Summer Art Play

Can I write 'PLAY' instead of 'workshop', said Rania, as she completes her poster for the upcoming Summer Art Workshop, from the 13th of May, 2013.

Hope to make it special this year too with more art and more play, especially for the 4 to 8 year olds!

Designed by Rania - 6 year old

Designed by Ila - 6 year old

Our little artists had started their art discussions, much earlier this year probably during their spring break and they are now looking forward to create unique artworks and explore new art ideas with their friends. At first we decided to start on the 15th of May and now moved to the 13th, since it did not work out with the summer vacation plans for some of us.

The children created interesting posters on 'Earth Day' 2013 and decided to create posters for the art workshop too.

Manya - 9 year old

Agrim - 9 year old

Aradhana - 8 year old

Gitali - 7 year old

Nehal - 9 year old

Mehar - 6 year old

Very creative expressions by all of them! Join us as we prepare for yet another journey into the magical land of fun with colors! Looking forward to watch the excitement and the merry making!

Happy creating!

Storytime crafts - A bird's nest

This week we chose ' The mountain that loved a bird' for our story time - reading and crafts session ( by  Alice McLerran and  Stephen Aitken  (illustrations). A remarkable book with a profound message and joyful illustrations. Equally enthralling for children and adults alike. It is a little long to do as read aloud maybe for the 4 or 5 year olds, but the sweetness of the tale and the excellent illustrations makes up for that. In addition one could simplify the story for them. The session also helped us to discuss related topics like the mountains we visited, growing plants, insects, birds and nests, springtime, friendship and more...

As we reached the end of the story the first craft idea that came up was - making a nest!
Out into the courtyard we rushed and found some twigs......... and the rest is here in pictures!

Our 'evergrowing' - Recycling Tree

For those who missed, please view 'Recycling tree activity'

Our Recycling tree has won much appreciation since last October '12, from the time we all started constructing and nurturing it. It occupies the corner of our art center where one finds something new happening always! It could be easily moved along with us as we shifted our art center to a new location!
The children insisted that we have to find the right corner for our tree as soon as we moved in. It was quite easy to carry the whole thing and place it, with a little sticky tape/ double sided tape, to keep its branches in place. We also added a few more branches to accommodate more stuff. It is wonderful to notice new branches every  now and then :)

It is 'evergrowing' and LOVED by all of us!!!

Here is how it looks nowadays :)

Enjoy a lovely spring weekend!

Nature Play - Springtime activities

With the schools closing for a short break during spring time, our 'nature play' group enjoyed their picnic -painting- fun get together, sharing things they do during their activity time with everyone. They had great fun with leaf printing and interesting group play ideas.
The Nature Play group had collected various leaves, flowers and petals and dried them, pasted them carefully on to their scrap books.

 How exciting it is to collect leaves, fallen petals, flowers and stuff.

We placed them in thick books to press and dry them. After that we placed those thick books under a big stack of books. After about a week, we found them nicely dry and ready to paste.

We found this nice mulberry tree growing among our trees and it is the white mulberry tree. So we talked about it a little and had fun picking and tasting the fruits. The ripe ones were a bit sticky to touch and tasted sweet. Not everybody found them tasty though.

A small fluffy white flower!!!! How beautiful!! It is the common dandelion and we have a few growing among the calendula, marigold, cinerarias and the Indian cress - Nasturtium flowers.

With such beautiful colorful flowers, breeze and birds chirping on the trees around, we decide to meet again and celebrate another spring day together.

Enjoy the weather and spend a lovely spring day with children and loved ones!
Thanks for viewing and visiting.

Mithu and Mithi - Stories and craft making activity

The second story chosen for the reading - story telling - craft session, was 'Mithu and Mithi' by Mohini Bakshi - published in 1971.
It is a beautiful folk tale from India, about a pair of parrots called 'Mithu' and 'Mithi', who loved each other very much! A sweet tale expressing their love and friendship and how much they care for each other. The children enjoyed the story and wanted to share it with their families. They also decided to enact the tale as we read out the story aloud and watch the characters come alive!!!

After working on the book covers we also made some photo frames and pasted some parrot cutouts on them!
We'll be back with more stories as we explore new ones!
Enjoy! 

Stories and craft making activity

It has been a month since I introduced story telling along with craft making session at our art center. We read a story together and decide the crafts that we can create, related to the story we just read! I think it is a good concept and wish more children could take part shortly. The reading part might not sound very interesting today, as children are much more into the gadget world and TV.  It is always better to do a trial session before enrolling for the activity. Rest assured, it is presently a totally let-me-do-my-stuff and fun activity and the children are loving it....I am sure the experience will remain as one of their beautiful memories always!

To start with, we chose a very VERY old book from one my book collections - Lucie Attwell's Storytime tales - published in 1971(now listed under rare and collectibles).
' The Rainbow Princess' ( one of the stories from the book) is a charming tale about a princess and the dress she wished for...... The children were greatly amused.
They compared the story with similar stories they heard or read in the past. They also decided to make a castle with rooms, furniture and turrets and of course a princess as well!

Here is one of the book covers and castle designed by a 7 year old child! We'll share more stories and crafts   as soon as possible :)

Enjoy and do visit us for more updates on this topic!

Handmade card for New Year

Happy faces, sunny smiles, butterflies and flowers, good wishes and a little gift! What if a card can bring us all that and more...!! The 10 - 12 year old children enjoyed the activity.

We have decided to share the card that we all loved so much!

 Card stock- one for the main card and a small square one for the sun. Card stock scrap for the stems, flowers, butterflies etc.., ruler, glitter pens etc., glue

 Red velvet paper and butter paper for the cap.

Stock paper for bookmarks

Cutout the circle for the sun leaving the right side of folded yellow card intact. Children could use the punched round bits for eyes. Once the face is ready with cap in place, make a slit on the card just enough for the face to slip through and stick the inside part neatly to make a pouch/ holder for the bookmarks.

Take care while applying the glue to the edges of the inner part of the yellow card.

Start sticking the stems and flowers and other stuff. The stem can easily cover the paper cut that shows.

The smiling sun seems to be happy with the lovely garden!

 This is how it can look when we flip the face. Try making a different layout instead of the garden.

Decorate the bookmarks and slip them in! Don't forget to fill in your name!!!! :)

Write different messages on the bookmarks, to make the special!!

Lovely, isn't it?!

I'm sure everybody will enjoy making it as much as we did!
Thanks for viewing! Best wishes from all of us!