Here's a video of Alexander Calder performing is "Circus".  This has been on display in museums and featured in art history books for decades.  Let your kids watch what he has done with some wire, clay and found objects, combining artistic thinking with scientific thinking, craftsmanship and fun!

In honor of Earth Day, I wanted to share a really amazing artist who works with recycled materials and with kids to create truly amazing works of art...

Michele Stitzlein is an Ohio artist who makes captivating murals and outdoor installations with plastic bottle caps.  When I first discovered her work, I immediately wanted to do a project with my kids based on her technique.   But since it would take months to collect enough bottle caps, I thought I'd write about it first.  These are like large-scale mosaics made from the caps of juice bottles, water bottles, milk cartons, etc.  They are colorful and exciting images of butterflies, flowers, even Van Gogh's Starry Night.  And they are made from caps that most people throw away. 

Everyone loves an art project that results in a fun, beautiful product that they can't stop looking at.  But great art lessons for kids, in my opinion, also involve a few other qualities:  1) the opportunity to be creative and expressive with materials, 2) a new perspective on materials (I never thought bottle caps could be so beautiful!), and 3) connections to artists or other connections to the world around them.  Michelle Stitzlein's work gives you all of this.

So, in the interest of art, save your bottle caps!  And while you're building up your collection, here is a project for you:  Give your child one item that would otherwise be thrown away--a container, a lid, a cookie wrapper--whatever you think might trigger some kind of creative spark.  Tell them to think of something they can make with that item.  Let them think about it, and make it a fun challenge.  If they need some help, give them one additional suggestion.  Like "What if you also had some string?  Then what could you make with it?" or "What if you painted it?" or "Turn it upside down.  Now what could it be?"  Let them imagine what it could be.  Then give them the materials to make it. 

And if they think trash is trash?  Show them Michelle's web site. Then tell them to think again.

There's something to the "supersize" concept.  Sometimes, things just seem more exciting when they're super big.  So, for a new twist on arts & crafts projects, let's try making them extra large!  You might be able to breathe new life into some old favorites or get your kids to think about things in a little bit of a different way.

My daughter and I made these extra large tissue paper flowers.  We'd made paper flowers before, so the idea wasn't such a new one.  We just needed some decorations for Daddy's birthday, so we decided to make some flowers.  But when she saw that I was folding a full sheet of tissue paper in quarters, she became a little more interested.  The extra large flowers were so cheerful and fun! 

Try these other ideas for working on a large scale...

-Pull a great big piece of paper from a paper roll and tape it up on a wall.  Let the kids draw whatever they want.  Tell them to think big.  What could be big enough to fill that paper?  What if something grew to be as big as that paper?  What would it look like?  Let them come back to it over a few sessions, and see how their drawing grows.

-If you have a blank wall, maybe in the basement or even in the garage, tape up some paper, and make one central subject like a tree.  Let the kids decorate around it by cutting and taping leaves, animals, whatever might surround it.  Again, this is a great project to keep coming back to again and again.  Maybe something that you could work on for weeks and see what happens.

-Remember when you were in school and your teacher roled out some big paper on the floor, told you to lay down on it, then traced around you?  This is a great project.  Let your kids decorate their paper bodies however they like.  You might suggest that they try out different techniques to show different textures on their bodies--like torm paper collage for a fuzzy sweater, strands of yarn for hair, fabric collage for pants, etc.  Or you might suggest that they make a collage of their body parts, showing heart, lungs, muscles, etc.  Let them interpret what these parts might look like, then take a look at a book and talk about the details.  You can also have fun with just blocks of colored paint on these life-size paper people. Check out artist Jonathan Borofsky for some larger-than-life examples.