The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle: Art Project

I figured Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed would capture the attention of the two-year-olds I would be teaching at last week's homeschool co-op.  The bigger challenge was finding a craft or art project that would be simple enough for toddlers but still related to the book.

We decided to make a flower collage out of paper we colored with the shaving cream marbling technique my girls had enjoyed so much last year.  The marbling makes a fun textured look that is similar to Carle's art style.

I gave each child a cookie sheet and squirted a pile of shaving cream on top.  I asked the toddlers to show me where to squeeze some paint, and then let them stir the paint into the shaving cream with the back end of a paintbrush.

The trick is to stop them stirring before the paint is too mixed with the shaving cream.  You get a much better marbled effect if it's not too homogeneous.

It's also helpful to make sure that the shaving cream is spread over a large enough area so that it will cover an entire piece of paper.

After the paint was mixed, I gave each child a piece of white card stock and told them to press it straight down onto the shaving cream.

We lifted off the card stock and wiped the shaving cream off the paper.  (Try to get as much off in the first wipe as possible to keep the blurring minimal).

After the cardstock had dried, I cut out a flower center, petals, stem, and leaves.  The toddlers used glue sticks to glue them on to a brown piece of construction paper.

What other fun activities, crafts, or art projects have you tried to go along with Eric Carle books?