Tag

fruit

Still Life Challenge

  1. Still Life Challenge for kids - Still life does not just have to be painting. Sketch, paint, cut, glue or mold a still life out of play dough or clay. Kid's and preschoolers arts & crafts - fruit

It is fascinating to watch my daughter while she creates. I love how she see things and it amazes me the details that she picks up at only 4 years old. She loves to prop things up on our coffee table and recreate them. Sometimes she draws them or sometimes she cuts out construction paper and assembles the pieces to form her project.

Last week, I did a little experiment. I put a still life on our dining room table and set out a bunch of supplies. I laid out paints, construction paper, scissors, glue, pencils, markers and clay.

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I started to paint the fruit and asked her if she wanted to join me.

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She sat down and declined the paint, but went straight for the construction paper. She cut out the shapes of the different fruits and their stems. She drew some of the fruits first and some she simply cut out.

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She glued all of her pieces to another piece of paper to form her still life.

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When she finished gluing, she used a marker to add a little life to her still. She gave all of the fruits faces and personalities and even made a cowgirl orange, complete with a lasso.

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The next day, I invited my daughter to come and look at the still life of fruit. She sat on my lap and I asked her what she saw. She named off all the fruits on the cutting board. I asked her what color the pear was and she responded that it was green. I asked her if green was the only color that she saw and she looked closer and told me that she saw brown. When I asked her where she saw the brown, she started with the stem and then went into further detail about the speckles of brown around the pear, explaining that the speckles weren’t everywhere and showing me where they were more saturated. She went on to the next piece of fruit, which was the orange. She asked me about the little dimples all over the skin. She studied each piece of fruit and made wonderful observations about every piece.

She looked over the supplies on our table and reached for the clay. We used polymer clay, but play dough would be fine as well. She carefully sculpted each piece and laid out her fruit sculptures on a cutting board from her play kitchen.

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I watched her intently as she used a straw from her juice to carve lines into her pumpkin.

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When she sculpted her orange, she remembered her earlier observations and used a pencil to poke little dimples into it. She worked through each piece of fruit and even sculpted the red apple, which was no longer on our still because she ate it after making her construction paper project.

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I was blown away by her clay sculpted still life. It came out so beautifully.

Kid's arts & crafts. Use Play dough or clay to sculpt a still life. Check out the rest of our still life challenge using a fruit still life. Great for preschoolers

She loved it too. When she was finished, she grabbed a bowl out of play kitchen and cut up her fruit and made a fruit salad for the both of us to “eat”. img_5199

Still Life Challenge for kids - Still life does not just have to be painting. Sketch, paint, cut, glue or mold a still life out of play dough or clay. Kid's and preschoolers arts & crafts - fruit

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Felt Birthday Cake For Toddler Play

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Our daughter is a fan of the television. I am not a fan of her watching television, but still we do let her watch videos & toddler appropriate programming in moderation. She does not like it when we shut off the TV. She is a smart cookie though & knows how to work her family.
Daddy: “Mai, we have to shut of the TV.”

Mai: “How bout, we watch Patriots.”

She knows her daddy’s weakness.

She also knows her nana’s. “Nana, do you want to watch Cooking Channel?

Mai enjoys watching cooking with her nana. She also loves helping in the kitchen and pretend cooking in her play kitchen.

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Her favorite pretend food to make is cake. She makes cakes out of Play-doh. She stacks her stacking cups to make tiered cakes & then decorates them with the cherries from her Hi Ho Cherrio game. There is a learning exercise on ABC Mouse that allows you to decorate cakes & she adores this. She will draw with her imaginary icing & place flowers & fruit all over her virtual cake.

To help inspire our future little cake boss to continue to make tasty treats, we came up with this felt birthday cake for her to decorate.

What you will need:

A medium sized plain cardboard hat box

Assorted colors of felt sheets

Yarn

Craft pom poms

Elmer’s glue

Glue Gun

Scissors

Pen

Directions:

Start with a medium sized plain hat box. You can purchase on of these at a craft store for only a couple of dollars.
Start with a medium sized plain hat box. You can purchase one of these at a craft store for only a couple of dollars.
Remove the top & trace out the outline of the top on a felt color of your choosing & then cut it out.
Remove the top & trace out the outline of the top on a felt color of your choosing & then cut it out.
Measure out and mark the felt to cover the side of your box top as well.
Measure out and mark the felt to cover the side of your box top as well.
Using Elmer's glue, glue down the top & sides. The Elmer's glue will allow the felt to dry flat & smooth.
Using Elmer’s glue, glue down the top & sides. The Elmer’s glue will allow the felt to dry flat & smooth.
To make my icing edge, I braided 3 long strands of yarn & used the hot glue gun to glue down along the edge of the box top.
To make my icing edge, I braided 3 long strands of yarn & used the hot glue gun to glue down along the edge of the box top.
Cut and glue felt to cover the bottom half of the hat box as well. Allow to dry before proceeding.
Cut and glue felt to cover the bottom half of the hat box as well. Allow to dry before proceeding.
Cut out colored felt strips about a 1/2 inch thick. Cut using a waving pattern on one side.
Cut out colored felt strips about a 1/2 inch thick. Cut using a waving pattern on one side.
Roll the strip to form your cake flowers.
Roll the strip to form your cake flowers.
Glue the flowers in place using a glue gun.
Glue the flowers in place using a glue gun.
To form a strawberry, cut out two heart shapes. Dot the heart shapes with a green marker to add seeds.
To form a strawberry, cut out two heart shapes. Dot the heart shapes with a green marker to add seeds.
Place a craft pom pom in the center of one of the heart shapes. Add hot glue from the glue gun around the edges & place the other heart over it, dotted side facing out. Press the edge together all the way around . Cut  out a small star shape in green & glue over the top center of the strawberry.
Place a craft pom pom in the center of one of the heart shapes. Add hot glue from the glue gun around the edges & place the other heart over it, dotted side facing out. Press the edge together all the way around. Cut out a small star shape in green & glue over the top center of the strawberry.
To make a cherry, I just used a red pom pom & added a green felt piece for the stem.
To make a cherry, I just used a red pom pom & added a green felt piece for the stem.

Cut out letters & numbers. Make as many different fruits & flowers as you like. Let your little baker go to work decorating their cake.

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Store cake pieces inside the box.
Store cake pieces inside the box.

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feltbirthdaycake