Toddler Art Class: Crumpled paintings

Crumple, paint, unfold, repeat.  Or.... just paint some paper.

Art Project: Crumpled Paper Paintings
Supplies:
Liquid Watercolors
paper
paintbrushes

Book:  oh my goodness.  It's been too long since I actually did this class and now I can't remember what book I read.  If it comes back to me, I'll return and edit this post.  Sorry.  In the meantime, feel free to choose any book about painting, messiness or crumpling up paper.  The suggested title of Ish by Peter Reynolds was a little too long for this group.



Where I got the inspiration for this project: Buggy & Buddy

 What Kids Do:  a few kids humored me and tried to crumple their paper up

 But most kids just wanted to paint paper, no matter if it was flat or wrinkled.

 Here's some nice two-handed painting action:

 This was a new technique I haven't seen before-- pour paint on the paper from a small cup,

 then spread the paper across the page with the empty cup.  Brilliant.

 I like that this artwork can't even be contained on one page.

 Heck, this artist can't even be contained by paper!

Hindsight Tip:  All in all, this class reminded me that if there is paint involved in the craft, you don't need any further "gimmick" to make it interesting to toddlers.  They. love. paint.  Or sometimes they hate it. But crumpling the paper isn't going to change their minds.  Of course, it didn't bother me at all that no one cared about the crumpling step (in fact, I cringed when a few adults felt obligated to "follow the instructions" and crumpled their kids' paper for them), but it was a good reminder to just relax and keep it simple.