An Wonderful Book & Marble Painting with Skulls!
After reading Blair Thornburgh’s “Skulls!” we decided to create some process art! We used plastic skulls found in the dollar tree & paint to create this spooky art. I can’t wait to show you, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “Skulls!”
“Skulls!” by Blair Thornburgh and illustrated by Scott Campbell is a wonderful book about skulls. It shows a variety of facts and illustrations demonstrating their importance. It is adorable and super informational. Definitely recommended.
How We Marble Painted with Skulls…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity my daughter gathered the colored construction paper & paints she wanted, while I gathered the skulls & tray. We placed the paper onto the tray one at a time, squeezed a bit of paint here and there all over the paper.
Then came the best part…shaking the tray and watching the skulls roll around in the paint creepily, lol. Next, we added another piece of paper, more paint and repeated the shaking process. You can see videos of this on Instagram @parentingnotperfection.
The skulls made pretty cool designs on the paper. We usually save our process art for our collage art, so stay tuned to see where this art ends up!
Wait?!? Am I Supposed To Be Making One Too?
I highly recommend getting hands on and doing art projects with your child. If you’d rather not, thats okay too, but please do not correct anything they do. If you want the art to look a certain way – make your own.
Especially if your child is little, its okay if it doesn’t turn out the way you imagined. Maybe its what they imagined. Also, its a process. They are learning. They will learn more through trial and error than if you correct them or do it for them. All they will learn if you “help” is that they didn’t do a good enough job on their own or they can’t do it; not exactly the message you want to give your kid. Am I right?!?
Believe me, I know it can be really challenging to let them make “mistakes”. Try doing the project along side them. It will allow you to focus on your own work, give them appropriate modeling of how to use the materials, and show them that you like art too! A lot of what I talk about in “What about the Sensory Mess?” applies to Art projects as well, you might wanna check it out! I love how each shark has its own identity. I would suggest Marble Painting with Skulls if you’re looking for a fun and creepy art activity to connect with your child.
Materials We Used
- “Skulls!” by Blair Thornburgh (from the library or buy one here)
- Construction paper
- Scotch tape
- Paint
- Plastic skulls (we found our in the Dollar Tree)
- Tray
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Marble Painting with Skulls?
- Place scotch tape on all four corners of the construction paper.
- Stick the construction paper to the tray.
- Squirt a drop of each color paint onto the construction paper.
- Place the plastic skulls onto the tray.
- Shake and tilt the tray from side to side to roll the skulls through the paint and make designs.
- Stop when you are satisfied with the painting.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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