Columbus Day Handprint Ships

Yeah, I know, everyone is doing them. But I still had to post, because look at the AMAZING scissor control on this 2 1/2 year old!! She cut all of her own sails, then insisted on cutting some more.

So here is our version...
In the morning,

• We started by painting the top 1/3 of our paper with a good dollop of white paint. 
• Then the dark blue was added to the bottom and the children were instructed to begin painting from the bottom up and to cover all the white space.

We discussed light, dark, shades and mixing.

Yep, that's mine, and yep, I blobbed my brown and heard about it!

We let that dry and in the afternoon, 

• The children chose which hand(s) to paint brown and stamp and did so

We let those dry over night and the next day they,

• Cut sails out of white paper and glued those onto their masts
• Pulled apart and glued on cotton balls for clouds

This one got tired of cutting, so tore the paper instead. Still fine motor!

I think they did great for 2 1/2-3!!

Since they are early preschoolers, and I wanted this to be more of a process rather than product piece, we didn't do fancy anything with names, labels, crosses on the sails, etc. If they were older and more adept at cutting, I may have had them cut red strips to add as crosses, and if writing, I would have had them choose which ship(s) they had on there and write the name on the side of the ship(s) and possibly added a Columbus Day label. Maybe in a couple of years.

Here are two more sneak peeks at our new art studio, in addition to the first pic above. Post to come once all the finishing touches are completed. It's so bright and sunny and wonderful to have all our supplies readily at hand at all times.

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Tags: hand, print, handprint, columbus, day, columbus day, art, craft, history, paint, painting, cut, paste, fine motor, studio, space, room, theme unit, preschool, daycare, care, child, childcare, child care