Art with Anything: 52 Weeks of Fun Using Everyday Stuff (Mary Ann Kohl Books) [Large Print] [Paperback]

MaryAnn F. Kohl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010 | Series: Mary Ann Kohl Books

With 52 weeks of fantastic art projects using easy-to-find, everyday materials, Art with Anything provides a year of creativity, imagination, and fun for children ages 4-10!

Organized alphabetically by material, each week features one everyday material (address labels, fabric scraps, leaves, rocks) and provides five days of unique activities, increasing in complexity with each day. Art with Anything uses materials like buttons, cardboard, hole-punch dots, junk mail, masking tape, sandpaper, and salt, which encourages recycling and reusing!

Children will love making “Glitter Photo Jars” or working on “Shake-It-Up-Bag Paintings,” and projects like “Family Finger Puppets” and “Fluff-N-Puff Mobiles” will keep them entertained for hours and stretch their imaginations.

Whether at home or at school, in child care or an after-school program, exploring the process of creating art is one of the most compelling ways children learn, and Art with Anything keeps children learning creatively all year long!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Award-winning author MaryAnn F. Kohl has written 14 books for Gryphon House, and is a regular featured columnist for Parenting Magazine. She has written the best-selling favorites Preschool Art, The Big Messy Art Book, Making Make-Believe, MathArts, and First Art. She is co-author of Global Art and Cooking Art with Jean Potter. MaryAnn lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Gryphon House; Large type edition edition (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876590857
• ISBN-13: 978-0876590850
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARYANN PRESENTS! Bring MaryAnn to your location and she'll put on a full day event with hands-on art for the attendees. Receiving RAVE reviews all over the country. Write or call to schedule. Go to: www.brightring.com

MaryAnn Faubion Kohl, a former elementary education teacher, launched Bright Ring Publishing, Inc. in 1985 with her first book, "Scribble Cookies" (now available as "Scribble ART"). Bright Ring has published seven books by MaryAnn about art for children, their parents, teachers, and care providers, as well as twelve titles for Gryphon House, Inc. (with international rights in over ten languages).

MaryAnn presents internationally on the topics of art for children and self-publishing for writers, writes for Parenting and Family Fun magazines, has been a prop designer for a Jim Henson Company's TV program, and consults for numerous educational groups, Kaplan Early Learning, Discount School Supply, and Fisher-Price. She enjoys writing short essays on memorable childhood experiences.

MaryAnn and her husband reside in Bellingham, Washington at the foot of a steaming volcano.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Resource!! September 9, 2010

By Marie F. Evitt

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I own many of MaryAnn Kohl's books and love using them. Art With Anything is a new approach that will add great depth to the art experiences in my classroom.

As a teacher, I'm always looking for free or low-cost materials that will provide high-quality art experiences for children. We save egg cartons, berry baskets, bubble wrap, cardboard tubes, old CDs, and lots of other "stuff." But I was running out of ideas for what to do with these classroom favorites. Art With Anything is just what I need!! MaryAnn has so many fresh, creative suggestions for using just about anything I have saved or can buy inexpensively. The cool thing is that she presents five (and sometimes more) ideas for each item, so that I can use the same materials for a week or more. Day 1 is the most basic and the other four days build on the first, allowing children to experiment and explore.

Not only does Art With Anything give me new ideas for using what I already have, it gives me lots of ideas for materials I hadn't even thought to use-- junk mail, hole-punch dots, old blurry photos and CD cases. I like how the book repeats types of projects with different materials. There are numerous collage activities, printing techniques and mobiles so children can refine their skills.

The format is user-friendly and visually appealing. Having five days worth of projects on a two-page spread makes it easy to plan my curriculum. The lists of materials and directions are clear and compact. It's amazing how many ideas fit in this book---cotton balls, clear plastic wrap, coffee grounds, cotton swabs, jigsaw puzzle pieces. I'm convinced we really can art with anything!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended as a resource for parents, babysitters, and caretakers September 21, 2010

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

Art with Anything offers user-friendly art projects for each week of the year suitable for young people ages 4-10. Each activity utilizes ordinary materials (address labels, bits of fabric, leaves, rocks, junk mail, masking tape, etc.) and promotes creativity, recycling, and reuse. Each week's art activity is subdivided into five day-by-day projects, with each day's task increasing in complexity. For example, week 41 involves sand as a material, and the daily projects are Sand Playdough, Dandy Sandy Shaker (shaking color sand over glue), Shapes & Sand Design, Sand & Glue Drawing, and Sticky Sand Art (which can involve a stencil or clear contact paper sealing in addition to colored sand and glue). Color photographs illustrate this lively compendium of family-friendly art activities, highly recommended as a resource for parents, babysitters, and caretakers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars art for art's sake April 13, 2012

By B. E Jackson

Format:Paperback

Art With Anything is about using all kinds of materials you see everyday to help make interesting and art-related projects out of them such as tape, rocks and leaves. It's a surprisingly creative book for children, so I highly recommend it. I especially think all art teachers who have run low on suggestions for ideas would find something to admire here. Art is more fun when creativity is allowed to be fully taken advantage of, and this book works in that regard.