Blog
Portraits in a Box
I always get a kick out of portrait making with kids whether we are studying the placement of the...
Celebrating Spring: Punchy Paper Garden
This little paper garden is perfect for spring and so fun for tiny hands. Using a variety of paper...
Famous Artist III: O’Keeffe
This session exploring different artists. To explore an artist means we examine the work as a...
Celebrating Spring: Butterfly Pillows
Our Butterfly pillow project was a hit in our Masters (5Y+) class. We completed this project...
Celebrating Spring: Mixed Media Birds
This session we are celebrating spring! In this project we used a variety of materials to create...
Famous Artists I: Van Gogh Monotypes
Materials: cookie sheet washable tempera paint paper (I like white heavy weight construction or...
Magnetic Plate Places
For this project, we summoned all our imaginative powers to create a special land or adventure...
Spin Art Plate Chain
We are big fans of Spin Art at Studio Sprout. This is a total studio favorite! Recently we...
Art & Science: Gravity
At Studio Sprout we love ART! But science is a close second so we have been exploring those...
Spring Cling – A twist on your average Suncatcher
This week at Studio Sprout, we were soaking up the mid-winter sunshine, and thought our art should...
Tissue Paper Prints
Our tiny tots got to do their favorite thing: use the spray bottles! It was even more fun that we...
Art & Science: Chemistry
This session is all about Art & Science! Our focus this week was chemistry. We investigated...
Monster Mash!
The title says it all! Over here at Studio Sprout it was a Monster Mash all week long. (It was...
Clay Wall Pockets
This week at studio sprout we explored clay. In our master's classes, we made clay wall pockets...
Don’t Go Breakin’ My Clay Heart
Kids love hearts, so this week in preparation for Valentine's Day we made clay hearts and...
Printmaking & Painting with Wacky Tools
Materials Needed: White Paper (sulphite or cardstock work great) Tempera Paint (we use washable...
Tissue Paper Art
This tissue paper art project is easy peasy with wonderful results and was targeted at our...
Glue Art
What kid doesn't love squeezing glue? Especially when it's colored glue! Past glue projects can be...
Freeze! It’s a Stick-Up Mural!
Here at Studio Sprout we often start class with an open activity like a sensory box or a free...
Mixed Media :: Upcycled Collage
Cardboard, tempera, scrap book paper, Oh MY! Mixed Media keeps the attention of little ones...
Mixed Media :: Stacked Birds
Cardboard, tempera, scrap book paper, Oh MY! Inspired by Small Hands Big Art we dove into the...
Framed Mixed Media Collage
Here at Studio Sprout, we threw caution to the wind and used just about anything we could get our...
Art & Science: Magnetism
I ran across some old but wonderful unpublished blog posts. I love playing with magnets so much...
Watercolor Woodblock Sculpture
This project is never dull, and that's not just because we use glitter watercolor paint! Woodblock...
Crafty Cards
This week we are "stuck" on these washi tape cards! They are fun, colorful, and unique, but...
Sensory Boxes
In the studio, we can warm-up before a big project in a variety of ways; this can be open-ended...
Autumn Leaf Rubbings
Kids love leaf rubbings with oil pastels. Materials: White Paper Colored Paper Leaves (green and...
A Day with Clay
This week over at Studio Sprout we explored... CLAY! Our younger students created some really...
Mask Making Magic
This week at Studio Sprout we decorated masks! We used a variety of materials which made the...
Printmaking: A Breeze with Leaves
Materials Needed: black construction paper (we used 12x18) aluminum foil (for paint pallette) flat...
Chicks!
The first three weeks with our new baby chicks has been so precious. They often fall asleep while...
Air-dry Clay Bowls
Materials: Air dry clay Cotton fabric approx. 12 x 14 inches (cotton sheets work great and can be...
Art & Storytelling: Apples by Nikki McClure
This week we worked off Nikki McClure's, Apple. Her wonderful paper cuts are bold and graphic and...
Salt Painting
Salt painting is one of my new favorite projects. It's an amazingly playful process, the results...
Spin Art
Materials: paper plates (7in Safeway brand seemed to work great and fit my salad spinners) salad...
Miniature Books
Making Miniature Books was a fabulous success. This is a great open-ended art project. Well the...
Clay Play
I know I say it again and again but clay is simply a magical medium. I love to put a chunck...
Spin Art
Nothing like letting kids use their hand muscles to squeeze paint and arm muscles to spin the...
Our Summer Garden 2014
Second year echinacea in full bloom. Purple tomatillo and lemon cucumber enjoying each others...
