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Say “Happy New Year!” With Cardboard Tube Fireworks Art
Whether you’re creating art to welcome in a new calendar year, or you’re looking for ideas to celebrate Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, Diwali, Independence Day, or any other reason for celebration, this process art project — utilizing the humble paper towel roll or cardboard tube and paint — lets kiddos light up the night sky with fireworks in their own way.
(This post contains affiliate links. A purchase through these links supports Preschooligans at no additional cost to you and helps us continue to provide free educational resources. Thank you!)
Now, we all know the workhorse cardboard tube is an important tool when it comes to creating art in preschool. And we as teachers are constantly on the hunt for new and different ways to use them, aren’t we? This method turns the classic paper towel roll into a paint brush, with some pretty cool effects! Here’s what you’ll need to have your kiddos creating their cardboard tube fireworks art in no time.
Supplies & Prep:
- Several 6-inch long cardboard paper towel tubes splayed open from the bottom like a sun or flower. (Cutting instructions below.) To start you’ll need at least one for each color you use, but they do get soggy and floppy with use, so extras are advised.
- Black construction paper (we used 9″x12″ for more blank “night sky” to light up)
- Newspaper to cover everything in sight — because this stuff goes everywhere. Especially if the requisite “rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air” sound effects become an active part of the painting, which I do highly encourage.
- Colorations metallic gel paints in assorted colors — we used pink, blue, green, purple and gold. (In the pictures we mixed gold with a bit of yellow Biocolor, but it’s not necessary to mix it for this project. The straight gold makes beautiful fireworks on its own.) The type of paint is important — we’ve found other types of paint seep into the black construction paper and don’t have the pop the metallic gel paints do.
- Paper plates that are large enough to allow your splayed open cardboard tubes to spin and soak up paint.
Cutting Instructions:
Start by cutting slits up from the bottom of your cardboard tube. Keep the slits the same general size and spacing apart. About 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 inches long and roughly 2/3- to 3/4-inch wide. Longer and more narrowly spaced cuts will give a different look to your cardboard tube fireworks, but will get soggier faster and begin to flop sooner. So have several backups if you decide to go that route.
Once you have the spokes of the fireworks cut, fan them out so they resemble a sun or a flower.
Next, pour about a 2-3-inch diameter glob of paint onto your paper plates — one color per plate. Flatten out a splayed open cardboard tube into the paint and spin it so all the little spokes grab up some paint.
And now you’re ready for some stamping!
Don’t worry if your kiddos mix colors, spin the tubes on the paper, or stamp all in one place. This is one of those process art projects that will elicit “oohs” when they stamp and lift to see what they made. And honestly, every one of our kiddos was thrilled with how their artwork turned out because they all truly evoke night skies full of fireworks. (And if you have kiddos like ours, some place a lot of weight on the product they produce. No matter how much we stress the importance of the process, exploring, and just having fun with it, a few of them do get frustrated if something doesn’t turn out looking the way they envisioned.)
It’s important to use the metallic gel paints on black construction paper. The colors really pop off the paper and reflect light in the shimmery bits.
Here (above) is an example of what begins to happen when the spokes of the cardboard tube begin to get soggy. The spokes flop back inward and don’t create that sunburst or sunflower look. It’s still beautiful and firework-ey, but if you have perfectionist preschoolers (which we do), you will probably want to have fresh tubes on hand at this point.
They really are stunning aren’t they?
What do you think? Have you tried this type of art project? Show us your results and comment below!
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Holiday Gifts! Our Favorite Preschool & Kindergarten Toys That Teach
We often get asked what are our favorite “toys that teach,” as parents start thinking about gifts for the holidays. Most toys do teach young children something — working on strengthening those fine motor finger muscles, encouraging creativity and imagination, teaching social skills, and of course language, math and science (STEM) concepts.
Some toys capture the attention of our kiddos at school better than others. And with the holidays and Black Friday on the horizon, here’s our (not exhaustive) list of our favorites. We’ll add to this periodically as we discover new faves.
(Note: by purchasing through these links, Preschooligans will receive a small percentage of the sale at no cost to you. Prices are accurate as of posting time and may be subject to change. Thank you for your support!)
Alphabet Robots (Amazon $31.97) — These are a big favorite! They work those finger muscles that are so important for writing, typing and all sort of grasping tasks. We love incorporating these with gears, engineering, building and even space-themed units.
Magna Tiles (Amazon — set pictured $116.75) — Our Magna Tiles set was so popular at our school, we had to invest in another set so more than one classroom could use them at a time. They can be made into just about anything, and they are practically indestructible. One of our teachers’ favorite holiday activities is to provide the kiddos with a bowl of large metal jingle bells that stick to the magnets in the tiles. Our kiddos love using them to make their creations more festive in the holiday season.
HABA Animal Upon Animal Stacking Game (Amazon $24.99) — These wooden wild animals are a “hoot”! Stacking the wooden animals (whether you play the game the way the instructions say or just freeform it), provides a healthy dose of problem solving and spatial awareness skills, as well as oodles of giggles. And we love it with a wild animals, habitats, zoo animals or nocturnal animals lesson unit.
Discovery Toys Marbleworks (Amazon $54.95) — This marble rollercoaster set is a massive hit in our classroom. It teaches so many STEM concepts: physics, gravity, simple machines, inertia, velocity & speed, balance, building concepts and more. It also reinforces and rewards children for experimenting and following the scientific method: forming a hypothesis, testing it, making changes, and testing again. We like the Discovery Toys set because it is durable and the pieces fit together well. And as an added bonus — the marbles emit a satisfying clacking sound the entire way down. Winner winner.
