Daily Blog from artyfizz:

Hello everyone. I now have this blog so l can keep you updated about what goes on each day within the walls of artyfizz ! This entry gives you a taster of some of the wonderful creations and actiuvities that have been going since we started in April 2012. To visit the daily blog go to Recent Posts which are on the left-hand side at the head of each page. Please feel free to leave a coment or some feedback on this site or an activity you have taken part in. Thanks.

Lynda x

The first images are from “The baby messy and sensory class” that happens several times a week. This baby found a new use for her head!

Activity going on in part of the baby Room.

Deciding if they really want to touch this strange looking stuff

She is smiling because she has discovering this great ball that is soft, sparkly and fits perfectly in her hand.

I know we shouldn’t have laughted at this young lady but it was so funny to watch. What happened was she dropped the rattle and then tried to pick it up from the reflection in the mirror. There are times l wish l had a video recorder.

Introducing this young lady to salt dough before we start to make imprints of her hands and feet!

Playing with tape and getting all tied up. She is in a safe environment, which means she can test out textures and sensations with no worries of any thing dangerous happening to her.

Now what on earth are these?

Does it look different from behind that material? and, how does it feel?

Hello..can you see me mummy?

Now this is what l call messy!

Exercise time… going for the burn!

Tomorrow, l will share with you “The Story and Painting” session and “After-school club”. Once that is up to date, l will then blog each day.

Hope you enjoy what you see here and hope to see you at artyfizz one day soon. Lynda xx

Story and Painting sessions, After School sessions and today’s baby Messy and Sensory session!

As promised yesterday, here are the images from Story and Painting sessions.

This young lady was showing me that she had no paint on herself at all, after all her painting! I wish l could paint and be this spotless at the end of my paintings!

This Tuesday saw the first of my After-school workshops. This groups project is making Masks. The first image shows the plan for one of the boy’s mask….A Lion Mask. There is also a Dog Mask and a Princess/Fairy Mask being created.

After the children had created quite a bit of their masks, l gave them 10 mins playtime before the session ended. They choose to chalk and l was amazed how well they worked together to draw this hill and cars to race on it. They seemed to be having fun and l was very pleased when one of them asked if l could ring their mum’s .They had decided to ask me to call them and ask them to come later. I think my first session was a success! Phew!

Now we are up todate…this is today’s Baby “Messy and Sensory” Session. It really was a fun one and the babies, as usual seemed to enjoy themselves. The painting part was interesting as they really seemed to get into the spirit of the session..and actually appeared to concentrate on making marks. Great fun to watch.

Just love those green toes!

He has applied his war paint..so cute!

I had a visit from a very special little lady today…..she was not in a smily mood as she is normally because she was overdue her lunch! She still had fun though even though she has now learnt to frown. Don’t you just love that expression? Almost 2 going on 18!

After a fun day l am now going to bed……!

Saturday’s “Drop and Shop” session.

Today l did an impromptu “Drop and Shop” session. This is where parents or carers can leave their child/children with me any time between 11.00 and 2.00 pm. We create all sorts of Art and Craft and in this session we painted and also made marionettes. One of the children made several outfits for her puppet….a posh dress, a top, pyjamas and a nightie. We also did some “free” painting and then the children gave me a puppet show. It was very sweet.

The above image shows the decorated but “nude” marionnetes The next images show the clothes being created. I showed them how to draw tabs onto the clothes, so they could easily attach them to their figures.

The show in progress……”The Rainbow Princess and the Pretty Alien” !

This young lady who is just 3, too young really for Saturday drop in but l know her well, is wonderful to watch painting. She uses a new paint brush for each colour and often, a new one each time she puts paint onto the paper! Ha! She was also very careful, in the first 3 paintings she made, to make sure the colours were kept seperate from each other.

Then she decided she wanted to use a big brush to see if it was easier…she had a fun time.

These are just some of the brushes that our young artist used during her hour painting session! Ha..fantastic. That is what it is all about, experimenting and having fun.

