more , yes, more Together Painting...

This one will be mostly photos...
BUT
I did try out blowing through the straw painting yesterday - it wasn't easier to make a splatter, but the children were thrilled when they could manage it as they focused their breath in a big sput-like blow down the straw (which had to be dipped at an angle to sort of scoop the paint inside the straw for it to work...)

Then I took this painting down to dry and put up some more paper directly... as the children were obviously interested in painting with their hands still...

I put blue white and black on a tray - for three children to do hand painting 2x4yr olds and 1x3yr old. The instructions was to first try mixing on the paper and then to let them loose... but within a milisecond one child had mixed it all up and I needed to remind - "I know its tempting, but do you remember that we were starting by mixing on the paper first so that you could choose colours if you wanted?" Mixing on the tray was a favourite part of the process - and patterns and art could also be created on the tray... so if you are thinking of a nice messy activity to learn colour mixing... why not set out a few trays with several colours on for the children just to blend and mix and get creative... if they scratch patterns you could lift the art off with a print...

a few handprints were made... but the main aim of this sessions seemed to be movement ... and lots of it...

I saw that this was going to be a very grey creation... the three year old stopped after a while, but I had expected this, as this child seldom paint for long... but does paint a little longer each time...

the scratching technique from the day before was used before - this time with a tiger story-line...

The painting ended being a grey mass... perfect to start today with a splash of colour - and the most children painting at the same time... 5 children at once... 3x2 year olds, 1x3 year old and 1x4 year old.

the brushes were back out - and orange, yellow, red, white and pink were on offer...

two of the 2 year olds started to explore with their hands (none of the others did)

and explore up their arms... i remember my group of 3-4 year olds doing this all the time last year... their need to explore paint on their bodies is not the same now... they were given the time to do all the exploring they needed... and now they want to explore other things... but for these two year olds... their explorations are just getting going...

they also started to scratch the paper too - and were fascinated by how their nails filled with paint and paper fibres...

No finished image I am afraid... I was working until my last second with the creativity and clean up - so you will have to waiti until i take a photograph tomorrow.

We are starting to collect quite a few together paintings now... so my brain is beginning to think about how can these be displayed or upcycled?