Barefoot at the Beach

     

 This week we made more summer themed art. I still have a looooong time to come up with summer projects since winter doesn't occur until around January down here in Texas. For those of you that don't know, we only have two temperatures, warm and hot. We named this one "Barefoot at the Beach." Another good title would be "Footprints in the Sand."

     

       We started by folding a standard sized (9x12) piece of construction paper in half. You may need to use a larger size, depending on what size your kids feet are. I used an off-white color but I am curious to see how a true white sheet would look. I still have a few kids left to do so I may try the white paper. I used a little piece of masking tape to keep the paper folded to make sure the kids didn't unfold it and turn it over to paint the back of the paper. I gave them a small container (more on that later) with blue paint in it. Next, I gave them another small container with white paint in it. I am also curious to see how blue paint only would look, I will probably try that next week as well.  

Update: 

      I tried doing the scene on plain white paper and it did not look as good as the off-white color. I also had the kids use just blue paint and it also didn't come out as well. I guess first instincts are always the best.

      

      Next, I mixed some glue, water and sand in a container. I got the sand right out of the sandbox on our playground by sifting it with a fine colander, the children even helped. I used enough water to make the mixture a little thicker than tempera paint alone, but somewhat thinner than glue. They painted

the other side of the paper with the sand mixture.

Close up of the painted on sand mixture

      

      I let the papers dry overnight. Next came the fun part, for the kids at least. I painted each one of their feet with red paint. You can use any color you prefer, I just thought red would show up nicely. The children always love getting their hands and feet painted, most of them anyway. There's always that one kid that never wants to do it. It's up to you whether or not to used a "forgery" foot. I usually do. I wouldn't want to deprive a parent from receiving one of these works of art and most of the kids in my class don't really talk yet so they can't rat me out. I did both feet, one foot at a time of course, onto the sand side of the paper with the toes facing the crease of the fold. I had the children sit in a chair and put the paper on a clipboard and pressed the foot up against it. If your children are older, you can have them step directly onto the paper placed on the floor.  

This particular girl has one toe that is always wedged above the big toe and third toe and never 

shows up. The funny thing is, she has a twin sister who's foot does exactly the same thing.

After the kids had done the footprint I did touch it up a little with a small paint brush

(especially those of the 4 toed twins) to define the toes and edges.

I always have a basin with some soapy water, a nail brush and a towel waiting nearby

 when I paint hands, or especially feet, to clean the paint off.

   

      After the footprints had dried I flipped the paper over back over to the blue (water) side. 

                      I let the kids choose some ocean themed stickers to stick on.

These foam stickers are very good for developing fine motor skills. They are individual (not all on one sheet of backing) and on the smaller side. The children have to peel the backing off a relatively small backing to stick them onto paper.

      We had these really cool tiny shells in the art closet. I put a handful of shells into THE container. Here's where we get to another one of my recycled items that is possibly as useful as glue dots. At my preschool we have children as young as six months. Apparently an easy lunch for parents to throw together is Gerber Graduates. These blue containers have proven to be very useful for many things. When one of my kids brings a gallon sized container of spaghetti for lunch, I give them a small amount of it at a time in one of these containers to prevent the majority of it from being hurled onto the floor. I also use them to transport paint, glue, beads, sequins, etc. from the art closed to the classroom rather than take the entire supply and have to remember to return it later, which in my case is much later. I have a bad habit of putting materials in my cabinet and forget about them until one of my biannually cabinet cleanings. When the kids get markers or paint on the table I give them one of these little gems with some soap (we have the foamy kind in a dispenser in the bathroom) with a nail brush to scrub it off. And, I use them for this purpose, to give the kids a small amount of materials for the project we are working on. Another useful container is the small plastic bowl that fruit cups are in.

Behold the wonder that is the Gerber Graduate Blue Bowl. If you are familiar with the size of the bowl then you can tell how tiny the shells are.

      Next we finally unfolded the paper exposing both sides. Now we had a sandy beach with 

an ocean full of sea animals. I usually prefer to have the kids paint glue on for projects, but I knew 

it was going to take a good amount of glue to keep the shells in place, so I drizzled in on. The children

 put the shells onto the glue. I did go back and put more glue over the top to secure the shells on better. 

Tiny shells glued onto the beach.

     

       After the glue holding the seashells on had dried, I used foam letter stickers to spell out, "Barefoot at the Beach" and the child's name. When I took these pictures I hadn't put the year on it yet, but I always date every project the kids take home. That allows the parents show off the masterpieces, created by their Little Picassos at the tender age of 2, to all to all of their family and friends.

      You can see where the masking tape held the paper together. I will touch that up and add the date before sending the project home. This project was fun as well as educational. We talked about oceans and the animals that live in them. We also talked about the colors of the different animal stickers. The children that can talk some, told us about their trips to the beach. One child shared with us about Shamu and his trip to Sea World. I read books about ocean animals. We also did matching work of language cards which I made from clip art of an ocean animal depicted on them and the corresponding figure(again Dollar Store plastic animals.) We sang songs about fish and other animals in the ocean.

     Noah's scene in the picture below was made before I found my other ocean stickers in my previously mentioned black hole closet. I could only find stickers of dolphins and whales in the school's art closet. I had to improvise and cut the gold fish, shovel and pail out of foam sheets. I also did this one with the paper in a landscape direction.  Like all of my projects, it's all trial and error.