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Claude Monet Unit Study — Monet Books for Kids — Monet Crafts for Kids

April 23, 2023 Leave a Comment

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My kids had so much fun with this Claude Monet unit study! Monet is my personal kid favorite artist because his art is colorful, gentle, and full of nature. There are so many wonderful books written about Monet that make this study extra fun, and the crafts are so satisfying. When my kids finished these crafts, they felt like they had really created something.

We studied Monet’s life, his most famous works (brought to life with some super fun activities), and his impressionistic style.

Here are our favorite resources and activities from our artist study with Monet!

Monet Books for Kids

Katie and the Waterlily Pond

written by James Mayhew and Mary McQuillan
The Katie series by James Mayhew are all wonderful, but this one is extra sweet. I love these books because they introduce the kids to Monet’s most famous works that makes the paintings come alive through storytelling. I also love that they work in the paintings’ real names. The paintings as a setting for the story help your kids to remember who the art belongs to.

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet

written by Laurence Anholt
This book is beautiful. The story is sweet, and the art is in impressionistic style like Monet. The center has a gorgeous waterlily fold out.

Linnea and Monet’s Garden

written by Christian Bjork, illustrated by Lena Anderson
This book is much more detailed and long. It takes about 30 minutes to read. There is also a video of it! (Here is the link) The setting is a Little girl named Linnea who visits Monet’s gardens and home museum after his death. She explores with an elderly friend who fills her in on the details of Monet’s life.

Monet Poem Board Book

written by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober
This is a cute little book that shows ___ pieces of Monet’s art, along with a little poem. My kids used this book several times to imitate the painting, since it’s a board book and it stands up easily. This one is SUPER if you have little kids and are trying to introduce them to art early.

A Child’s Introduction to Art

written by Heather Alexander, illustrated by Meredith Hamilton
This is a full on Art History book, and it’s wonderful. This is the best book to have on hand for all of your art studies! This book devotes entire 2-page spread to many artists, including Monet. But I love that it also has a section on the Impressionistic art style. This helps to give context to Monet’s style and helps kids understand how modern and risk-taking his style really was! It also has wonderful pages about color theory and other general art education. It’s full of illustrations and is fun to look at!

Monet Stickers

What could be more fun than a pile stickers of Monet’s art? My kids each have a sticker book, and my kids love being able to choose from artists’s painting to add to their collection.

Monet Activities and Crafts for Kids

The activities we did for this Monet study for kids may be my favorite study activities we’ve ever done! They are so colorful and unique, and you’ll defineitely want to display when they’re done. ♥

1. Monet’s Poppy Field Craft

I’m starting with this one because it was hands-down my favorite. Making Monet’s Poppy Field!

What you will need:

— Green Construction Paper
— Green Gift Tissue Paper, cut into 2-inch squares
— Red Gift Tissue paper, cut into 3-inch squares
— Yellow Gift Tissue Paper, cut into 2-inch squares
— Black Gift Tissue paper, cut into tiny strips and crinkled up
— Foam Brushes
— Elmers Liquid Glue
— Water

1. Prepare the craft supplies ahead of time by cutting the tissue paper into small squares. Cut the Green and Yellow Gift tissue paper into 2-inch squares, Cut the Red Tissue paper into 3-inch squares, cut the Black tissue paper into tiny strips and crinkle them tightly.

2. Make a glue mixture of 1/2 glue with 1/2 water.

3. Use the foam brushes to spread glue mixture on green construction paper in sections. Add the squares of green tissue paper on top of the glue. Repeat until entire paper is covered with green tisue squares. This creates the base for our field! (It will look wet, but don’t worry, the glue will dry.)

4. Decide how many poppies you want to add to your sheet.

5. Making the Poppies: add a dab of glue to your field base and lay a red tissue square on top of the dab. Add another dab of glue to the center of the square, so that the corners alternate. (these will give the affect of ruffled petals) Add 1 yellow square on top of the red ones. Repeat until you have added the number of poppies you want to create.