Paper play for the babies…

This afternoon’s Messy and Sensory class was a lot of fun. I had 2 lovely babies and an older sister today. The man that works in the Carpet Shop near me donated a whole bunch of large carpet squares, lovely textures. These and my knitted “mat” were part of today’s sensory session.

The soft, shiny fabric is always a hit with babies and children alike.

Don’t you just love that smile?… even though she is teething badly.

Then came messy play, well not so messy today. We were playing with newspaper, pulling, scrunching, ripping and holding it.

Bubbles… these are ones that stay for a while and are also quite large. Much better for the babies as they can crawl to them and, quite often, touch them.

Big sister had her fun too with her own painting session. This young lady really has an eye for colour.

3rd May 2012 baby messy time.

There are some parents who do not want their children’s faces on the web but luckily this mum doesn’t mind..isn’t he gorgeous? He is so much fun to work with and has a great sense of humour for one so young!

This was the first time l had tried this activity…a cardboard box full of newspaper….was a great success. Thank you Sainsbury’s for the boxes!

This simple blow-up, transparent, plastic beach ball is such a success with the children.

Let me at the paper……..

I had no idea that the Innocent bottles filled with water and “stuff” would be so popular with the babies. Can you see the carpet bits the baby is lying on..thay are striped? They were given to me for free, by the lovely man from the carpet shop a few doors down. Some people are so nice ……?

The bowl filled with water was the Messy part of the session today. It was funny to see how the babies tried so hard to grab the balls and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t! Ha.

OH I LOVE MY WORK!

May 8th 2012. Newspaper, carpet tiles and balls!

Tuesday’s Messy and Sensory Play.

Today, the Messy part was newspaper and the Sensory section was loads of small plastic balls. I love my job but what makes it really special are smiles like the ones you will see throughout this post. How can you not return the smile?

Loads and loads of scrunchy newspaper!Once the children had got used to the newspaper, one and then two of them were gently sat in a baby bath……they loved it. So cute.

Somewhere under this pile of newspapers is a little boy who was giggling all the time!

Oh…..it rips. Sorry Dad your Sunday newspaper is no longer safe. oops!

Yeh l did it!

“Row, row, row your boat!” The babies were having fun but l think the mum’s were having even more!

Then, it was time to put the bath and paper away and head for the balls. There was another sensation too, instead of their usual soft quilt, today they were on textured carpet tiles.

See, l can now sit on my own… yeh!

The transparent beach ball has been a total success. This young lady loves it because she can grab it and then throw it. She is really good at it too.

It is nice to have my image with one of the babies.

What a way to end the blog… Smile x

8th May 2012. More Mask making!

I am really enjoying creating Art with The Afterschool Club on Tuesdays. They really have an amazing amount of energy and creative talent. This young man needs to have 10 mins on the chalk board, drawing his amazing road scenes. His way of calming down from a day in the classroom, l reckon.

He is also very proud of his street scene and so he should be.

Then he settles down to working on his Dog Mask, which hopefully will be completed next week

The Lion Mask is almost finished tooand is quite an amazing creation. Looking forward to when his parents can see the completed item.

The wings that go with the fairy mask, are coming along beautifully. The whole of the Art room is liberally sprinkled in gold and red glitter, not to mention my backside!!!!!

Time to stop, have a snack and relax looking at “Going on a Bear Hunt”…special edition.

The Fairy Mask is almost complete and looking very interesting..

Today’s work drying on the clothes rack.

While their Masks were drying, we moved onto a new, quick project. But before we did…there was a moment of madness and l think a very creative idea from the oldest in the group! A yoga mat being used for other things than sitting or exercising on! Ha!

The new project….A paper doll almost as tall as them, waiting to be dressed. Firstly they could decorate the figure any way they wanted to. Next week we will make paper clothes for it. They were really excited about it, more than l had expected.

One of the dolls is called Snoopy Henry! Ha!

