Toddler Art Class: Arranging Stones

Rock on, toddlers!

Today's topic: Arranging Stones
Supplies:
rocks (purchased from a craft store or just gathered from your nearest pile of rocks)

What we read:

Stick and Stone / Ferry, Beth

we also discussed the artwork of Andy Goldsworthy--

Stone / Goldsworthy, Andy
What kids do:
Push the rocks around and listen to the noise they make on the tabletop--

 make lines of rocks--

 make lots of lines with rocks--

 make shapes with rocks--

 "draw" pictures with rocks -- this one is an animal paw

 This one is a girl with long hair

 here's another girl--look at that great dress-shaped rock!

 stack rocks

 sort rocks by various features (mostly color)

 put rocks into buckets--

 pour buckets of rocks into other buckets of rocks--

 sort rocks into different buckets--

 dump rocks out of buckets (what a great racket that makes!)

 stand in the empty buckets--

 Adult Challenge of the Week:  Big hands off the art!

Hindsight Tip: This one was pretty smooth, just make sure if your class skews young to not have any that are choking hazard size.  And make sure you have plenty of rocks for everyone to use!

Variations to try: We could have added in glass "stones" or playdough to make stacking stones easier, but I decided to keep it simple.

Here's your moment of zen--