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Smarts & Crafts: Yarn Art!
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Jun 22, 2017 | STEM
A lot of fun art projects have a specific end product in mind, like the mini piñata craft and bubble wrap craftsI’ve previous shared with our readers. But sometimes it’s wonderful to offer your children a craft that’s open-ended, so they can enjoy the process of creating, without focusing on the finished product.
This craft is a favorite with my nieces and nephews, keeping them absorbed with two distinct, appealing steps. If you want to get fancy about it, you could certainly call this a “mixed media abstract art project,” where children focus their creative attention on shapes, colors, forms, and textures to achieve a beautiful effect. The kids just call it “yarn doodle art” and ask to do whenever they can!
What You’ll Need
- Paper, cardboard or cardstock
- Yarn, ideally in multiple colors
- Scissors
- White school glue
- Acrylic or tempera paint
- Paintbrushes
- Paper bowl and cup
- Optional: plastic spoon
- Newspapers or plastic sheet to cover your work surface
Getting started
An adult should cut 5 or 6 pieces of yarn, approximately a foot long each. You can cut shorter pieces for toddlers, which will be easier for them to work with. An adult should also pour a little of the glue into the bowl. You can add a very little bit of water to the glue to stretch it out. We also like to keep a cup of water on the table to dip the yarn in first. This just keeps the yarn from absorbing too much glue so we don’t run out.
Kids begin by dipping a piece of yarn in the bowl to fully cover it with glue. They can hold one end of the yarn as they swirl it in the glue, “smush” it around with their fingers, or use a plastic spoon to push the yarn around, depending on your tolerance for mess. Whichever way you choose, kids love this step since it feels to them like they’re getting away with doing something they shouldn’t!
Ready, set, doodle!
Holding the piece of yarn by the end, drape it onto the paper then move your wrist and hand to make squiggles, swirls, spirals, or “loop-de-loops.” Toddlers can literally do a dry run by practicing with their yarn before they dip it in the glue, but most kids get the hang of this very quickly. Alternate colors of yarn for added visual interest. There’s no wrong way to do this step, so simply have fun and create! As a bonus, kids build their fine motor skills and eye hand coordination as they doodle.
Once all areas of the paper have some doodles, you can take your plastic spoon and gently tamp down on the yarn to make extra certain it sticks to the paper. Don’t worry if the glue looks messy at this point, it will dry clear in a few hours. Pro-tip: If you’re the kind of adult who enjoys the relaxing appeal of adult coloring books, go ahead and doodle some yarn on a paper yourself so you can join your kids in the next step, painting.
Paint with all the colors
When the yarn dries, it’s time to break out the paint and paintbrushes! Now is a good time to have a look at the doodles and ask the kids what kinds of shapes they see. Do those shapes remind them of anything? In our example, the circles look a bit like swimming pools, and the spiral looks like a whirlpool, which suggests using various shades of blue for these shapes.
Another way to choose which paints to use is to talk about contrasting colors. In our example, in the upper right hand corner there are 2 loop-de-loops made by yellow yarn. Green makes a nice contrast to the yellow, so the yarn really seems to pop. Below, the bright orange paint has the same effect. You can encourage kids to see the different zones created by the yarn and alternate contrasting colors. Or simply let them choose their own favorite colors!
Variations
This project can be scaled up or down as well. If you’re pressed for time, you can have the kids just scribble their doodles with a thick marker or jumbo crayon, then color in the shapes with paint, crayons, or colored pencils. Feeling more ambitious? You can create a leaded, stained glass effect by substituting a piece of clear plastic acrylic for the paper and using black yarn for the doodles. Fill in with translucent paint or make your own clear “paint” by adding food dye to white school glue.
Though yarn doodle art really isn’t about the finished product, the paintings always seem to come out just beautiful. So make a little time to create…then make a little space on your fridge to display these kid-crafted masterpieces!
4 Simple DIY Sorting Activities with Counters
Counters are a great way to encourage toddlers and preschoolers to develop their sorting skills. In this blog we are sharing four quick and easy ways to set up sorting activities with just a few basic materials.
