Textured Ice Cream

First grade loved making these texture collages inspired by Brown Bear author Eric Carle. We first looked at several Eric Carle books and how his illustrations were made. I set up different painting stations with tempera paint, scraping tools and other texturing tools. The girls were give paper to paint and scrape and create textures on. They then used a template shaped like a scoop of ice cream to make "scoop" shapes on the dried textures. After cutting out 3-4 ice cream scoops. they made one of their texture papers into a cone shape. The girls then glued the ice cream cones together and created a patterned border around the edge.

Texture Burgers

Kindergarten had a great time making these texture burgers. First we discussed what a texture is, and they felt some textures, from scratchy, to soft, to bumpy. I had printouts of the hamburger buns all ready for them to cut out, and several items on the counter that they could use to fill the burger with texture fixings.

After gluing the top and bottom buns to the top and bottom of a piece of black paper, each child was given a small container in which they could fill a variety of textures. Some items included pipe cleaners, beans, foam pieces, string, foil and buttons. These items were glued between the buns to make the textures.

Pinch Pots

First grade had a blast making little pinch pots with texture and color. I used Sargent brand Sculp It, self-hardening sculpting material. I love this brand and type because it is already portioned out and is very easy for little ones to use. I have a little water on each table, napkins and lots of tools for mark-making in the end. Here's a good video of how to make both pinch and coil pots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5O2mJELhRg

Paper Relief

The second grade classes enjoyed creating these textured reliefs. We discussed pattern, balance, texture and variety before the girls began creating components to their reliefs. They had fun inventing new ways to make the individual pieces, and loved seeing the results of adding several pieces to create a new pattern.

Texture Assemblage

I do this project every year with my pre-K class. We begin by talking about what exactly texture is, and the girls give some examples of textures--(usually soft, bumpy and smooth). Next I give them a sample of textures, which consists of several small pieces of fabric, bubble wrap, sand paper and other types of materials. We have a short "texture hunt" where I call out a texture, then the girls find a material in their texture samples that fits the description. Next I lay out loads of different materials and objects for the girls to glue to a paper to make their own texture assemblage.

Texture samples