Thursday, July 21, 2011

Melting Sandpaper Art

The heat and humidity around here has been a little much for some of our little friends. We've been "melting" in the heat. So, I thought it would be a good time to try some fun melting art!

We started with some sandpaper and our crayons. Drawing on sandpaper provides a fun tactile experience for the children. We took the process a step further, by melting our drawings in the microwave.
We only put the drawings in the microwave for about 45 seconds at at time. It was long enough to melt some of the crayon. We did this intermittently throughout the process so that the children could add more crayon to the sandpaper while the paper was still warm.
If you opt to try this one, note that the more crayon you use, the more visible the melting will be. Large blocks of crayons (chunk crayons) would work really well! We tried to cover the whole piece of sandpaper with color!

4 comments:

Stephanie said...

I wish I had room to store an awesome crayon rack like you have!!! I would definately make one for sure!!! Cool idea!!!

Deborah said...

This is such a great idea on many levels! I love the tactile experience that it provides as well as the fun artful experience!

Yelena said...

I love this idea! It's been incredibly hot here as well, so we're staying indoors as much as possible. This gives us something to do tomorrow. Thank you!

Yelena said...

Update: I tried it this morning with my son and he absolutely LOVED it (generally he stays away from crayons). Thank you!

My friend died

 I learned a hell of a lot from Dan Hodgins.  He was mentor, a friend, and a "bone shaker" for many of us in the field of Early Ch...