Crumbled Paper Painting

I realized I hadn't gotten my PreK kiddos dirty in a while! We all need a good ol' mess once in a while. I took a12x18" piece of manilla paper and cut it in half. They had to write, or try to write their name on one piece and crumble the other. There is something about crumbling paper that kids LOVE! They got to choose blue, green, or purple paint. They dipped their crumbled paper in the paint and started dabbing. This was great for any ability level! Some needed assistance to hold the paper, make the "up and down" dabbing motion, and staying on the paper. Others could do it completely independently. After they covered most of the paper, I added white. We looked at what happened when we add white to the paint. Then more dabbing! We repeated the process a 3rd time, then threw away our crumbled paper. After all the pieces were dry, I glued them to a larger piece of construction paper to give them a finished frame! I think they look pretty great and the kids had a great time!

Magazine flowers

This was a great project for the younger grades, moderate, severe, and profound ID students. I had pre-cut the magazine circles because I realized it would be very difficult for them to see the circles drawn on the magazine paper. One option could have been to tape down a template made from a manilla folder. They would be able to see the folder and not cut through it. But I had them cut (or tear) the grass, the stems, and leaves out of wallpaper and construction paper. They used oil pastels or Slick Stix to add interest to the background.

Color mixing and foot prints

This is a pretty simple sensory activity that I did with my Severe and Profound classes. Because most of the student's hands are clenched or hard to open, I painted their feet the different colors of the rainbow. Most of them enjoy it! Some even laughed!