Tempera Paint - Page 6 of 7

Winter Snowflakes

Have the child fold the paper in half vertically (independently or with assistance). Ask the child to draw any half-shape to be the base of the snowflake(i.e. half circle, half diamond, etc.). Instruct the child to draw more geometrical shapes along the edges of the paper, which can be cut out. Once the child is done drawing, let the child cut out all the shapes.

Let the child unfold the snowflake and decorate using crayons, markers, glitter, dot paint, stickers, etc.

To grade this activity you can:

1. Have lower/younger kids just cut out the big shape and then color in shapes that you draw for them (or you can draw and they can trace) if cutting the small shapes is too difficult

2. To make this activity easier you can also do half sheets of paper to make smaller snowflakes, less to color/cut/fold.

3. Have older/higher kids try to cut out shapes without drawing them first if they can. They can also fold the snowflake in half a second time (so it is in quarters) and do more cutouts on the snowflake.

Rainbow Fish

On the paper plate, draw a V shape, starting at the edge of the plate and pointing to the center of the plate (once the child cuts this part, it will be used as the fish’s tail). Ask the child to cut the lines (provide assistance as needed) and glue the “triangle” to the paper plate, forming the fish.

Have the child use the water colors to paint the fish, using as many colors as he wishes. Let the child glue a googly eye or draw an eye for the fish using a marker/crayon.

The painting can be done using water colors, tempera paint, markers, and even dot paint. To promote pincer grasp, let the child peel small stickers and decorate the fish with them.

Stickplane

Use the wooden sticks or craft sticks as the airplane wings.

Let the child paint or color the sticks with markers and decorate with stickers.

Once sticks are dry, instruct the child to glue on stick at the bottom of the clothespin and one stick at the top.

Using pincer grasp, instruct the child to pinch and open the clothespin while placing the third wing in the middle.

You can have the child glue the middle stick or do not glue the middle wing to allow the child to practice his grasp by removing the middle stick for a two wing airplane model.

Sunflower Handprint

Let the child cut the following pieces:
– 4-inch circle out of brown or black construction paper
– Stem (12-inch by 3-inch rectangle) and leaves out of green construction paper.

Use a large construction paper as the background and glue the stem from the bottom up. Glue the leaves to the stem.

Paint the child’s palms with yellow paint and instruct him to print his palms on the top part of the paper to form the flower petals.

Glue the 4-inch brown/black circle in the middle of the palm prints.

Fall Trees

On a piece of construction paper, either draw a picture of a tree trunk and branches or have the child draw one for you.

Then give them a paper plate with 3 small dots of different colors of paint.

Ask them to dip one finger at a time into the paint and “dot” onto the trees to make the leaves.

For a fall tree, dot some paint at the bottom as well or along the sides as if the leaves are falling.