Celebrating Spring: Birds
First I must credit the amazing Patty at Deep Space Sparkle for the inspiration and foundation...
Celebrating Spring: Pool Noodle Flower Prints
I found this on pinterest and it's a must do! If you have construction paper and tempera paint you...
Celebrate Spring: Egg Carton Flower Bouquets
Spring Bouquet Materials: large egg crates (5-10 cups torn from the large carton per child)...
Myself, My Home, My World: Me on the Map
This lesson plan was inspired by the book Me on the Map by Joanne Sweeny. I love old maps and...
Open-ended Art: Fabric and Paint on Cardboard
Fabric and Paint is an easy one you can do at home with any scrap textiles and/or ribbon that you...
Open-ended Art: Clay Play
I feel like every time I write a blog post about clay I talk about how it's an incredibly magical...
Open-Ended Art: Fake Snow
I live in Santa Cruz, CA where we do not get snow. In fact it's been an incredibly warm and sunny...
Texture Sensory Box
A texture sensory box is a great way to highlight the wonders of touch. Below is a list of...
Purple Monster Playdough
Because the weather is becoming cooler and unpredictable I'm planning full-hour lesson plans for...
Open-Ended Art: Valentine’s Day
I love LOVE! I'm all about reclaiming holidays, expanding upon the hallmark understanding, tapping...
Paint Chip Collage
Looking for a frugal project with fun new materials that you have at home? Paint Chip Collages are...
Glue-Paper-Glue on Masonite
We have done glue-paper-glue collage in the past with recycled cereal boxes and the finished...
Tinfoil Ornaments
If you don't already know about Happy Hooligans definitely take a second to pop over to her blog!...
Famous Artists II: Mondrian
Mondrian was fabous for his black grid work filled with squares and rectangles in bold primary...
Autumn Wall Hanger
Autumn Hangers are great for a wall or a front door. I know that many places have already seen...
Cork Stamped Cards
Cork stamped cards are such a great way to bring color into any holiday or celebration. Plus this...
Plaster Keepsakes
I was first learned about how simple plaster casting was from the Artful Parent. This project...
Wood Collage and Painting
Four our wood collage project we used reclaimed wood from an old fence that I picked up in my...
Autumn Sensory Bin
To welcome in Autumn we did a fall sensory box complete with: pasta, two types of beans, corn,...
Halloween Flubber
Flubber is seriously one of my favorite mediums to present in my classroom. Everyone loves flubber...
Diptych Nature Collage
Does your child like to stuff rocks in their pockets at the park or carry sticks around in the...
Falling Leaf Mobile
I love celebrating the changing of the seasons. We started off our Autumn session with a Falling...
Halloween Bunting
Halloween is a great holiday because we get to dress up in costume, explore the creepy dark side...
Art & Science: Light
One of the things I love most about my job is that I create my own curriculum. If I'm inspired by...
Summer Harvest 2013!
Planting with toddlers and young children can be challenging so this summer we focused our efforts...
Art & Literacy: Dr. Seuss Fish
I love Dr. Seuss because he's witty, creative, and fills the imagination with as many goofy...
Art & Literacy: Lois Ehlert Clay Flowers
Lois Ehlert's, Planting a Rainbow, was a great fit for Studio Sprout's summer curriculum because...
Art & Literacy: Eric Carle Collage
We started our three week Art & Literacy session with Eric Carle's book The Hungry...
Bubble Baskets
Bubble Blowing is a wonderful outdoor activity for children. Bubbles get kids running, jumping,...
Chicks for Cochi: First Days
My Buff Cochin, Cochi, went broody about three weeks ago. Dictionary.com defines broody as: (of a...
Celebrating Spring: Paper Bag Butterflies
This project was inspired by the Artful Parent recycled paper bag heart project. Instead of hearts...
Weaving with Recycled Paper
Earlier in the session my classes worked in teams to cover paper bags that I had cut open with...
Celebrating Spring: Recycled Collage (glue/paper/glue)
In this project we used all recycled materials to create an art project with lots of color and fun...
Celebrating Spring: Accordion Garden Collage
Thank you Make and Takes for such a successful spring project! The first step to the accordion...
Celebrating Spring: Salt Dough Animal Impressions
Story telling has been an increasingly regular part of my curriculum. I use books as tools for...
Celebrating Spring: Flower Print Cards
Making cards is a multi-step process which includes folding, gluing, printing, and glitter. This...
Celebrating Spring: Flower Suncatchers and Painted Eggcartons
Spring is here! Can you feel the buzz? We kick started our spring session with a wonderful flower...
