One of my FAVE project with the kids. For Pre-K & and Kindergarten: Saw something like this in The Land of Nod cat. - very cute but cost about $98.
1. Bought 18x24 inch canvas (found that they are not perfect in size). Figured that I could get squares almost 2.14 inch squares, 6 across and 9 down. That gave me two boxes for each letter of the alphabet and then two left over - where the kids wrote their names.
2. Taped off the squares (masking tape works great and releases well from the canvas). It will take three or four times to tape it off because the tape will over-lap some of the squares.
3. I gave the kids 8 colors of acrylic paint to choose from. They picked which colors to paint each square. The only rule I had was no two squares sharing a side could be the same color.
4. Let dry, retape, same process
5. White sticker letters from Making Memories bought at Micheal's (there are extras in the pack - you will want extras!). I let them color each letter with sharpies (I know - permanent, but the colors are bright.) The idea was to color it in a contrasting color to the block that it would go on. David really got into making his letters into guys.
6. Each letter they did, they drew a picture. I cut the paper for them to draw on a little smaller than the the square it would go in (so their picture wouldn't exceed the space). For Alex - pre-K, he was learning to id his letters. I gave him choices of things to draw that started with each letter. David, K and working on letter sounds, he came up with his picture ideas.
7. I cut out each picture and used decoupage glue (mode podge from Micheal's) to stick it to the canvas.
8. When done, we took about a month to do this, I decoupaged the whole thing about 5 times (letting it dry in between)
9. I also painted the sides red so it would look more "finished" on the wall.
10. Occasionally we messed up and the picture or the letter was hard to see on the block. I carefully outlined it in black or put it on white paper and trimmed it again (which ever helped it to show up)
11. Hung it on the wall. Grandma wanted one - so the kids did it all over a gain about 5 months later. It was interesting to see how they had the whole thing down by then. Art, decision making skills, logic, letter sounds, letter recognition, creativity, art for Mom's wall:)
