Crab Handprints with Rubbing

These are just TOO darling for our OCEAN theme.

Yes, he wanted a sad crab with a frowny face.

The one I saw had colored paper for the background, which I'm pretty sure wasn't cut by the child, losing a whole host of process art experiences. So, as usual, I changed it up to add more learning elements to the craft.

First we folded our papers in THIRDS. Since these are two-year-olds, I didn't worry about them getting it exact and doing major comparisons. We just quickly went over the general idea of thirds and that we were going to draw sand on the bottom third and ocean and sky on the top two-thirds.

For older children, I would have them be a little more precise in folding their thirds, and color the bottom tan, the middle a darker blue for the ocean and the top third a light blue for the sky.

Then they each chose a piece of sandpaper to put under the 1/3 side of their papers to start rubbing over.

This is a HARD concept for this age. So, we do it every couple of weeks. It's good to keep them on their toes, and realizing that rules can be situational, especially when it comes to art.

"In this case, for these reasons, we do it this way this time."

• Yes, we usually hold our crayons upright, but not this time. This time we lay them down and push them over the paper. [This is not something they see adults do.]

• Yes, we are not supposed to take the papers off the crayons, but this time we will. We have to have the papers off the crayons to use their sides rather than their tips.

When done with the tan third, we opened them up and draped the tan side over the edge of the table. For the blue side, we didn't use the sand paper underneath.

Once done with the rubbing, the children chose the color of their crabs and we painted their hands for making the hand prints. It helped to turn the paper to align with the child's hand. Sounds simple, but they wanted to have their papers directly in front of them and turn their hands sideways. They really couldn't get the right angle that way, so I had to convince them to let me turn their papers instead.

G chose a traditional red crab. The girls chose purple crabs. I assured them there really are bright purple crabs. Once the paint had dried, we added some google eyes. The children had to find two SMALL eyes that were the SAME size.

Then they were instructed to draw a yellow circle in the sky for the sun and color it in, if they so chose. They did. These are concepts we are just starting, drawing shapes and coloring in. I liked the opportunity to keep the skill request small and easy and relevant to the project. They did a VERY good job.

They each chose a cotton ball and pulled it part. After deciding where their cloud would be, they laid down glue, 

and carefully placed their cotton fluffs upon it.

They chose what they wanted for the mouth among the craft supplies. H chose a gold braid, and G chose a purple yarn. 

A left early. It's Friday. 

We really work on proper scissor hold from the time they begin teacher-assist cutting around 18 months. This hold is the PERFECT one for preschoolers. The index finger pointing out gives them much greater control over their line.

Thumb up! Scissors steady! Move your paper! 

[or whatever you're cutting]

They had to decided if they wanted a happy or sad crab. H didn't have much choice, because the gold braid wouldn't form on just glue. 

Again with the glue. They LOVE to glue.

Then they carefully placed and held down their mouth pieces for a few.

Fini!

This is a great piece to work on positional statments, so we did.

• What is the crab ON?   [beach/sand]
• What is BEHIND the crab?   [ocean, sky]
• What is ON the crab?   [eyes, mouth, legs]
• What is UP in the sky? or What is IN the sky?   [cloud, sun]
• What is DOWN on the beach?   [crab, shells]
• What could be IN the ocean?   [open discussion]
• What is UNDER the cloud?   [crab]
• What is NEXT TO the sun?   [cloud]

I wish I would have bought the shell hanging that I saw at the Salvation Army the last time I was there. I just thought it was too big to store for this theme. I didn't think about taking it apart for the little shells. If it's there the next time I go, I'll grab it so we have some little shells to use as accents on projects like this one. Unfortunately, I only had big ones on hand.

I got this idea off Pinterest via Daily Dose of Sugar Mama, who no longer has her original link id for the site she got it from.

SKILLS
Art: artistic expression, rubbing, painting, printing, cut, paste, drawing, mixed media, colors
Math: counting eyes and legs, thirds, top/bottom, big/small, same/different, up/down, on/off rectangle, circle
Science: crab anatomy, habitat, sky/ocean/beach discussion
Social: waiting turns, sharing resources, requesting peer assistance
Fine Motor: drawing, painting, rubbing, cut, paste, picking out google eyes, pulling cotton, placing items
Tags: ocean, sea, beach, crab, animals, habitat, science, theme, unit, craft, art, painting, rubbing, preschool, child care, childcare, daycare, kindergarten, handprinthomeschool, handprint