6. Allow the glue to dry, then fluff up the sides of the tissue to create a ruffled petal effect.

7. Add a dab of glue to the empty center of the poppy, then add the crinkled black tissue bits to look like the black poppy seeds.

8. Allow to dry, then display your art!

2. Monet’s Lily Pond Activity

What you will need:

— White Card stock Paper
— Assorted Watercolor Paints in Blues, Greens and Golden Browns
— Art Brushes
— Pastel Cupcake Liners
— Scissors
— Glue Sticks

1. Paint the card stock paper with the blue, green and brown paints. The goal is to make the page look like water. (i.e. the waterlily pond). Allow to dry.

2. Cut slits from the outer edge of the cupcake liners to the inner circle, leaving the center uncut. Once the card stock watercolor painting is dry, use the glue stick to glue the 3 pastel green cupcake liners around the painting. These will be your lily pads.

3. To create the water lilies, chose a pastel cupcake liner and glue it to the lily pad. Add another yellow cupcake liner to the center to create the warm inner part of the lily. Repeat until each of your lily pads has a waterlily glued on top.

3. Monet Japanese Bridge Watercolor Reflection Art

This reflection art activity imitates Monet’s Japanese Bridge painting where the upper part of his painting is reflected in the water below. Obviously, this is not how Monet accomplished his reflection ;), but it’s a fun way to teach kids what reflections in painting even is. They’re pretty awed when their painting’s reflection is revealed!

What you’ll need:

— Regular White Paper (easily foldable)
— Watercolor Paints
— Art Brushes

1. Place the paper in front of your student vertically then lightly draw a pencil line across the center of the page. Instruct your student to painting Monet’s Japanese bridge going over the pond on the top half of the page (above the line).

2. As soon as your student has completing their painting, gently fold the paper in half (try not to make a hard crease) then press the blank half gently into the painted half. When you open it back up, you will have an upside down version of the top half. Have your student dip thier paintbrush in water and stroke the bottom half. The water will spread the small amounts of paint around, giving the bottom half a blurry reflection of the top half.

4. Painting Like Monet

Yep, just plain painting. Imitating the artist himself one of the sweetest part of a Monet study for kids. I love opening these books full of Monet’s art and style, pulling out the paints and card stock paper, and doing some fun, imitative painting. Kids will put their own impressionistic twist on Monet’s art, so praise them for it! Hang them on the wall, and make a big deal out of their effort. ♥

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Which craft or resource is your favorite from this Monet study for kids? Leave a comment below or contact me HERE to tell me!

Emotional Awareness Resources for Kids

April 23, 2023 Leave a Comment

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It can be a biiiiiiit overwhelming knowing how to start a intentional conversation of emotional awareness in a healthy, comprehensive, engaging way with our kids. Because emotions are a crucial part of our kids mental, physical, and social wellbeing, we want to do it well! Thankfully, emotional awareness is becoming the revolution topic of our generation, and there are some amazing emotional awareness resources for kids to help us as we navigate this huge, foundational topic with our little people.

Emotional Awareness Resources for Kids

It helps to remember that this is an ongoing conversation we will have with our kids. This totally is not a one-time do or die thing, so slow exhalllleeee…..

The list below of emotional awareness resources for kids are some of the most beautiful tools I’ve found. We can use these resources to develop this conversation with our kids so they can grow and thrive emotionally.

CLICK THE GREEN BOOK TITLES BELOW TO GO STRAIGHT
TO THE RESOURCE PAGE ON AMAZON!

Listening to My Body

written by Gabi Garcia, illustrated by Ying Hui Tan

This book is amazing because it teaches kids what sensations are, how sensations and emotions are connected, and how to read their body’s cues to figure out what they need. It gives 7 quick and easy activities to help kids tune into their body sensations. There also is a list of what sensations to look for in each part of your body. It ends with a list of simple calming solutions to help settle our body when our sensations are overwhelming. So perfect.

