Thursday, March 31, 2011

Jr. Artists: Batik's and Clay

Clay and Batik

We have been working on our batik's and class sculptures for the past three weeks.  To see all the pictures from our class click here. 

Join us for Gallery Night on Wednesday April 6th from 6:30-8:00 pm.  Gallery Night is an open house so you can come and stay as long as you would like.  Awards will be given out at 7:00 pm.  We will have refreshments, art activities and of course artwork on display!

Our summer schedule is now available.  We have lots of fun art, science and music classes for kids of all ages.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Mommy, Monet and Me! Letter U & V


Vaseline, Under, & Vinegar

I'm going to be honest...towards the end of the alphabet it gets a little tricky to think of good art activities, but these were the highlights of the last two weeks!

Vaseline

Materials: Vaseline, red, yellow and blue paint, q-tips, paper. 


This is one of the best art activities I have ever come up with!  I loved it, and the kids loved it.  Just take a little vaseline, put it in a small container and add a small amount of washable paint (you could also try food coloring).  Mix paint and Vaseline thoroughly.

Next, use the q-tips or fingers to apply the paint to a small piece of paper.  (I like a small piece of paper when you are working with finger or q-tips).  The Vaseline paint slides around, mixes together, and is shiny!  The best part is when the container gets knocked over the paint doesn't spill, AND the Vaseline keeps the paint from drying out so you can use it again and again!  Such a great project!

Under

Materials: Table or chair, coloring pages, tape.


Many kids love to do things that are out of the ordinary.  Something as simple as drawing or painting underneath the table can make them giggle and feel like they are breaking all the rules!

For this activity I got some cool art coloring pages and taped them on the underside of the table.  We put comfy pillows on the floor and got out the markers and crayons, and started drawing!

Vinegar

Materials: Tissue paper strips, vinegar, paintbrushes, paper

This activity is much like our tissue paper painting, only this time I used strips of colored paper, and vinegar instead of water.  I like the results!

Just have your child lay strips of art tissue paper down on white paper.  Then add vinegar over each strip with a paintbrush.  The vinegar seems to pull the color out of the strips better than water.

When using tissue paper for art, you need the kind that bleeds.  So avoid overly glossy tissue paper.  It wont leach color in the same way.  We order our tissue paper from discount school supply.

Join us next Monday morning from 9:30-10:15 am for the letter W!  See you there!

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Best of Utah Valley! Vote for us!


If you love our preschool, kindergarten and tutoring please take a moment to vote for us on the Daily Herald's Best of Utah Valley.

Simply click on the link below, click through to page 11, and enter Hobble Creek Learning Center for best "Child Care Center" and best "Tutor"!

Best of Utah Valley

Thanks for your vote!

Friday, March 18, 2011

New Summer Classes!

 Sign up for Summer!

We have so many fun classes to sign up for this summer.  Avoid that mid-summer boredom and get your kids into our classes to learn about juggling, clay, ancient Egypt, superheroes, microbes, the rainforest, ooey, gooey, science and more!

For a complete list of summer programs visit our website. 

Don't forget we also have summer preschool starting at just $90.00 a month!

Join our Facebook Page for exclusive deals, updates, and discounts!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Mommy, Monet and Me! Letter T

Tubes, Tape & Toothbrushes, & Trees!

Join us each Monday for Mommy, Monet and Me!  Class is from 9:30-10:15 am.  We always have three different art activities.  The children can spend as much time at each activity as they would like and play with friends and toys at the end of class. 
 

Tubes

Materials: Paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, tin cans, paint, white paper.

This in such a basic way to paint, but it creates a really cool effect.  Using red, yellow and blue paint allows the colors to mix and still look nice.  Try to use a variety of tube sizes.  Simply let your little one dip the tube in a little bit of paint (I put the paint on a paper plate and spread it out a little) then press the end of the tube on the paper.  Encourage the child to press the tube several times, and move it around the paper.  The more overlapping circles the better!

Tape and Toothbrushes

Materials: Painters tape or masking tape, toothbrush, watercolor paint, watercolor paper.

Children can use tape to create the first letter of their names on watercolor paper or any thick absorbent paper.  Next, dip a toothbrush in water and then in watercolor paint.   Help your child flick the toothbrush to splatter paint all over the paper.  When the paper is dry remove the tape and reveal a white letter, and splatter paint background. 

Tearing Trees

Materials: Brown paper, blue paper, tissue paper, glue sticks

Kids love to tear paper.  Give your child brown paper and let them tear the paper into strips.  The more they tear the more little branches they make.  Then help your child glue the strips down on blue paper.  Next, add spring blossoms by gluing crumpled colored tissue paper on the branches.  You could also add pieces of green to make leaves for your tree.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Mommy, Monet and Me! Letter S

St. Patrick's Day Art!

At Hobble Creek Learning Center we love St. Patrick's Day.  This week in MMM our letter was S so we did St. Patrick's Day Art.  We made the color green and painted shamrocks, we made shamrocks using heart shapes, and we painted beautiful glossy rainbows. 

Green

Materials: blue paint, yellow paint, spoon, ziploc bag, painbrush


Today I let the kids mix their own green paint using a small ziploc bag.  We just put a spoonful of blue paint, and yellow paint and then made sure the bag was closed securely.  Then I just let them move, and squish and swirl the paint until they made green.   Then they used a small paintbrush to dip in the bag and paint shamrock coloring page.  So simple, but there is something magical about mixing that paint!

Heart Shamrocks

Materials: Heart shaped cookie cutters, green stamp pads or paint, paper

I realized recently that Shamrocks are really hard for little kids to draw, but you need shamrocks to properly celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  When you look at a shamrock it is basically 3 or 4 heart shaped leaves joined together.  So I took our heart shaped cookie cutters and pressed them into the stamp pad, and then onto the paper and it makes a perfect shamrock!  The shamrock outline can then be colored in or painted. 

Glossy Rainbows

Materials: Food coloring, corn syrup, paintbrushes, large paper.

One of my favorite art activities is using corn syrup to paint.  Did you know that corn syrup is used to make magazine covers glossy?  The beautiful thing about painting with corn syrup is that it stays shiny when it dries.  So we combined corn syrup with all of the colors of the rainbow, each in its own container.  Then we painted beautiful rainbows.  Beware this can be a very sticky endeavor, but it cleans up easily with a little water! To minimize the mess let paintings dry flat overnight.

Come to our St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday March 12th from 10:00-Noon for more St. Patrick's Day fun and prizes.  See you there!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

St. Patrick's Day Party: March 12th

Come Celebrate with Us!

St. Patrick’s Day Party
Saturday, March 12th
10:00 am-Noon, FREE


The Balloon Guy, cookie decorating, face painting, Irish art, leprechaun games & lots of fun prizes!

Pot of Gold Prize Drawing
Our grand prize includes all of the following prizes
*Party Package from Balloon Guy Entertainment
*$25.00 gift certificate from Funfinity
*$30.00 gift certificate from Magleby's Restaurant
*Year Art Adventure Pass from Hobble Creek Learning Center
“Like” our Facebook page to enter!

Primary Children's Medical Center 
Toy Drive.
Get an extra entry in our general prize drawing for each new or gently used toy you donate at the party! All toys will be donated to Primary Children’s Medical Center. (No fabric toys please)

Door Prize and General Prize Drawing
First 50 people get a free Scholastic children's book! You get one prize entry just for coming to the party.  General prizes include toys and gift certificates from Funfinity, Magleby's Restaurant gift cards, and gift certificates from Hobble Creek Learning.

For more information about Hobble Creek Learning Center visit
www.hobblecreeklearning.com