10 May 2012 A new baby for messy play today!

Messy play and scrunchy paper!

Not technically a good image but shows the atmosphere well l think!

Oh no! what has is she expecting me to play with now? Just love this image!!!!!!

Lots of things that made a noise where on offer to day!

Oh what does this do?

Beneath the veil is a face with a huge smile on it! Ha!

17 May 2012Look no hands!

Two new ”Messy Play” babies today and here is the first and just look at that gorgeous smile. She was so funny she became very attached to a ball in each hand!! She wouldn’t give them to us or drop them to pick up something else. She really wasn’t sure what to do. So funny watching her trying to work out how to have three balls and only two hands!

Baby number two very shy and easily scared but a great personality lurking under those fears.

Now this is where it becomes very funny but ingenius at the same time. A ball in each hand but l want to try out the jelly! What to do?……..I know …… problem solved!

Brilliant!

Fun Time!

“If look interested in the rattle then that “red stuff” may go away”!

“Um..not taking no for an answer, ok l will just touch it.She can’t expect me to look at it at the same time..can she”?

“Ok l give in,,,, but only one touch!”

Arrrrrrrh at last something l understand…..a beautiful big beachball.

Then we had smiles. We started the session out with a very nervous litttle girl and she lasted the whole session. Round of applause little one.x

17 May 2012 Jelly and lots of “chatting”!

Today my Messy babies had sensory play first, as one of them had only just woken up and was a bit weepy. I introduce some new toys today. A pair of Chinse sensory balls that are made of metal and make lovely sounds when moved. They went down well..too big to go into the mouth…so safe to play with.

The children were also introduced to some French, brightly coloured boxes. They were impressed for a VERY short time and went back to old favorites, like this rattle. I think they are not exciting enough and the babies can’t yet “do” anything interesting with them.

“How come suddenly she has all the toys”?

Meeting a new friend, who came to see what her nephew did at one of these sessions.

She was very happy with the new metal singing balls.

Now comes the fun part…messy jelly! Today l used containers rather than plates and so there was a fraction less mess for me to clean up today! Ha!

Give me the food!!!!!

The smilly face of a child who has had fun. I am so lucky to be involved in these children’s lives.

Today was the first session for a Thursday After School Arts and Craft Club. Two great children came today and were a pleasure to create with. I am a great believer in teaching Art to this age in small chunks….as it should be fun not a chore. So the first part of the lesson was drawing and chatting. Me finding out what they like etc and them to start to learn to trust me. Then we did some experimental painting. By this l mean l gave them a big bowl full of about 40 implements to choose from. For example a feather, brushes of all shapes and sizes, foam brushes, tooth brushes, forks and so on. So we experimented to see what some of them did, what did you use as feather for and so on. Lots of chat going on in this section!!!! Then we worked out how to make pink and then what colours did we need to make purple? Fun but learning at the same time. Then we had a snack and discussed what projects did they want to start next week. After much talking, one child will be making a mask and the other some books but also maybe a fairy mask!!!

When they had finished their individual paintings, l explained to them about signing their work. They then spent sometime working out where they should put their name. One at the top, the other at the bottom andthen half way down the drawing. Was great listening to them talking about which would be the best place.

We spent some time talking about their Disco which l think is tomorrow and who their friends are. I feel so lucky to hear all this “talk” .

Then they had a 10 mins wind down session on the Blackboard. It always amazes me how the children of all ages seem to find drawing on the board so relaxing. So glad l decide to paint it in the Baby room as it is such a relaxing room anyway.

“How come they are playing in MY baby room”…coming to pick his sister up!

I do so enjoy my work!

15 may 2012 Masks, dolls and eyes!

I have suddenly realised l have not put up the images from this week’s Tuesday’s After-School art and craft club. So sorry children and here are the images.x

I found these weird doll’s eyes in a Charity Shop the other day and my Lion mask maker loved them. So although the eyes are not slits like their eyes should be..put hey this ia Art!