A How-To Guide for our marbleized shaving cream paintings.

As many of you may have noticed and read about earlier in the blog, we have been making a large amount of marbled prints with shaving cream and liquid watercolors.  We frequently hear the children asking to make these prints over and over again, and when the materials are out and available, everyone in the school is interested in pursuing the project.  We want the children to have the freedom to ask for what they are interested in and support their curiosity in creation, even if it means doing the same project over and over again.  In this fast-paced and over-stimulated world, it can be really important to provide children with the same activities over and over again so that they may dive deeper and deeper into their exploration, uncovering new discoveries with familiar materials.  Throughout this process the children are able to explore color mixing, design and patterns, properties of liquids, and more.  Each child brings their own vision and experience to the project and we are seeing more refined techniques as the project unfolds.  For example, Quinlan likes to slowly and carefully put the droppers of paint onto her shaving cream and meticulously uses a chopstick to swirl her pattern.  Niamh quickly drops as much paint as she can on her shaving cream and hurriedly whizzes the chopstick around to create swirls.  Nava starts by dropping the paint and then decides to pour all of her paint on the shaving cream, making a liquid "mess," but it still yields a beautiful print unique to Nava.  Here is the information for the project if you would like to try it at home! 

Materials:  

Shaving cream (the gel doesn't work as well)

Liquid watercolors or diluted food coloring 

Droppers or pipette to apply the color

A chopstick or fork to make swirling pattern 

A tray to do the project on 

Cardstock paper (Cut in half works best.  We have also used regular printer paper, but it is very thin and a bit more difficult to work with)

Something to scrape off the shaving cream-- this could be a piece of cardboard, a popsicle stick, a plastic scraper, etc. 

1. Prepare a tray with a thin layer of shaving cream (big enough to cover the size of paper you are using) and a selection of colors with droppers 

2.  Squeeze the colors onto the shaving cream and use a chopstick or fork to making swirling designs in the shaving cream (or skip this step and make prints with large color blobs)

3.  Press the piece of paper gently on top of the shaving cream design and pat the top of the paper, especially in the corners to get a full design 

4.  Carefully pull the piece of paper off the shaving cream 

5.  Scrape the shaving cream off in one direction with a scraper

6.  Hang it up to dry!

Dear PG&E, Forgive me, but they insisted that all the dead berries needed to be dropped into the tiny holes of this lid.

Making magic potions in the backyard is way more fun than taking a nap.  Fact. 

Nava and Adelise performed an entire set of songs at the magic tree today. Singing together into their stick and stone microphones, they blew us away with their passion and focus. 

These two girls have been growing up together under my roof.  Watching them go from toddlers to almost Kindergartners has been a constant party.  Watching them go from strangers to true friends has been a slow and delicate unfolding.  Little kids, BIG love.  

Holly Park is filled with peeling bark, acorns, pinecones, sticks, seed pods, and the children who love them.

Snacks at the park always taste better.

Quinlan has been making an effort to get her friends on board with Moominland books.  When I came downstairs after lunch, she had been sitting in the secret room with Parker reading to her.  Apparently she has made a new Moominland fan.

"Look, Kishtee.  I ride the horsey."

Arthur loves music.  Most kids do.  If I'm lucky, he will sit down with the ukulele and he will make music for us while we piece together puzzles and wind down before nap.  Today he did me the favor of twisting every single knob and creating his own signature tuning.  And ya know what?  His tunes sounded just as sweet.

What if we had craft and construction supplies on the shelves, instead of toys?  What if the next time a little girl had an idea in her head, she had access to everything she needed to make it manifest?  And what if she gets to do this nearly every day, alongside peers and teachers who are doing the same.  Imagine how competent and capable she might learn to feel.  She has been practicing the process of creating something from nothing almost every day in preschool.  She has seen projects through every stage of the process, from proposal to unveiling.  She is a skilled problem-solver and knows how to work as a team.  

The tools + supplies set-up is what a project-based classroom typically looks like.  The idea is that the teachers will show kids how to use different supplies, but allow the children's interests and imaginations to guide the learning.  We are curious to see what this new intention and new classroom arrangement will inspire in a mixed-age setting such as ours.  

These three girls know how to get all around our neighborhood.  They guide the way, when asked, and show us how to get to the park, the library, the fire station, and even the secret trail back way to St. Mary's Playground.  I love their confidence.

Someone else loathes the wind as much as I do.

           Only 10 minutes till rest time.  Let's get together in the clouds and start winding down.

These two have been engaged in a weeks-long dialogue consisting mostly of inside jokes and incessant giggling.  Sometimes they will include swinging.

We have been experimenting with shaving cream and liquid watercolors lately.  The resulting images are truly fantastic, but what's even more exciting about this is the sensory play and color mixing involved in the process.  The kids get lost in it, and it seems to fully captivate their attention.  They are begging for it every day and asking to make more, more, more! I have made 10-12 of my own prints and I plan to make cards with them when I'm done exploring and ready to move on up to card stock.  I'm curious to try the technique with fabric dye and fabrics.

-KK

After a grueling rescue mission along the cliffs of Holly Park, we stop for a snack and watch the park workers planting at least 50 new plants.  We ask a lot of questions about what they are doing and why they are doing it, and the workers take time to explain their process and answer questions.

Some new hats have made their way into our collection, and Nava and Adelise have been actively trying them out all morning.  Nava tends to like helping dress her friends, and Adelise doesn't seem to mind, so she removes and replaces her hat a few times, getting the hang of it a little bit more each time.

The tallest tower.

It's always quite exciting to build a very tall tower.  When someone announces that they intend to build one, the rest of us usually get out of the way and serve as support staff or maybe just sit and observe the child who has chosen this challenge for herself.  I feel curious about the process, just like the rest of the class, and I tend to give the child some space, but also let them know that I am there to help prevent any passers-by from unknowingly bumping into the structure before it is completed.  Today, Nava was the tower-builder.  She loved the drama of it all and especially loved getting applauded when she completed the top floor of her structure.  Yahoo!

Outside time is always the best time.