Felt Making with Children

Children love felt making! There's something magical about taking these fluffy bits of wool and turning them into a beautiful piece of art using just your hands, water and a bit of soap.

When I entered the world of felt making 3 years ago, I immediately saw the benefits of teaching it to children. Since then, I've taught over 1000 children how to make felt and, I can honestly say, they all loved it!

So, what is it about felt making that children love? 

First, they love the slightly messy nature of it - using water and creating bubbles with the soap (and yes, I encourage bubble making competitions!) are just downright fun. Somehow, they don't realise it's messy in a clean way and I certainly send them away with squeaky clean hands.

They love 'Milking' the felt, a technique used to squeeze water out and give it an extra 'felt'. The action is like milking a cow and they can't get enough of it.

They experience success! It really doesn't matter how old you are what your ability is, everyone can make felt. Children quickly realise this and just revel in creating a piece of art. Older children work from photographs and this can be challenging but, with a little encouragement and support, they're proud of what they've created.

They learn! Contrary to popular belief, children love learning. Felt making offers so many opportunities for children to learn. Of course, there are the many aspects of art and design to learn about but I also teach children science, maths and geography during my workshops and they enjoy it. 

The awe and wonder children experience during felt making is amazing and, as a teacher, I love seeing it and encouraging their creativity, allowing them to explore a new medium and to play, to discover and most of all to enjoy. 

If you'd like to try felt making with your children, then check out my website, www.felt-ed.co.uk for details of my monthly kit club, artist in residence work with schools and resources for teachers. 

Bonfire Night Art for Children (and a writing idea to!)

Halloween has passed so that means that Bonfire Night is nearly here. For me, this is the highlight of autumn and signals the start of wrapping up warm with chunky knitwear, mugs of steaming hot chocolate and the consuming of warm, delicious food.

Bonfire night also offers the opportunity to create some amazing art work and I've shared a few ideas with you below that you can try with your children.  Begin by looking at images, or watching a short video about Bonfire night to gather fabulous ideas.

Scratch Art Picture

I remember creating these when I was a child and the great fun I had colouring the page in using crayons, painting over it in black, acrylic paint, waiting for what seemed like forever for it to dry before using a cocktail stick (or anything else I could find) to scratch away the black to reveal the pretty colours underneath. Now times have moved on and you can buy ready made scratch art sheets if you're short on time but I still think the original way is far more fun! 

Check out this great tutorial here.

Printing with Found Objects

I love printing and have a basket full of 'found objects' to use - from bottle tops to Lego, sponges to old credit cards, everything can be used in one way or another. 

You'll need some strong sugar paper (construction paper) and paint in your chosen colours. Grab your objects and get printing to create your picture. Encourage your children to think about the shapes they want to create and to choose their objects carefully. Here are a few ideas:

Wooden blocks, old credit cards - great logs on a bonfire 

Bottle tops, old credit cards, Pom poms - fabulous fireworks 

Old credit cards, pieces of card - sparklers

I found this great tutorial on creating a printing tool using pipe cleaners which makes awesome fireworks. 

Blow Painting

A lot of fun can be had with a straw and some watered down paint! 

Mix a little non-toxic paint with some water, place a blob on the paper and then, using a straw, blow on the paint to spread it out. It makes fabulous firework shapes. Just be careful to make sure no one sucks through the straw! 

Writing a Bonfire Night Poem

Not only are these great art activities, they can also be a fantastic stimulus for inspiring creative writing. The sights, smells and noises of the night really lend themselves to writing poetry, Here's 1 activity for you. 

1) During the art activity, discuss WOW Words you can use to describe Bonfire Night - base this on your senses, what can you see, hear, smell and feel. Record them on sticky notes to refer back to later.

2) Read a firework poem with your class (this one from Scholastic would be a good place to start but you can choose your own). Identify the WOW words in it and discuss its structure and any other poetic features such as rhyming.  

3) Begin by modelling writing a poem together, using your own ideas and the children's to create your class poem (or even just the start of one) Remember to discuss outloud your writing process as this really helps children when writing independently.

4) Allow the children to write their own poem or, if you just wrote the beginning together, to continue the writing you've started. 

5) Once complete, share your poems with others - this could be verbally or even via the Internet. Display your 2 pieces of creative work together for everyone to admire and enjoy!