The Fall craftivity I did with my groups had to do with leaves. When I saw this technique I had to try it! I needed a shallow pan, acrylic paints, a squeegee, and shaving cream. I had the paints, but got the rest of the supplies at the dollar store. (Regular shaving cream is not very popular these days, huh?!)
We started by filling the pan with shaving cream. I let each student have a turn “squirting” the shaving cream.
Then, I had each student squirt a little bit of paint all over the shaving cream. (On my first attempt at doing this I was stingy with the paint. Be generous! Your leaves will come out much better!) Then we used a plastic knife to swirl the paint all around. We practiced pre-writing strokes and basic concepts by starting at the top and going down and starting on the left and going across.
Then, I let each student choose what leaf they wanted: a pointy one or an oval one. We placed each leaf on top of the paint/shaving cream design. I used my fingers to poke the leaf down to make sure it was covered.
We pulled them off the paint and set them aside for a minute while the other students were taking their turns. Here’s how they look still covered in shaving cream:
See – you want to make sure the whole thing is covered and don’t be stingy with the paint!
Last, we gathered around the carpet, where I had a large trash can waiting for me. I let each student help me use the squeegee to scrape the shaving cream into the trash can. Here’s how they came out:
To summarize the lesson, we used visuals to sequence the steps of the activity. We also talked about what you can do in the leaves during the Fall. I left my visuals with the teacher so she could make use of them all week! You can find all of the visuals I used, the templates, and more in this download!
Happy Fall, everyone!
