How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers is one of our favorite children’s books. We were inspired by the beautiful illustrations in the story to create this watercolor ocean and star art for kids!
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We are huge fans of children’s books by Oliver Jeffers! (Some of our favorites being Stuck, The Day the Crayons Quit, and Lost and Found.) How to Catch a Star has always been a favorite not only because it’s a sweet story of friendship, but because it seemed to always hit home with my kids. Lucy has always brainstormed ways to catch stars ever since she could speak it seems! (She used to ask my husband if he could a rope, climb to the top of a nearby mountain and try to catch one!)
As we were rereading How to Catch a Star, the illustration of the star in the ocean water reminded us of a recent painting technique we had tried, painting with watercolors and droppers. We decided to make some watercolor art inspired by that page!
Watercolor Art Activity for Kids Inspired by How to Catch a Star
Materials for Art Activity
- Liquid watercolors
- Droppers or pipettes
- Watercolor paper
- Paintbrush
- Salt
- Yellow construction paper
- Scissors
- Glue
Directions
1. Start by painting a layer of water over your entire sheet of watercolor paper.
2. Use droppers or pipettes to drop liquid watercolors onto your paper. We used blue, turquoise, and green to resemble ocean water.
Continue until the paper is completely covered in color.
3. Sprinkle salt onto your painted paper. The salt creates such an interesting effect on the wet paint!
We tried both regular salt and epsom salts. Both worked, but looked slightly different. Here’s one painting with regular salt…
… and with epsom salt.
4. Let your artwork dry.
5. Cut out a yellow star from your construction paper and glue it onto your paper.
6. Hang it up to display!
Some possible writing prompts to go with the artwork and story, How to Catch a Star:
- Describe the characteristics of a good friend.
- Use your imagination to describe how you could catch a star.
- What’s the big idea or moral of the story?