The Five Senses: Hearing
The focus for our fifth and final sense in our Five Senses session was "hearing". I love bridging...
The Five Senses: Sight
To celebrate our sense of sight and the fact we can see an amazingly rich and diverse color...
The Five Senses: Smell
Students are LOVING The Five Senses theme! Our third week's focus was "smell" and we kicked off...
The Five Senses: Taste
The second week of our Five Senses session focused on taste. I intentionally avoid edible projects...
The Five Senses: Touch
Developing Studio Sprout curriculum feeds my creative bug and truly satisfies my soul. Sometimes...
Famous Artists I: Matisse
Matisse's paper cut-outs were simple but moving. His artistic choices were intentional, full of...
Masters of Art I: Jackson Pollock (string, marble, & pendulum painting)
Jackson Pollock's work represents exploration with paint, movement, and self expression. He worked...
Masters of Art I: Picasso
In my research for projects inspired by famous artists I ran across a wonderful Picasso project on...
Masters of Art I: Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder's mobiles were the inspiration for our second project in our Masters of Art...
Masters of Art I: Paul Klee
Our Masters of Art series has begun! Our first project was inspired by Paul Klee's drawings,...
Sewing
Sewing is a wonderful fine motor skill craft. It can easily be adapted for all ages. Students 18...
Clay Leaves
Lately I've been inspired to try more advanced instruction with my students. Deep Space Sparkle...
Raspberry Canes
The newest edition to our edible garden is a raspberry patch. YUM, I can't wait! Inspired by a...
Strawberry Babies
We are back in the garden and taking weekly action to get edibles back in the ground!!! Our second...
Water Beads
Water beads, the newest craze in toddler sensory activities! Try them and you will know why. The...
Play Dough: Bugs and Reptiles
Play dough is fast becoming my favorite open-ended project. Students will walk straight up to a...
Self Portraits
Drawing self portraits was an incredible experience. You could almost see light bulbs turning on....
Rainbow Mobiles with Recycled Materials
I love making art out of household items that normally would be thrown in the trash. I believe...
Painting the Playhouse
Almost a year ago I purchased a Discovery Kids Cardboard Color Me House from our local Walgreen's...
Magna-Tiles
Magna-Tiles are a fabulous new educational asset to our toy shelf at home. Since they arrived as a...
Holiday Gift Making IV: Mixed Media Magnets
We wrapped up four weeks of gift making with a mixed media magnet project. Besides the magnet...
Holiday Gift Making III: Paint Chip Picture Frames & Glitter Cards
This week we made vibrant mosaic picture frames out of paint chips. For the last year I've been...
Holiday Gift Making II: Salt Dough Ornaments and Montotype Prints
Thank you Artful Parent for such a great blog about salt dough ornaments! This project was loved...
Holiday Gift Making I: Treasure Boxes and Paper Roll Printed Cards
For our Holiday Treasure Boxes we used blank paper mache boxes from Discount School Supply along...
Collaboration Complete: Keepsake Book and Fall Leaves
Watching my students look through their art books is a magical experience. To see them recollect...
Collaboration IV: Colored Glue Collage & Ball Painting
The first collaboration of the day was a colored glue collage. I made seven colors of glue by...
ATC Swap (Artist Trading Card)
Studio Sprout participated in an official Artist Trading Card Swap! This was an amazing success...
Collaboration III: Painting on Maps & Mask Making
I introduced the idea of painting collaboratively by reading the book, We're Painting by Carol...
Collaboration II: Pass the Art Game (Mixed Media)
For this week's collaboration we explored mixed media. I developed a "Pass the Art" game similar...
Collaboration I: Paint and Contact Paper Collage
This week marks the beginning of a new session. The theme for the next five week is Collaboration...
Clay, Colorwheel, and More!
Exploring 3-D with my students has been an incredible process. Just as each child draws or paints...
Pegboard Art and Paper Mache
This week's Pegboard project covered a variety of mediums, techniques and skills. First we drew...
Plaster Casting
I was incredibly inspired by The Artful Parent play dough plaster casting. Play dough is a hit...
Block Building and Craft Sticks w/ Velcro
A long time ago I saw a Pinterest post with these over-sized colorful craft sticks and hook &...
Lettuce Planting and Carrot Picking
We planted a few six-packs of Romaine Lettuce on October 2nd, 2012. Cheers to winter gardens. Here...
Rainbow Sensory Box, Hammering Practice and Paper Roll Sculpture II
Sensory boxes are fun to make a fun to play with! This sensory box was filled with a rainbow of...
First Egg 9/12/12
Our first egg was laid 9/12/12 by our Cuckoo Marans, Shadow. Her eggs will soon become chocolate...
