Play With Me: Art [Part 3]

By: Shannon Mallery, Program Assistant Sr. - Mature Adults

We're continuing our Play With Me: Art series! July is Parks and Recreation month and in celebration we will focus our art making on things found in nature. It has been hot and beautiful outside. Maybe you have gone for a few walks through a favorite spot. I know I have and more than once I peeked under a rock to see what was there. Discovering new things can be fun. Maybe you have discovered some new things in your wanderings that you can share with your child as you work together on our next set of coloring sheets called Among the Rocks.

These activities are designed for children between 2 and 5 years old. Before getting started, parental assistance will be needed to help collect and setup supplies. Consider sending the supply list ahead of time so the parent can prepare in advance.

Supplies/Setup

• Print the Among the Rocks background sheet and Among the Rocks cut out sheet
• Markers, crayons and colored pencils
• Scissors (age appropriate)
• Glue

As you work on the print out sheets together, talk about what you are doing:

• Remember color choices can be natural and imaginary.
• Encourage and compliment your child's cutting and gluing skills.
• Ask them if they ever look under rocks and ask them to tell you about what they found; did they discover any creatures living under there.
• Ask if they had to dig the rocks up with their fingers or a shovel. Ask if they put the rock back when they were done or if they kept it.
• You may want to talk a little about worms and roly-polys and the role they play in decomposition.
• You may want to talk about how old rocks are, how old the earth is.

Up for a Challenge?

If you participated in the challenge last week, how many leaves did you guess were in the jar? There were a total of 119 leaves! 

Take a look at the picture to the right and see if you can guess how many rocks are in the jar. You can discuss this together with your child and you can agree on one number or you can both guess separately. The answer will be posted next week along with another secret message.

Here are some questions you can discuss together about the challenge:

• Did you guess how many correctly?
• What made you guess the number you did?
• Ask them which they think weighed more 77 twigs (from our first Play With Me: Art post Under the Twigs) or 119 leaves and why?
• Ask them how many leaves they think are on one tree, how many in their yard?

Secret Message!

Can you find the secret message in the picture to the right? This is the second part of a three part secret message. We will give the final part of the message in the next Play With Me blog post.

Thanks for making art and memories with us. We hope you are enjoying the sunshine and Park and Recreation month. We also hope you are having meaningful virtual interactions with the special people in your life.

Stay tuned for another blog post next week that continues the Play With Me: Art series! Have fun and remember to Play More with DPR!