- Set of counters (we used our favorite Learning Resources All About Me Family Counters)
- A4 white paper or card
- Markers (black, red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange)
- Dot markers (red, blue, yellow, green, purple and orange)
- Ruler
Why is Sorting Important?
Before we get into the details about the activities, it’s important to point out that sorting activities offer a huge host of learning opportunities for toddlers and preschoolers. They may seem simple, but your little one is developing a range of skills when working with counters. For example, their little hands are constantly moving which is helping their fine motor skills to develop (these skills are key for writing as they get older). They will also have the opportunity to explore counting and use number vocabulary, as well as color recognition and vocabulary development. For my 3 year old, sorting activities often also lead to imaginative play, especially when she uses her family counters.
How to Set Up the Activities
The great thing about making DIY sorting activities is that they take a matter of minutes to set up. Be sure to prep the sorting sheets before inviting your child to take part or else you risk them losing interest waiting for the activity to be ready. Simply use markers to draw out sorting sheets like the ones in the photo. Carefully consider your child’s passions and try to incorporate them into your sorting sheets. My toddler loves putting the family counters into homes, hence I made the houses sheet. She also really enjoys sorting by color and lining up her toys.
Activity 1: Walk the Line to Meet a Friend
Whenever my little one plays with these counters she always likes to make them be friends. I drew some dotted lines in black marker and put the same kind of counter at each end of the line. I invited her to walk one of the counters along the line to meet their friend. This was great for her fine motor skills as she had to manipulate the counters around the different shapes of the lines. She also demonstrated color vocabulary, chatting away about how the red cat was walking along to meet the yellow cat. There was lots of imagination creating little personalities for the characters in her play too.
Activity 2: Family Homes
For this one, I drew six different colored houses and then gave each house a number. My daughter enjoyed sorting the correct number of family counters into the correct colored home. There was an element of problem-solving for this one too because the houses were not big enough to fit too many large counters in. She carefully had to figure out the best combination of counters to fit in the house. I was sure to encourage as much talking as she did to support her vocabulary development. Once she had finished sorting, she then wanted to enjoy sending some of the counters to different houses for playdates.
Activity 3: Colorful Stepping Stones
Dot markers are a great way to quickly add colorful sorting marks to a piece of paper. Here I added different colored dots to the page and told my toddler that they were colorful stepping stones. She added the correct counters onto the stepping stones (she would make them jump on, with ‘boing’ sound effects of course). I intentionally also worked in some numeracy by adding 1-6 dots instead of all the same number of dots for each color. That way my daughter could count as she placed the family counters on the dots and each time she was reaching a different number.
Activity 4: Color Lines
This one is super simple but is always enjoyed. Just draw outlines in the different colored markers and invite your little one to line up the counters on the correct color of the line. I didn’t give my daughter specific instructions as I wanted her to have some choice. I thought she would try and line them up standing along the line, but she chose to make them lie down. This was another great way to work on her fine motor skills, as well as getting her to think about the size. She realized that the ‘Mummy and Daddy’ counters were much bigger than the ‘baby’ counters. She started to plan which order she would add them in and enjoyed trying to get them perfectly lined up.
A Few Tips
I always find that my toddler responds better to activities like these when she has some choice. I presented her with the four sorting sheets and let her choose which order to do them in. I also provided her with all of the counters so that she had the freedom to choose which counters to use. If you are doing these with a younger child try to just focus on one simple aspect when sorting, for example color or size. If working with an older child you can make the activity more challenging by combining several aspects of sorting, for example, color and number, or size and color.My final tip is to encourage your child to also enjoy making their own sorting sheets. I always leave out the art supplies to allow my daughter the opportunity to make her own sorting sheet. This encourages engagement, and also introduces more creativity and fine motor skill work as well. Do you have a favorite way to sort counters? We’d love to hear all about it in the comments! Explore other Learning Resources counting toys and counting ideas as well.
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