26 Jun Exploring Art With Miss Rumphius

We’ve been studying the children’s book, Miss Rumphius as part of our Five in a Row Curriculum.  Let me just say that if you have not read this to your children yet, get down to the library and get it.  It is an absolute treasure.

Our favorite part of each row is the art portion.  With each new book we discover new mediums, new ideas, new concepts. The children (and I) love this part, and the chance for exploring art with Miss Rumphius was no different.

The FIAR guidebook suggested several different angles, so we chose a couple of them.  The first was the use of multiple mediums in one picture.  Apparently, Barbara Cooney, the author and illustrator of the book used pencil, acrylics, pastels and fabric in creating her illustrations.  Similarily, my husband gave Clark and Luci the task of recreating the book cover, using whatever medium they had on hand.  The results were, as always, adorable, entertaining, unique and fun.

Project #1: Using Multiple Mediums

Clark drew his picture with colored pencils, colored it in with crayons and then cut out construction paper for the flowers.  He wrote the title across the top, making it a delightful, whimsical piece that I absolutely love.

Luci worked hard and came up with a piece all her own.  She drew in pencil and colored pencils.  She cut out tissue paper for the grass and construction paper for the flowers (which had smiles on them!).  I’m not sure about the chunks of tape, but I’m giving a little creative license there…

Project #2: Finger-Painted Lupines

For our second project, we made finger painted lupines.  I had Clark and Luci both start with an empty paper.  They both drew in the flower stems and leaves with a marker.

I incorporated a little bit of color-mixing theory in by dropping 3 big globs or red, white and blue paint in a Styrofoam plate.  Clark and Luci were then told to mix together the paints to create pink, purple and white lupines. You don’t actually want the paint mixed too well at this point. When just slightly mixed, it results in different shades in the flowers.

Even Luci knew what colors to mix together to get the desired colors.  She was a little hesitant to get her fingers dirty, but eventually embraced the idea.  It got a little messy, but we were prepared with plastic on the table and our paint shirts and aprons.

The results were a beautiful combination of red, white and blue and everything in between.  We put the pictures up on display to enjoy while we finish studying Miss Rumphius.

This was an easy project, and one that the kids loved. Anything that involves getting their hands dirty is always going to be a hit.