My Body Sends a Signal

written by Natalia Maguire, illustrated by Anastasia Zababashkina

This sweet book is a 3-in-1. The first third of the books shows kids how sensations, body language, and feelings are connected by telling a story of a little boy who experiences a full range of emotions throughout the day while his grandparents are visiting. The story is extremely descriptive with pictures to reflect the little boy’s emotions. The second third of the book has flashcards that you can cut out to help your child practice reading body cues and naming emotions. (I love this.) At the end of this section are several short stories that you can read with your child, and then ask them to name the emotion in the story. The last third of this book are coloring pages withe pictures showing emotions from the story.

My Magical Feelings

written by Becky Cummings, illustrated by Nejla Shojaie

These lovely pages describe feelings as a spectrum of color that work together to make a beautiful rainbow. This book is unique from other emotion awareness books because it focuses solely on naming experiences that provoke certain emotions. The author also reminds the child that is it okay to feel their full rainbow of emotion as they experience life. It is written in poetry form, and the pictures are vivid and beautiful.

The Big Feelings Book for Children

written by Sharon Selby, illustrated by Anna Hurley

This resource focuses on 4 “big” feelings that kids experience almost every day: Anger, Excitement, Anxiety (worry), and Sadness. It teaches kids what physical sensations they may experience with these emotions, what behaviors these feelings may provoke, and four actions steps they can take for each of these big feelings to manage their body’s sensations when they are feeling overwhelmed and bring themselves back to a place of calm.

Jasmine’s Many Emotions

written by K.S. George

This adorable book for toddlers ages 2-4 tells the story of a little girl who is looking for her lost bunny, and it describes how she feels excited, scared, angry, sad and happy as she searches for and eventually finds her bunny. This is a perfect introduction to emotions for toddlers, because the story describes something toddlers experience almost every day – losing and find a toy they love! The pictures are calming, and the story is a perfect length.

How I’m Feeling Sentence Completion Cards

by Impresa

This is an inviting little box of conversation starters about emotions for parents and kids to do together. You can chat your way through these cards with your kids while you’re coloring together, walking around the block, eating breakfast, laying in the grass… whenever and wherever, they’re super inviting and easy to incorporate into your day. My favorite way to use these cards is as journal prompts for parents and kids to do together. Grab these blank journals and some vibrant coloring pencils or snazzy markers — pick a conversation starter card, and fill up a page with your answers along with pictures and colors that come to mind while answering the questions. Journaling through these cards is such a sweet way to talk about emotions with your kids, create an atmosphere of mutual vulnerability and trust, and create a visuals that will help your kids process the conversation.

Express Your Feelings Journal

by hand2mind

If you’re not feeling artsy or don’t want to start with a blank journal, then this journal is perfect for your kids to practicing expressing feelings. The front of the book has a feelings wheel for reference. The journal pages are colorful and vibrant and full of prompts, ideas, and activities to get your kids thinking about their feelings.

Your Feelings and Emotions Coloring Book

The design of these coloring pages are simple enough for all ages to color, so it’s a great conversation starter for parents and kids. You can color the pictures together and talk about the emotion on your coloring page at the same time. These pictures help children learn the facial expressions and body language connected with each emotion, so it’s a great social awareness activity as well.

Emotions Poster Set

What can I say except that I love love love this poster set. The feelings wheel is so thorough, and the emotional zones of regulation + feelings thermometer + things i can/can’t control posters are all a fantastic visual for kids. It worth getting this set just for the alphabet coping skills poster – it givings a coping skill for each letter of the alphabet (Ask for help, Belly breathing, Count to 10, Do something creative, Eat a health snack, etc.) and it is amazinggggg. The posters are 9×15 inches so they are easy to read. The colors are warm and rich but neutral enough to go on the wall without feeling like a personal attack (ya feel me, moms? lol) Love.

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What are your favorite emotional awareness resources for kids? Leave a comment below or contact me HERE to share your personal faves!

Cloud Unit Study — Cloud Books for Kids — Cloud Activities for Kids

April 23, 2023 Leave a Comment

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Clouds make a fun interactive study because unlike far-off countries, historical figures and tectonic plates (lol), clouds are a part of our daily life. Clouds affect our life experience — sunny and bright? foggy? shadowy? rainy? — and we make plans around the existence or non-existence of clouds almost every day.

