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Making a World the Ed Emberley Way!

April 15, 2013 by Selena Robinson 15 Comments

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Good morning everyone! Time for another week of learning in our family! I thought I’d start off by sharing an art activity we enjoyed recently. I had never heard of Ed Emberley before I started homeschooling. I wasn’t much for drawing as a kid and I never thought about learning how to do it as I grew up. But I found an Ed Emberley book at our local library a few years ago and I was hooked. I had no idea that drawing could be so easy! I ended up buying three of his books the very next week at the dearly departed bookstore chain Borders. (Sniff.)

The kids were partial to his “Complete Funprint Drawing Book”. And why not?  I mean, you get to put your fingers on a stamp pad!

See what I mean?

Christopher Robin got to work with the book “Make a World”. And he drew a great schooner that he then erased before I could get a picture of it. *grumble*

And now for the masterpieces…..

Roo wanted to make bumblebees, so I did one for him and then he made a few. Not long afterward, he lost interest and asked if he could make random fingerprints and doodle. This is the point where I reminded myself, “Process, not product.”

Pooh made a fingerprint clown and then added his own touches with an ink pen.

Tigger really took to the little fingerprint people and practiced making them with different expressions and movements.

Even me and Christopher Robin got involved! He drew the really great steamboat above and I did the somewhat disturbing looking animals below using the “Big Purple Drawing Book”. (I promise y’all – the pictures look much better in the book.) Process, not product, right?

How do you include drawing in your school lessons? Have any of you tried an Ed Emberley book? Let us know in the comments! Keep on learning!

 

Filed Under: Art Appreciation

Comments

  1. Ticia Adventures in Mommydom says

    April 15, 2013 at 8:48 am

    I need to try my kids on fingerprint art again, they were mildly interested before, but I bet they’d love it now.

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 15, 2013 at 8:42 pm

      We’ve had to introduce things more than once here too. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Becky says

    April 15, 2013 at 4:10 pm

    This is just what I have been needing for my son. He is so intimidated by art, mostly because of his strive for perfection. And, our local library has some of these books too!! Yay! Thank you.

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 15, 2013 at 8:41 pm

      Aw, you’re welcome! I hope he likes them! 🙂

      Reply
  3. 5ennie says

    April 16, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    Thanks for the tip! Never heard of his books. Great job on the drawings:)

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 16, 2013 at 6:17 pm

      You’re welcome! And thanks for the nice words! The kids did great, but I have a lot of practicing to do…lol.

      Reply
  4. Wendy says

    April 16, 2013 at 9:41 pm

    Hi Selena! Thanks so much for linking up with us on the Hip Homeschool Hop today! 🙂

    It looks like you and the kiddos had such a great time doing the fingerprint art projects! My kiddos are getting a bit older now (two teens and a 10-year-old), so we don’t do as many fun art projects like that any more. My youngest child is into arts and crafts, though, and basically anything that makes a big mess!

    I enjoyed your post so much. I hope you continue to have a great week.

    Blessings,

    Wendy

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 17, 2013 at 8:55 am

      Wow! Thanks so much for stopping by! 🙂 I’m soooo squeamish about messes, which is why I liked the fingerprinting…lol.

      Reply
  5. Gina says

    April 18, 2013 at 9:11 am

    We are not squeamish about mess here! We make a lot of mess. Actually, THEY make a lot of mess and I tidy up a lot of mess.

    My munchkins are 7 and 5. We have two strands of drawing running in our home school. The first is what my princess calls ‘science drawing’ where we look at things and draw what we see and it isn’t always pink. Sadly. This is not her favourite.

    The other thing we have been doing is looking at an artist at a time (very brief introductory stuff) and then adapting their style to make a pieces of inspired work. We did pointillism with cotton buds but will do it again with finger printing they will love this.

    We just started doing Jackson Pollock. They love this for obvious reasons. I was struck by how interested they were in the utube dvds once they had seen what he did. I was also surprised that they came up with lots of ways of using multimedia to make Pollock inspired stuff. They have even done it with crayons. My little man liked having permission to scribble, I think!

    Generally with the big messy stuff we wait for a nice (ish, we live in the UK) day and take it in the garden. Then it isn’t so bad. I love your blog.

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 18, 2013 at 4:22 pm

      Outdoor painting is a terrific idea! I actually cringe when stuff gets splashed…lol.

      We’re planning a Jackson Pollock activity in the next couple of weeks here too, but we’re doing it with a spinning paper plate inside a box so hopefully there won’t be too much on the walls. 🙂

      Thanks so much for sharing your ideas!

      Reply
  6. Angela @ Teaching Mama says

    April 19, 2013 at 10:26 pm

    Looks like a lot of fun!! Thanks for linking up at Tender Moments with Toddlers & Preschoolers!

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 21, 2013 at 11:34 am

      You’re welcome! We had a blast! 🙂

      Reply
  7. enchantedhomeschoolingmom says

    April 21, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    What a great time (and memory for your family)! Fingerprint art is always so much fun and the creativity really never ends 🙂 Thank you for sharing this post this week on our Hearts at Home Blog Hop!

    Reply
    • Selena@lookwerelearning says

      April 22, 2013 at 3:52 am

      I know! I’d never done it before this, but we’ll definitely be doing it again!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Preschool Parade, April 20, 2013 | Following In His Footsteps says:
    April 20, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    […] Fingerprint Art looks like a great way to pass the […]

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