Young Scholars Academy

Where Children Develop a Love of Learning

 5815 Tutt Center Point - Colorado Springs, CO 80922
 (719) 522-9099
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CANVAS DRILL ART

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Don’t go into this project thinking you’re going to come out clean, wear clothes you have no emotional attachment to at all. Your kids are going to have as much fun with this project as ours did, so let’s get messy!

Supplies:

  • Canvas (any size you want)
  • Acrylic paint (colors are up to you)
  • Drill & drill bit Scrap piece of wood (long enough to fit two ends of your canvas)
  • Two small screws

First,you’ll take your scrap piece of wood screw it into the wood frame edge of the canvas. Then in the middle you will make a hole. This is how the drill will spin the canvas and create a splatter effect later. For reference on what it should look like, look at this!

You will have to set up your area and keep an eye on the wind. We recommend a tarp or cut up garbage bag to attempt to keep paint off your driveway or sidewalk. (Notice the word attempt there!)

Once you do this, now it is really time to have some fun.

We let each of our kids pick whatever color they would like for their canvas. We also let them squeeze and open the bottles themselves. These kinds of movements are great for fine motor skills. It additionally requires patience and hard work as the easy thing to do is to just do it for them. Not the case here, we wanted the kids to do this project pretty much by themselves, well expect the drill of course

So once everyone had their turn, and anyone who wanted to go again could, it was time for the drill!

Using the premade hole, you did at the beginning, you’ll insert the drill into that hole again and spin away! In this instance we did not let the kids do it just because their clothes get dirty enough without acrylic paint. However, if you are going to do this at home, why not let them try? Just tell the in-laws the kids need clothes for Christmas…

Here is the final masterpiece!

Didn’t it turn out amazing?

After our project we talked with the kids about wind, force and what made the colors move. Of course, everyone had to try out the drill later and there definitely were some attempts at trying to touch the paint.

Overall it was a great art project and we can’t wait for you guys to try this at home!

3 Kids Project to Celebrate National Crafts Month

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Now is the best time to encourage your child to channel their inner artist! Get the art materials and supplies ready because this March, we are celebrating National Crafts Month! National Crafts Month was created by the Craft and Hobby Association in 1994.

This celebration of crafts is designed to encourage everyone to find joy in crafting, learn new crafts and discover or revisit a hobby. It also supports the use of all kinds of mediums. From paints, fabrics, yarns, paper – you can have your child take their pick when it comes to materials.

Celebrate National Crafts Month with these projects your little one will surely love!

Rainbow Windsock Toilet Paper Roll Craft

This Rainbow Windsock Toilet Paper Roll Craft is an adorable craft perfect for rainy days. It can turn your child’s gloomy day into something fun and exciting!

Here are the materials you’ll need:

  • blue paint
  • toilet paper roll
  • scissors
  • white paper
  • black marker
  • string
  • tissue paper in different colors
  • hole puncher

How to do it?

  1. Start by painting the toilet paper roll in blue. You can have your child do this step with your guidance.
  2. Once the roll is painted, you can set it aside until the paint dries completely.
  3. In the meantime, you can make the clouds by drawing a cloud shape and cutting it out. Let your child draw eyes and a mouth to make it more fun.
  4. Then go back to your toilet paper roll and punch two holes on either side where you can insert the string for hanging.
  5. Push the yarn through the holes and tie it up.
  6. Get your cloud and glue it on the toilet paper roll.
  7. Then, cut the colored tissue paper into long strips and glue them around the toilet paper roll.

Once done, it is ready to be hung!

Paper flower crafts

Making paper flower crafts is perfect for kids of all ages. Not only is it a fun activity but it also helps develop their fine motor skills.

These are the materials you’ll need for this craft:

  • yellow paper
  • circle paper punch
  • scissors
  • colored paper
  • green paper straws
  • stick glue
  • clear or patterned tape

How to do it?

  1. Guide your child when it comes to punching a few circles out of yellow paper using the puncher.
  2. Cut strips of colored paper but make sure to pay attention to their size in relation to the yellow circles.
  3. Then, make a paper loop by putting together the ends of the strips with glue. Depending on the flower you are making, you may need to make quite a few.
  4. Have these loops glued on the side of the paper circle until it forms a flower.
  5. The final step is to glue the green paper straw at the center of the flower and secure it with tape.

