Chalking on Rocks

We've been away for Spring Break and did quite a bit of chalking thanks to my sister who had an ample supply of it at her house.  We exhausted "chalking" on the driveway and sidewalks, so we decided to create some art on the rocks in her garden.  C thought this was a great idea and I just wanted to share this fun activity that you may want to try. The great thing is that the chalk will wash away as compared to painting on rocks.

HAPPY CHALKING!

Wet Chalk Fun: Making Hand and Foot Prints

Have you ever used chalk and water together? Just dip some chalk in water and it makes the colors so vibrant and smooth.  My daughter spent a whole hour or so playing with this idea.  Then we realized you could make hand and foot prints too.  Keep reading to find out how.

To create Chalk hand and foot prints:

First draw a huge rainbow chalk picture and add some water.

Then add some water and put your hands in....

Now print your hands.

Next put your feet in...

Then print those...

Add more colored chalk and water. Have fun coloring, drawing, and making prints with chalk. 

Then have fun washing it all away with the hose!

What kinds of fun have you had with chalk?

More chalk Fun:

DIY Crushed Chalk Paint

DIY Chalk Paint Revisited

We continue our tradition, once again, of making our own chalk paint.  We made some with the neighbor kids and they had a blast.

If you didn't catch my post from last year check it out here: DIY Chalk Paint.  It is terribly simple to make. Basically you put some chalk in a plastic bag and crush it with a hammer until it is in tiny pieces. You could also use a large stone to crush the chalk too.  Add some water, stir and you have chalk paint. Grab some paint brushes and you are a good to go.

Here is C and some neighborhood friends chalk painting away.

C has gotten quite good at this chalk painting! (4 years straight)

A painting of C and a ladybug.

I'm sure we'll be doing more chalk painting....the neighborhood kids have asked me to bring it out countless times.  This all puts a smile on my face.

Shadow Play

We've been playing around with shadows lately! I've always been fascinated with shadows and how they change throughout the day!!! It is a great science lesson in helping to explain how the sun is in different positions throughout the day! We were inspired by TinkerLab's post: Drawing Shadows in which they traced shadows with different props!!! Here is Cassie and I saying "Hello" in shadow form!!!
This picture was taken in late afternoon. The shadows are about medium size.

This picture was taken around Noon and Cassie's shadow was really short!!! She kept asking, "Why am I so short???" Mom: "The sun is above us so we have a shorter shadow!"

Here is Cassie tracing my short shadow with chalk. You could trace shadows in the same spot every hour and compare them.  We kind of did it a little more randomly. I kept asking throughout the day: "I wonder how our shadow looks now???"

This picture was taken in late day and we have very TALL shadows!!! These are my favorite kind of shadows of all!!! We look like GIANTS or ALIENS!!!! The sun is behind us at this point projecting our shadows into our garage.

Here is a tracing of one of Cassie's TALL shadows! We added a face and decorative stripes!  This was Cassie' idea.

Here is her shadow tracing around late afternoon...not as tall, but still taller than Cassie!

I had fun tracing our bikes. This is Cassie's bike at afternoon time. Noon time bike shadows were very small and scrunched up!

Here is my bike....it is fun to see how much detail that you can get in these tracings!

Here is one of my favorite shadow pictures! I love that Cassie is on her bike. It is just a fun picture! I look forward to taking more shadow pictures!

***Another way I helped to explain how the sun is in different positions was by going into a dark room with  a flashlight and one of Cassie's dolls.  We pretended the sun was the flashlight and shined the light to the sides of the doll and above the doll to see what its shadow looked like. The nice thing is that you could see all the variations of shadows all within a matter of minutes!

Have you been having fun with shadows?

This post is linked to:

Outdoor Play
It's Playtime
Summer Fun Party
RESOURCE CENTRE
THE PLAY ACADEMY
HIGH PAW

Our Local Chalk Festival

Our town just had their Annual Chalk Festival and Cassie was up for it... so we decided to go on such a beautiful Saturday! It was a great community event to bring the importance of Art to the children...since that is who was mostly participating!  First we took a look at all the beautiful drawings and they definitely inspired Cassie and I to pick up some chalk and draw!!! Keep reading to see our drawings!

Here are some of the drawings that inspired us. I love the message here! "Love Everyone!"

Beautiful stained glass effect!

Mountain, Beach, and Ocean scene!

Flowers!

Good old American flag!

Sunset!

More Flowers!

Cassie jumping right in to draw!

Mom and Cassie drawing!

Cassie mostly watching Mom at this point!

Mom having FUN!

Cassie's finished drawing of Beautiful Flowers!

Mom's finished Sun drawing!

What events do you have in your community that promote the Arts?

DIY Crushed Chalk Paint

This has been one of our favorites for the past couple years! We've made the cornstarch recipe, but I was never satisfied with the brightness of the paint.  I think my daughter and I just like the process of making this chalk paint!  Cassie just Loves chalk paint and it is such a nice variation to using chalk sticks!

First you need some chalk, a plastic bag, and a hammer or mallet.  We can get chalk fairly cheap at discount stores, so I don't feel bad chopping it up! ***You could also use worn down pieces from your collection if you don't want to use brand new pieces!

Next, put about 2 pieces of chalk in a plastic bag, twist the bag shut and start crushing the chalk.  Be careful of your fingers!! I did some and let Cassie try it too.  It was very empowering for her to use the hammer and help!

After crushing the chalk you may want to check to see if you need to hammer more...we needed to a bit more to get some of the larger pieces.

Place your crushed chalk carefully in a container and then add about a cup or so of water. Mix with a stick or paint brush and now you have instant chalk paint! You can always add more water as you are painting if the water dissolves quickly.

Here is Cassie painting away! What fun! She started right away! As you can see we made 3 colors which makes it much more exciting!

We had a lot of fun! We made flowers, people, splatter paint, spirals, and even mixed our pink and blue to make purple!

This is my favorite chalk painting: Cassie and Mom! 

Mom had fun making this fireworks explosion!

Our array of work again:

DIY Crushed Chalk Paint has become a tradition we have done since Cassie was 2 1/2! I have a feeling it will continue from year to year!

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE OUTDOOR PLAY TRADITIONS???

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This post is linked to:

MADE BY YOU MONDAY
CRAFT SCHOOLING SUNDAY
SHOW AND TELL
IT'S PLAYTIME
CHILD CENTERED ART PARTY
FOR THE KIDS FRIDAY
PRESCHOOL CORNER
GET OUTDOORS
FUN FOR KIDS FRIDAY
THE PLAY ACADEMY
KIDS GET CRAFTY
SUMMER FUN