Paper Roll Sculpture and Flubber
Studio Sprout strives to be a good steward of the planet by reducing our footprint in a variety of...
Bubble Wands
To celebrate the end of summer we made bubble wands and blew bubbles. I experimented with two...
Clay Work
Clay proves to be one of the most engaging materials in the studio. My first class of the week was...
Tape Resist with Glitter Watercolor and MORE!
At the start of this week's class I had parents and caregivers tuck in close to the table and rip...
Clay with Recycled Materials and Spin Art
Through manipulating clay young children learn about cause and effect and develop their motor...
Felt Collage, Carrots and Sensory Activities
Creating collage is a reoccurring project here at Studio Sprout but my goal is to keep it fresh...
Printmaking and Cloud Dough
We kicked off the beginning of our sunny summer session with printmaking. Martha Stuart's, Living...
Wind Chimes and Shaving Cream Play
To wrap up our six-week session which focused on taking art outdoors and incorporating the...
Nature Collage and Water Beads
Inspired by collage and drawn to use natural and recycled materials I decided to combine them all...
Ice and Watercolor
When I think of summertime art projects I think of water, and on really hot days, ice. This week...
Spots and Dots
This week's class started with sitting in a circle and reading the book Put Me In the Zoo by...
Clay with Nature Materials and Chicks (6 weeks old)
Clay is a fascinating medium. It will keep the busiest toddler sitting and engaged. Clay responds...
Nature Print Flags and Chicks (5 weeks old)
In my research for outdoor and nature projects I ran across some ideas for garden wish flags and...
Bookmaking, Birdseed Play and Chicks (4 weeks old)
I love bookmaking. I love the process and I love the finished piece. I love that it creates a...
Butterfly Prints and Chicks (3 weeks old)
Making butterfly prints is simple and fun! We used washable tempera paint from Discount School...
Watercolor/Oil Pastel Resist and Chicks (2 weeks old)
Watercolors gave us a perfect break from tempera and allowed students to explore using soft...
Colored Glue Collage, Chicks, and Gardening
Drizzling glue is almost intoxicating for young children. Perhaps its utilizing all those hand and...
Monotype Printing and Mud Painting
Making monotype prints is magical because you never quite know what you are going to get when you...
Tape Resist Painting and Magnet Sensory Box
Kids LOVE tape and paint, needless to say the Tape Resist project was a huge hit. The finished...
Tissue Paper Dyed Eggs, Foam Paint, and Liquid Sidewalk Chalk
We finished this session at Studio Sprout with egg dying, foam paint, and lots of outdoor fun! I...
Painting with Wacky Tools, Plunger Prints, and Spring Sensory Box
It was fascinating watching toddlers and young children...
Ball Painting
We had such a blast with ball painting this week. The process is very simple. Have small boxes and...
Beaded Pasta Sculptures and More!
This week we explored beading with some hand dyed past and pipe cleaners. I encouraged students to...
Clay
This week we introduced real clay for the first time. Although we don't have a kiln to fire...
Collage with Colored Glue
This week we made collage with colored glue, recycled "unclaimed" paintings, tissue paper, and...
Mapping Lines, Pine Cone Trees, and Playdough
This week we upcycled old maps into new art. I provided three different drawing tools: markers,...
Plexiglass Painting/Printmaking and Gel Sensory Bags
This week's main focus was breaking in the new plexiglass wall easel. I gave the kids free reign...
15% Early Bird Discount for Upcoming Session 2/28/12 – 4/6/12
The new updated class schedule includes: Wednesday afternoon classes one mixed age class that...
Car Printing with Tempera Paint, Valentines and Winter Sensory Box
This week's project was car printing/painting, making valentines, and playing in a winter sensory...
Foam Paint and Flubber
This week was too much fun! For our wet medium project we experimented with foam paint, powder...
Printmaking and Contact Paper Collage
This week we introduced Printmaking. To make prints we used bubble wrap, toilet paper rolls,...
Water Color & Oil Pastel Resist and Tempera Fun!
This week we drew with oil pastel and painted over our compositions with liquid water color. The...
Opening Week = Success
One hundred children and caregivers attended Studio Sprout for Opening Week! Thank you to all the...
Ready, Set, Go!
This week marks the official opening of Studio Sprout. We are running FREE classes all week. If...
Holiday Fun – Salt Dough Ornaments
I've always wanted to try making something out of salt dough. I suppose I just never had a focus...
Sensory Play – Packing Peanuts
In my research for winter themed sensory play ideas I came across packing peanuts as an intriguing...