Hello! Welcome back to another Summer Arts and Crafts for Preschoolers project. Today we share our simple Summer Picture. As some of you may be aware, we are saving “one craft per month” for a Kids Art Calendar at the end of the year. As part of this we are working on our Four Season’s Pictures. So far we have winter, spring and now we have our Summer Picture Craft.
First our book:
Another lovely story from my childhood! I picked up our (German) copy of this at the Christmas Bazaar of the German School in London. I leafed through it and the pictures were so familiar, but I couldn’t remember the story… it is a lovely little book about the little bunny going through the different seasons and what he gets up to… The focus does seem to be on Spring and Summer though, with a whole 4 pages each devoted to them, whilst Autumn and Winter get less. I love how Summer shows us butterflies and strawberries, but also rain (and it is raining a lot here this Summer!). Bunnies are big in our house, so the children love the book. With Pip Squeak it is a great way of looking for details (where are the baby birds? where is the red butterfly) and Red Ted just loves all the bugs and frogs. A sweet traditional and lovely book.
I also like the “format” – a different shape to your usual book! Makes it nice to hold.
The Craft
When we make our next season, always get the others from our notice board and we discuss the differences between the seasons. And each pictures is made up in the same way: the ground, the sky, “bubble wrap printing” and fingerprint printing….
Having made 4 of these pictures already (we painted 3 of the Spring ones), Red Ted really “gets it” and he is brilliant at painting the ground, and sky himself. He loves the bubble wrap printing too. As the Fingerprints change each time, he is more explorative there and often wants to smear his finger across the whole page…
So… (my picture quality is poor this week, no idea what was up with my camera – sorry!)
1 – we painted the sky and grass. We mixed in white to make the sky and grass “brighter” for the summer. Then we made green bubble wrap leaves…
2 – after the “success” of last week’s fingerprint sunflowers, we thought our Summer picture could have them again, plus some orange butterflies
3 -once dry add the sunflower stems and middles as well as butterfly detail.. one butterfly (bottom left) Red Ted decided to turn into a “bug”.
Finished!
Don’t they look great together?
(UPDATE A YEAR LATER: here is the full Four Seasons together)
More great Summer Crafts for Preschoolers here:
Kate from An Amazing Child says
July 13, 2011 at 6:45 amMaggy these paintings are lovely. Your calendar is going to be beautiful.
Red Ted Art says
July 13, 2011 at 7:27 amAaaah thank you Kate, am so looking forward to seeing it all together!
Creative and Curious Kids! says
July 13, 2011 at 10:01 amOh my goodness- they are gorgeous! He is doing such a great job. I love all of the details.
Jen
Red Ted Art says
July 13, 2011 at 11:32 amOh thank you! I am really looking forward to assembling it all 😉
Esther says
July 13, 2011 at 12:11 pmwow! Only fall picture is remaining! The pictures are looking wonderful!
Helen@Baby Shoes says
July 13, 2011 at 1:57 pmI hope “Red Ted” is proud of himself!
Emma says
July 13, 2011 at 3:19 pmI agree! Your calendar is going to look so lovely!
Mags says
July 13, 2011 at 5:24 pmI love love love these pics. Will definitely do it with Ben. Thanks for the idea 🙂
Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says
July 13, 2011 at 6:10 pmWhat a great idea for a calendar – I love home produced calendars whether photographs or children’s art work
Red Ted Art says
July 13, 2011 at 6:29 pmOh Red Ted adores his pictures. I think he particularly likes the Spring one (hence we made 3!!!).
mummiafelice says
July 14, 2011 at 1:32 pmOh I love this! My children always make a calender at school, so I would love to have a go with Little One.
Thanks for linking up 🙂
Jamie @ hands on : as we grow says
July 14, 2011 at 6:49 pmI love your seasons pictures! They’ll be great to keep! I feel so bad not linking up to your party lately – I don’t have any craftiness going on lately, but when I do, I’ll definitely be back to link up!
Amy @ Hope Is the Word says
July 14, 2011 at 9:49 pmI love the craft! And this book is definitely a classic. Thanks so much for linking up to RAT!
Rashi says
July 15, 2011 at 3:03 amMaggy, such an adorable bubble wrap printing. It makes your painting more beautiful and attractive. I will try this cute activity. Thanks for sharing.
JDaniel4's Mom says
July 15, 2011 at 1:16 pmI love your trees. The book looks so cute! The bunny on the cover is so precious. He makes you want to read about him.
This post counts as an entry in the Read.Explore.Learn. Reading Challenge for July!
Nicki O'Donovan says
July 26, 2011 at 8:12 pmWhat a super cute idea!
Jason says
November 11, 2012 at 8:41 amThank you so much Maggy for the great inspiration. I’m sorry if I was a little too excited when posting this craft idea. I’ve removed all your pictures as requested. Good luck
Easy Preschool Crafts for Kids*
jc