Louisiana Children's Museum


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Home Activities

Read to Know. Read to Grow.

Play is also imagining. It's reading, writing, painting and designing. Travel to another world through the written word.

Suggested Reading List

Baby Radar: Written by Naomi Shihab Nye; illustrated by Nancy Carpenter
Be My Neighbor: Written by Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko
Come Over to My House: Written by Theo LeSeig; illustrated by Richard Erdoes
Country Bear's Good Neighbor: Written by Larry Dane Brimmer; illustrated by Ruth Tietjen Councell
!Hola! Jalepeno: Written by Amy Wilson Sanger
Houses: Written by Marcia Fries; illustrated by Adjoa J. Burrowes
Jenny Giraffe and the Street Car Party: Written by Cecilia Casrill Dartez; illustrated by Amy Green
Jenny Giraffe Discovers the French Quarter: Written by Cecilia Casrill Dartez; illustrated by Shelby Wilson
Just in Passing: Written by Susan Bonners
Napping House: Written by Audrey and Don Wood
Pippo: A Little Dog Finds a Home: Written by Annette Langen; illustrated by Sigrid and Sven Leberer
The Snail's Spell: Written by Joanne Ryder; illustrated by Lynne Cherry
Yum Yum Dim Sum: Written by Amy Wilson Sanger

Learning Through Art

Children love the process of applying paint to paper, gluing things together and pounding a lump of clay. Working with art materials allows children to be spontaneous in their experiments with color, shape and texture. Among the many benefits of art are the following:

Art promotes creativity
Art is an outlet that lets children convey what they are not able to say in words
Working with art materials develops physical skills such as eye-hand coordination and control over small muscle movements
Artwork instills pride in accomplishments

The Louisiana Children's Museum believes it is the process of creating that is important, not just the product. The arts allow children to express how they feel, think and view the world. Using art materials also encourages children to make choices, try out new ideas, plan and experiment. They learn to examine the properties of an art material and discover, through trial and error, what materials can do or how they can be used. It is through art that children are able to learn and express themselves while having fun.

Simple Home Art Activities:

Fantastic Animals:
Use your imagination to assemble parts of different animals to create new species of creatures! This project also exercises linguistic as well as visual creativity by combining animal names.

Materials:
Paper

Markers

Process: Brainstorm different types of animals and the ways you might combine them. What kind of names would they have? Draw and create your own fantastic animal creature.

Stretched-out Self Portraits:
In this activity, encourage your child to draw big and to fill the whole page with their drawing. Introduce ways your body can be moved and positioned. You may even want to jump around and stretch out before beginning!

Materials:
Paper

Markers and/or paint

Process: Draw a rectangle/frame around the border of the paper. Now you're ready to draw a stretched-out, twisted-around, upside-down person inside the frame with at least one part of the drawing touching each of the four sides. Fill in the background. Parents, don't be a stickler for the rules! For younger children, it's enough that their person appears to be stretched big. For older kids, propose "tricks" for making the person touch (i.e. hats on heads, long hair, holding something, etc.)

Paper Bag Puppets:
Puppetry gives children the opportunity to explore their creativity, learn to work cooperatively and develop their communication and self motivation skills.

Materials:
Lunch sized paper bags

Glue

Markers

Fabric

Yarn

Anything around the house that can be transformed into a fun and curious creature!

Process: Imagination is the key! Puppets can be many things; animals, people and even insects. Put your hand inside the bag and move your hand around the folded flap to get a feel for how your puppet will communicate. Now attach or add eyes and other cut and found items to create a fun character. Parents, have your child perform a puppet show for you or act out their favorite story.

Orange Art:
Heighten your senses with the use of one color in this tasty printing project.

Materials:
An orange

Knife (Parents please cut the orange for your children)

Paint

Shallow paint tray

Paper

Process: Wash your hands and cut the orange in half. Touch, smell and taste one half of the orange. Then pour paint into a shallow tray and dip the other orange-half into the paint. Stamp the orange onto the paper. Explore various sides and sections of the orange to see what shapes and textures an orange can make.