Windmills on Clothes Pegs

Windmills are always lovely to look at. We wanted to make some of our own and tried a few different types of paper. The best ones by far are made with our own design from painting in a tub which we did a few weeks ago.

I found this page to have the simplest instructions to follow however I didn’t like to put the windmill on a straw as the pin came right through. So we experimented with different holders. We tried pencils, lolly sticks, door frames… but our favourite are clothes pegs. It makes them wonderfully mobile.

Mini Windmills on Clothes Pegs on a Plastic Cup

 

 

 

The craft was a little difficult for my nearly three year old to do well, but he enjoyed trying and loved the final thing. He liked that we used paper from an old painting activity, that we did something worthwhile with it. He marvelled at the transformation from flat piece of paper to a moving 3D shape. The clothes pegs were a great work out for his little fingers. We peg them outside in good weather and quickly bring them in if it rains.

Paint Bags

My son is going through a phase of not liking messy hands. My image of enjoying crazy painting, gooey play and sticky craft with my two year old has been shattered. It is also making me think differently about crafts and how to make it fun for him - not just for me!

We tried using ziplock bags for mixing paint and enjoyed it, until the bag developed a hole. However, my son seemed a little disappointed about not having something to keep at the end.

As it is Spring, most of the craft ideas I see are about flowers and butterflies. These are things he likes, but what he really loves is vehicles. So I cut three pieces of card to fit three bags, drew a (very basic) picture of a car, a bus and a train on them and we were ready to go.

The first bag, the car, got all the colours sqeezed in - red, blue, yellow and white. The second was only given blue as it was a train and that is what colour Thomas is! We didn't get round to doing the bus. We did them one at a time, pressing down on the paint so it spread across the picture. The colours on the car didn't mix quite as much as I had hoped, but the effect was interesting as we cut open the bag and pulled the plastic away. The paint on the train soaked right into the cardboard showing the pattern underneath.

Sometimes I think he enjoys preparing the activities more than doing them. He talked a lot about the measuring and cutting, and then was quiet during the spreading of the paint. I have to really hold my tongue to stop myself telling him what to do. I always have an idea what I want to achieve but have to remind myself that it is his actions and not the finished work that counts!

Some things we achieved:

• talking about size and shape when cutting the cardboard to fit in the bags
• discussing different vehicles that he wanted me to draw, and parts of the vehicles
• choosing colours for the vehicles and how much paint to put in the bag
• using fingers and palms to move the paint around
• learning about colours mixing and liquid moving
• I had practice in not telling him how to make his art

The results are pretty good and look interesting on the wall. It's a really simple and quick activity. I was disappointed that we couldn't see the pictures well underneath the paint, but maybe we can find a solution to that through a brain-storming session beforehand, hmm. It's something we can do often and find different techniques.