We love extending learning with fun crafts and unique art experiences! Perfect for the younger set who are just learning their letters or even for the older crowd who might simply enjoy exploring new art mediums and techniques, this set of printables + activities works its way through the alphabet, inviting students to explore a different art experience for each letter of the alphabet – i.e. Aa is for apple printing, Bb is for balloon painting, Cc is for circle art, etc. When bound together upon completion, your kiddos will have a colorful and unique review tool and/or art portfolio! BONUS: Because we love options, we’re attempting to give various project ideas for each letter so that you can pick and choose… or do them all!

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Bb is for Balloon Printing

Until this project, we'd never printed with balloons before and we're wondering what took us so long! It's actually a fun sensory experience. Your kiddos will love the unique smooth/velvety feel of the latex balloon. Not to mention, how the balloon squishes beneath your hand, changing shape as you press it to the paper.

Since balloons have a tendency to 'float' places without much provocation, we would likely put the balloons and paint in a container with higher sides (like an aluminum roasting pan) next time, but overall the experience was a hit! It's simple to put together and has a lot of wow value - especially when you dip the balloon in multiple colors at once or 'double dip' to get a layered look!

Bb is for Bubble Art

Look out - this project is messy, but oh so worth it! While we've seen various ways to make bubble prints, we decided to go with the most traditional approach for our first experience - i.e. mixing tempera paint with dish soap and water. We couldn't find directions as to ratio for the paint mixture, so we simply covered the bottom of a Dixie cup with paint, added a dollop of dish soap, and then filled the cup with water until it was about two-thirds full. This seemed to work pretty well, ergo we don't think you can really 'mess up' the ratio.

Project notes...

• This might be a no-brainer, but the more paint you add the the mixture, the more vibrant your bubble prints will be.
• We thought Dixie cups would be great for this project, but they're so thin that we had problems with leakage before we were finished with the project. Small containers are the way to go, but we would suggest a sturdier material.
• This also might be a no-brainer, but if your liquid is too close to the top of the container, your mess with increase ten-fold - i.e. instead of beautiful bubbles, the paint mixture will be blown straight out of the container.

Get started on your own ABC Art portfolio with these FREE activity sheets: