Shaving Cream Marbling...



I would like to talk about art a little bit.  In our classroom, art is meant for the children to EXPERIENCE.  The finished product is not the point at all.  You will definitely see some unusual materials, processes, etc. in our classroom, but it's about the process for us.  You probably think I'm crazy to let 20 preschool children have access to all the art supplies all the time.  I'll accept that.  Everything in our classroom (except extra materials) is within every child's reach.  We usually have some method ready for the children to try, but they know they are always free to get other materials out, either at the art table or at another one if the art table is full.  

Sometimes we will set up easel painting with our handy portable "easels"--made by Ms. Amie out of recycled boxes (I'm all about saving the earth...one recycled box at a time)--at the art table with a still life of something from our project or something interesting from out in the garden.  If children choose not to paint, that's okay, they can use other materials if they want to.  Art should be a representation of how that child feels at that moment.  Who am I to tell them that the medium "should be" paint?  I don't want anyone else telling me how to feel, do you?

So....on to something pretty cool that we did this week.  It took a couple of days for everyone to get a chance...like I said, we are interested in the process.  

We did a little Shaving Cream Marbling this week.  First we spread a thin layer of shaving cream onto the trays. 



 Next, the friends squeezed little dots of paint onto the shaving cream....

We used a craft stick to swirl the paint dots around in the shaving cream...

We gently laid our paper onto the tray and patted it down into the shaving cream...

We used recycled gift cards to scrape the shaving cream off the paper...some of the children were disturbed that it looked like a big mess at this point.  But once the shaving cream is scraped off....

This leaves the paint swirls on the paper.  Very pretty!

We displayed them on the Art Gallery Board in our classroom--don't they look wonderful?

I'm always amazed at how different everyone's art looks.  Not that I would really expect them to look all the same, but we all basically did the same method, the same steps, and they are VASTLY different.

I'm sure we will be discussing art again soon, but in the meantime, I want to know if any of you have any comments about art in general or this project in particular.  I am trying to share these with my class, so please leave comments.  I think our class would love it.