3D Rainbow Paper Craft

Making rainbow crafts is another activity your little one will surely enjoy. Because rainbows are made of different colors, this craft can be a wonderful opportunity to teach your child about colors. Here are the materials you need to make a 3D Rainbow Paper Craft.

  • Construction paper in rainbow colors
  • scissors
  • cotton balls
  • duct tape

This craft is very easy to make.

  1. Cut 7 strips of paper, one strip of each color to make a true rainbow.
  2. Then, cut out two cloud shapes using your white construction paper.
  3. Arrange the strips according to the correct color order of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, or the other way around) and glue one end on one cloud.
  4. Then, glue the other end on the second cloud.
  5. Use duct tape to secure both ends.
  6. Fold the strips of paper following the line of the duct tape so it’s easier to make an arch.
  7. Apply glue on the clouds and add cotton balls on both sides of the strips to hold the rainbow’s arched shape.

Once done with both clouds, your rainbow craft is complete!

There are plenty of fun and engaging crafts your kids can create this National Crafts Month! Feel free to explore some other crafts and use them as an exciting bonding activity with your kids!

Getting Creative With Your Kids

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Here we are full swing into the season…. of illness. I’m sure that many of you have had your fair share of sick days already! The extra snuggles are great, but if you’re like me, a full day spent on the couch watching cartoons doesn’t seem all that appealing. Especially by day 2 or 3…

So, how do you allow your child to take it easy, without spending an entire day watching the television? For me, the answer is crafts. I love the process of creation in a child.

Young Scholars Academy Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts help develop the entire child!

Watching my son figure out how his muscles work with those fine motor skills is fascinating to me. Not only is my son expanding his creativity, he is also practicing math. He counts the number of stickers he used, he uses science when he experiments what happens when you mix certain mediums together.

Now, you may be wondering, “Well, we are stuck at home. What kind of crafts can I do without running to the store for supplies?” The answer is simple, anything. Do you have breadcrumbs in your cabinet? How about oats? Why not use those bread crumbs and/or oats to allow your child to glue onto a picture? (This is also great for sensory play!) Those bread crumbs can allow for a great fish picture or anything else that your child may come up with.

Do you have pasta? That pasta can be used to string onto string into a necklace or even onto a spaghetti noodle. Apples and peppers also make great stamps when they are cut in half. If you have sugar and salt, why not make some play-dough together? (There’s some science for your little one in there!) Boxes, water bottles, 2 liter bottles, bottle caps, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, shaving cream etc can all be repurposed to use for crafts.

What about all of the possibilities outside? Why not turn those pesky pine needles into a paint brush or those leaves into a stamp? Have pinecones outside? Allow your child to explore their creativity and see what 3-D object that they can create using a pinecone. (Hey look, there’s some geometry for you). Painting rocks is another huge hit. (You could even let them know that they can hide their rocks for others to find once they’re feeling better).

The possibilities are endless when you let your child’s imagination roam. Now it’s time to grab out that extra tissue paper! Allow your child to invent new ways to think about the world around them. Make sick days (or even break days) fun again and put down that remote.

~Ms. Aleyana
Wellness Coordinator
School Age Lead Teacher

Scented Watermelon Art!

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Want to have armloads of fun? Incorporate finger paints and scents in one activity! Wow!!

The Pre-Kindergarteners really loved this activity as they loved being able to get really involved in the set-up and of course the final pieces!

Smells as good a it looks!
Smells as good a it looks!

The kids were learning about different habitats and Ms. Evelyn, the kids’ teacher, is native to the south. In the south, they have yellow watermelons which was a crazy concept to our 4 year olds, but in the end and through the giggles, really found this project fun!

Materials:

  • Paint (regular tempura paint– red for traditional or yellow for southern watermelons!)
  • Paper
  • Extracts; our kids used fruit extracts like berries for example. This could also be a great opportunity for you to go through your cupboards!

Mix a bit of the extracts into the paint and have the kids start their next masterpiece!

One way to bring the lesson further is get a watermelon from the store and explore the different textures when tasting it. As something fun you could save the seeds and have the kids try and grow their own watermelons!

Of course that would be just for fun, but long-term experiments are great for teaching patience and sparking questions (like you guys don’t get enough already!)

Thank you for reading! If you’re trying this at home, take pictures and let us see!