My son is fascinated with weather and blue skies with fluffy white wisps are one of my favorite things, so this cloud unit study hit the spot!

Cloud Books for Kids

Here are 3 books we used and loved for our cloud unit study, plus a fun “Clouds” youtube video playlist I put together!

Clouds

written by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Frane Lessac
This is a great book about clouds for kids from the Let’s Read and Find Out science book series. The illustrations of each cloud type are clear and bright, and the colors are so visually engaging. The text is very thorough, and the book even has instructions for a fun “create a cloud” experiment at the end

Nature Anatomy

by Julia Rothman
My kids love this book. Heck, I love this book. Approximately 99.2% of this book is NOT about clouds. But the 2-page spread that is about clouds is so great. Nature Anatomy is a book I reference for almost every single one of our nature / earth science studies, and my kids have poured hours into these pages. Let’s just say that if I woke up and found that all of my books had vanished through a portal overnight, this book would be one of the first ones I’d order again. 🙂

The Weather: Pop-Up Book

by Maike Biederstadt
This book is about all of weather, not just clouds, but since clouds are a huge part of weather, it is a great addition to this study. The giant pop-ups are so exciting for kids and bring new life to the weather conditions they’ve seen a hundred times in regular pictures. I mean, how cool this is?

“Clouds” playlist on YouTube.

Cloud Activities for Kids

You can’t have a cloud study for kids without making a mess right? These activities were the biggest hit!

Activity 1: Rain Cloud Experiment for Kids

This is the coolest activity, and the swirling, dreamy “raindrops” are mesmerizing. My kids loved this experiment so much. They wanted to do jar after jar!

What you will need:

— Clear glass jar or drinking glass
— Water
— Shaving Cream
— Blue Dye (and more colors, if desired)
— Small Bowls (use a different bowl for each color dye)
— Droppers
— A tray
— Clothes you don’t mind getting stained. 😉

1. Pre-mix the dye with water in small bowls.

2. Fill your glass jar 2/3 of the way with water.

3. Top the water in the jar with shaving cream.

4. Allow your child to fill the dropper with the dyed water and drop it generously on the shaving cream. It will take several droppers full of dyed water before the water begins to leak out of the bottom of the shaving cream “cloud”. This demonstrates how clouds continue to collect water until they reach saturation point, then release the water as rain.

I brought the supplies outside in the grass on a beach towel so we didn’t have to worry about the dye staining anything inside. Have fun!

Cloud Activity 2: Cotton Cloud Chart Activity for Kids

This is a fun, but very simple cloud activity for kids! What kid doesn’t love painting and pulling cotton apart? (shudder, haha) This activity is totally scalable and can be done on a regular size piece of paper or as big as a poster paper if you want!

What you will need:

— 8.5×11 cardstock paper or a poster paper
— blue paint
— paintbrush
— water
— cotton balls
— glue
— extra paper, a pen, and scissors to make cloud labels

1. Your kids can paint the “sky” base on the cardstock paper or poster. They can do a classic blue sky, or they can get creative with a sunset sky!

2. Once the base is finished, you can pull the cotton balls apart to make the shapes you need to represent each cloud type.

3. Glue the cotton onto the sky base in groups to show the different cloud types.

4. Write the names of each cloud type and paste it by the cloud it belongs with.

This could totally be turned into a poster project. Older kids would especially enjoy adding more details, like typed up descriptions of each cloud type, painting the cumulonimbus clouds deep gray, adding yellow lightening bolts, etc. Make it fun to fit the age of your kid!

Cloud Activity 3: Cloudy Sky Snack

What you will need:

— Blue Berry Jello
— Tube of Whipped Cream
— Clear Punch Cups or Glasses

1. Prepare jello as usual. If using plastic punch cups, allow jello liquid to cool before pouring into cups so it doesn’t melt the plastic.

2. Pour into cups and let chill in fridge.

3. Top the “blue sky” with generous whipped cream “clouds” and enjoy.

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What are you looking forward to most for your cloud study? Did you try something new in your cloud unit study? Tell me in the comments or contact me HERE.

Happy clouding, friends!