wayne thiebaud inspired ice cream cones

I've been doing these since my early bookstore days and they always come out so happy! This year, the children drew their own ice cream cones onto cardboard (box flaps work great for this). I had a parent cut these out as cardboard is super tricky to cut. Don't worry though, we give the kiddos plenty of opportunities to use scissors in the classroom. 

 

The first step in the process is for the kiddos to paint the cone part of their ice cream cone. This time around we used a tan acrylic paint but next year, the kiddos will be mixing up their own brown tint. After they paint their cone (or entire piece), they use a piece of cardboard to stamp criss-cross hatch marks to emulate a waffle cone. The idea behind this is two-fold. I'm assessing their development and listening skills. I do not police how they approach this part of the project. Some will make criss-cross marks, some with make lines, while others will dip and drag the carboard across the surface. It's all good.

Once their cone is finished, it's time to paint the ice cream part. We work a lot on the concept of tints and pastels in the classroom so the children will have had a discussion on their favorite flavors of ice cream and what colors they are. We will also get silly and make up flavors. They will select a color and squeeze the paint into a small container (I love my thrifted melmac bowls here) along with white paint, shaving cream, and then glue. They do al lthe squeezing here. Next, they get a spoon to mix it all up and spread it atop the ice cream part of their art. It's tricky but they love the fluffiness of the paint.

Once their ice cream is on their cone, they get to add sprinkles. For the sprinkles, we have an assortment of scrap paper, beads, glitter, and other bits of fun. Some kiddos can get very heavy handed with the sprinkles, so if you are on a tight budget, have a parent demolish a magazine with a pair of scissors. There is a lot of color to be had this way.

What do you think? I love them so! Lookie all those sprinkles on the left there! Wheeeee!