture ends up really cool in color and texture and each one is really unique. I don't usually take pictures of every child's work, but I did in this case because they were all so cool. Check them out. 

  

Want to make your own? 

Here's What You Need:

• paper (we used construction paper, but you could also try card stock you just might have to get it a little more wet)
• tempra paint)
• water
• pipettes or droppers
• fish cut outs
• salt

Here's What We Did

1. Use a paint brush to paint your paper all over with water. Get it wet enough that it can absorb and spread colors dropped on it. 
2. Water down tempra paint in the colors you want to use. We did green, blue, and teal to give our pictures an oceany feel. 
3. Use pipettes to drop colors on the wet paper. 
4. 
5. Swirl the colors around on the paper so it covers all the white with your fingers or a brush or by tipping the paper back and forth. 
6. Blot off any excess paint with another piece of paper. 
7. Sprinkle salt over your painting and let dry. 
8. After it has dried, add cut out fish to your ocean landscape.

Pretty cool huh?