Need art project ideas (not crafts!) for 6 and 8 year olds

[serendipidy]

We'd like to do some art projects this summer with our girls and some of their friends. We'll probably do them in separate groups by age/skill. I would love some ideas for things that are not "crafty" - a lot of the projects I see are for junky projects that just sit around and really don't have any purpose. (Which goes against my consumerism nature!!!) What I would like to do is something more skill-teaching - like learning batik, or a cool painting technique, something that is more "art" than "craft. I'll have about 2 days with each age group.

I'm sure you ladies will have tons of ideas for more meaningful crafts! (Here's hoping at least!)

[Thalia the Muse]

Leaf prints -- paint leaves (and other stuff -- flower petals, whatever you've got) with tempera paint and press onto paper.

tissue-paper collage -- torn or cut tissue paper, use laundry starch to attach to the page. It's translucent, so you can layer paper to get different colors and shades.

Origami

Paper-making

Sewing -- they can make stuffed animals or throw pillows with felt, buttons, sequins, and stuffing

Cross-stitch

[WNB]

Funny, it's the "art" stuff that always seemed useless to me ... pretty, sure, but ultimately just eye candy. No doubt though - you can craft clutter. Who needs a hand-painted tissue box, really ?

Anyway -- here is a tutorial from Craftster for a neat way to craft some homemade cards. (or decorative paper for any use, I suppose.)

http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=9922.0

[E.V. Lowi]

For young children, it's all about the process, not the product! That is why finger painting is so enjoyed by this age group. The mixing, blending and changing of the colors helps a child grasp the science behind the color wheel so much better that a lecture or a book ever will.

As far as making a lot of clutter, my dd always enjoyed setting up an oudoor gallery of her work and selling at our spring and summer yard sales. I was amazed that neighbors and strangers passing by would be interested in purchasing the artworks of a child. They have been very supportive and she got such a boost out of this activity. She always managed to sell a few of her pieces. We got lots of photos of the work before hand, of course. Some of the buyers have become collectors, over the years that she has been doing this, starting from about the age of 6. She's a teenager now and thinks of herself as a professional artist, which she is.

[4evermom]

I did mosaic mirrors with that age range once. We glued a small mirror in the center of a piece of thin plywood, glued chunks of broken pottery, glass marbles, buttons, whatever (it's good if everything is the same thickness), around the edges. Then I did the grouting for lack of time. Put sawtooth hangers on th eback so they can be hung.

Or you could do mosaic stepping stones or a mosaic bird bath (using a shallow flowerpot as a form - make sure things using terra cotta get stored inside over the winter so they don't crack if absorbed moisture freezes).

You could decorate canvas bags (dying, painting with fabric paint, gluing things on, sewing things on).

Weaving. Even if just doing those potholders out of those loops, it's something that adds to a person's base of knowledge. But you could do woven wall hangings or something else small (because it is time consuming, best to keep the project small). Beads can be used in the weaving.

Mobiles using whatever your group fancies. Could be those wooden shapes from the craft store painted with photos glued to them. Could be origami creatures.

Seed pod people. Gluing whatever pieces of nature (twigs, pinecones, seed pods) that you can find together to make people or animals.