We continued our Art History Projects by combing a fine motor activity with an art lesson by exploring Henri Matisse. We had recently been at our local art museum were we had been able to see several Matisse works. As my little one is also discovering and enjoying scissors I thought this would be a fun project for her.

Since we had been so busy we had been unable to make a trip to the public library to borrow a copy of Henri’s Scissors but fortunately I was able to find a video of it being read on YouTube and we pulled it up on our Smart TV and I let her watch while I set up the materials. After that we also watched an episode of Art with Mati and Dada on Matisse in order to try and interest her more in the topic with the fun and brief cartoon. Click on the red YouTube button below for a link to the video.

Needed Supplies:

• Construction Paper
• Glue Sticks
• Scissors-My recommendation for toddler scissors and the ones that she is using in this picture are below. Click on the image if you wish to purchase from Amazon.

As we already had all the needed supplies this was once again a “free to me” art activity. I essentially just set out the supplies and let her go to town. I found that doing it this way was a little bit more difficult for her as she was only mainly able to cut rectangles. Here is her finished product.

I decided that we would repeat this activity again in a few months and see how her scissor skills have progressed. Currently she had more fun practicing using her glue stick. Our next planned artist is Monet. Do you have any other artists that you think we should explore? Leave us a comment below and let us know.