Jingle Bell Painting

Happy New Year!!

After a wonderful break from our regular daily schedule, Monkey, Peanut and I are ready to get back into the groove now that the holidays are over. 

Today's art activity was one that I had planned to do before Christms but ran of time and didn't get to. I knew Monkey wouldn't care that we were doing a Christmas activity after Christmas, so here it is!

Supplies: paint, paper, deep baking tray, bells

I picked up the bells at the dollar store wth the sole intention of painting with them. I couldn't find plain bells so I got ornaments instead and just pulled off the top so I had only the bell left. 

The other parts would have just gotten in the way!

I got the paper set up by trimming it to fit into the baking sheet and then taping it down from below. 

Then Monkey and I squeezed some drops of red and green paint onto the paper. 

I gave Monkey the bells so he could put them into the tray. I said he could put them wherever he wanted, in the paint or not. He put them right into the paint, even matching the colours. 

Well, then we had a problem because  there were only six bells but we had made eight blobs of paint. So I was ordered back to the kitchen to get two more bells, specifically one red and one green so that they would match accordingly. Oh, his brain is too much like mine, sometimes it scares me! 

Finally, we were really ready. 

Monkey started shaking! And the bells jingled around just like I hoped they would. Adding in another of Monkey's senses to the whole experience. He loved it. 

It was a little tricky for him to do by himself. I'm not really sure why? Maybe the bells were a bit too small, or not round enough, but they seemed to get stopped by the blobs of paint. So I helped Monkey shake the tray and they moved a little better. 

We sang Jingle Bells twice through while shaking.. Monkey's idea :)

Here is the masterpiece: 

This was definitely more about process and not product, but lots of good art activities are (especially with preschoolers!), and we'll hang it on the wall anyway. Before bed he asked if we could do it again tomorrow, so that means it was a success for him, too. Good thing I didn't throw the bells away yet! 

Mar