Squigz (Amazon $49.95) — We’re all about dual threats around here, and this STEM gem is not only fun to build with, but the sucker-sound the Squigz make when they connect with each other or a table is not to be missed. It’s delightful. These are a fun, different kind of building toy that will elicit giggles galore.
Popular Playthings Magnetic Mix or Match Vehicles Green Air, Land, Sea Set; Space Set; Train Set; Fire & Rescue Set (Amazon $32.99-$59.99) — Mix and match vehicle parts to create brand new innovative vehicles! We have linked the large Air, Land, Sea set above, as well as smaller individual sets with single themes. We have 3 different individual theme sets at school and we recommend if you’re going with the smaller sets that you choose at least two different ones for your kiddos to really explore the coolness of these toys.
Coogam Wooden Geoboard w/Pattern Cards & Latex Bands (Amazon, $21.99) — Geoboards are a favorite because kiddos can create their own pictures, shapes and designs, and replicate more complex images in the included cards. It’s a great toy for fine motor muscles workouts, spatial reasoning and focus.
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Book Review & Lesson Plan: This “Bad Dog” Will Leave Your Kiddos Howling
(This post contains affiliate links. A purchase through these links supports Preschooligans at no additional cost to you and helps us continue to provide free educational resources. Thank you!) I stumbled across Bad Dog by Mike Boldt (find at your local library or purchase on Amazon) at a local bookstore early last year. I’m always in search of new books for our various themes, and I had our “Pets” unit on the brain. When I found myself giggling out loud page after page, I knew I had to add this one to our school library.
This adorable book stars a gap-toothed little girl and her new “dog” Rocky (spoiler alert: Rocky is actually a cat). She proceeds to explain why Rocky is not a good dog. Rocky won’t go on walks, Rocky won’t sit or listen or do tricks. Rocky is just a bad dog.
What makes the book so funny are the joyful and frustrated looks on her face as she earnestly details Rocky’s failings as a dog. And equally hilarious are the expressions of abject exasperation and irritation on the face of Rocky, who cannot explain the obvious to her new owner — that she’s not actually a dog, thus, why she is so bad at being a dog.
This is a good one for a pet unit because it invites the questions of what qualities make a “Good Dog” and a “Good Cat” and we’ve created an enrichment activity below that you can use to track your kiddos’ responses.
This one had our kiddos howling with delight as once again they found themselves smarter than a book character — this is a common theme in favorite books in our classroom. I like that they get to learn about cats vs. dogs, and I like that it starts them talking about their own pets. Anything that gets them talking and sharing is a plus in my book.
(Below please find a list of reading comprehension questions and vocabulary words. This list is not exhaustive, and it may spark additional questions from your kiddos. As always, we recommend that you scaffold based on your age group and the wigglies of your kiddos.)
*Downloadable/printable copy of the book/lesson plan below*
Reading Comprehension Questions
Before you read: Show the cover, “What do you think this book is about?” You will get a lot of answers that it’s about a cat. Then read the title. “What do you think this book is about now?”
As you read: On the first page, where the little girl says she got a pet dog for her birthday, point to the cat — “What do you think Rocky the cat is thinking here? What does her face make you think she’s feeling? Why do you think Rocky doesn’t like other dogs? Why do you think Rocky likes sticking her paws in the fish tank? Why do you think Rocky likes playing in the fish tank but doesn’t like bath time?”
After you read: Why do you think the little girl thinks Rocky is a bad dog? What is the actual reason that Rocky is a bad dog? What makes a good dog? What makes a good cat? Do you think Rocky would make a good cat? What do you think the little girl means at the end when she says that Rocky would make a good cat “most of the time”?
Vocabulary Words
- fur
- pointy
- listen
- fetch
- shake (as in a hand)
- paw
- delivered
Enrichment Activities
Literacy: Good dogs? Good cats? What exactly makes a good dog or good cat? Encourage your preschoolers to think about what qualities make a good dog or cat with our free Good dogs & Good cats can/have/are printouts you can download below.
Art (and Math): Our “Bad Dog” cat face art activity is constructed from common shapes. Download the template below. You have several options for this project: Print the template on white paper and have children color, cut out and assemble the pieces; print the templates on assorted colored papers, cut, and mix the different-colored pieces up; or print the template onto cardstock, cut and trace the shapes onto various colors of paper. Or, if you have a die cutter, you can also use your own shapes to create the cat face using the template as a guide.
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Welcome to Preschooligans!
We’re new around here so thanks for joining us! So what is Preschooligans? It’s a one-stop spot for some of our favorite free preschool printables and resources.
There are tons of sites on the Internet for preschool learning, and many feature both free and paid resources. But it can sometimes be hard to cull through it all and find what you need when you need it.
So, that’s where we come in. Here, our goal is to create a site with links to our favorite free preschool printables, ideas, projects, etc. We will also offer our own original content, like book reviews with reading comprehension questions, vocabulary and lesson planning resources. But the key here is that we want to highlight the free stuff that we love!
Note: We may feature links to non-free supplies that we use or that you may need to carry out an activity — for example (but not limited to) books, art supplies, game pieces/dice or containers. These links may be affiliate links through which Preschooligans benefits if you make a purchase.
We’re preschool teachers and parents too, so we’re looking forward to sharing some of the cool things we’ve learned, links to our favorite preschool activities and resources, some cool new original content, and your suggestions. We’re also looking forward to learning some new things along the way ourselves.
So…feel free to drop us a note, and while you’re here, take a look around! Welcome to Preschooligans!
