a little tour: e's art area

I'd been wanting to set up a place for Elise to work on art in our house for awhile, so when I found this small rack and table at a garage sale, I cheered(!) and talked Hubs into carrying them four blocks back to our house.  I mean, really, how often do you find nice, child-sized pieces of furniture at garage sales?!  The table is a little tall for sitting at, but it's just the right height for standing, which is how Elise seems to prefer to work lately anyway.

the art shelf:

I've always debated whether it's better to set up actual art lessons, or just offer a variety of art materials for children to use as they please.  I ended up going with "lessons," since this is Elise's first time using these materials.

the art lessons:

sculpting with gingerbread play dough

Get the recipe here.  This lesson includes a rolling pin, biscuit cutter, and buttons in a tin.  The mat is a remnant of marine vinyl from a craft store.

drawing with crayons

I really appreciate the way these egg-shaped crayons encourage Elise to use a pincer-grip.  I purchased them here.  These are some very well loved crayons - minus the missing red egg!

sticking dots onto a blank card

I've seen this dot sticker activity on several Montessori blogs, so I thought Elise might like to give it a try.  Picking up the stickers is definitely strengthening her fine motor control!  I'm setting aside the decorated cards to use as thank yous for Christmas gifts.

all the art activities, in action  ;)