Crayon and Marker “Melting”
The best thing about this week was that we got to meld two of our favorite Montessori classroom pursuits… Art and science. First, we decided to replace the snakes that hang from the ceiling of our room. That meant having to come up with a new artwork experiment that would be appropriate for such a display. We started with colored markers and coffee filters. I instructed the children to make their coffee filters as colorful as possible and to make sure the color stretched across the entire space.
After they were done, it was time for the science part to start. Using our spray bottle filled with water, we slowly wet the coffee filter which caused the ink to “melt” and blend together in an interesting tie dye sort of way. Next we hung up to dry (a surprisingly quick process for wet coffee filters). Unfortunately, that also means they’re too flimsy tobe suspended from the ceiling. The answer? Glue, of course! We took a page from Moosetache’s play book and pulled out some of the sticky stuff. It’s important to find a good mix of water to glue and then you simply use a paint brush to apply it to the coffee filter and once again, let it dry. The best part? We made so many that we put the rest in our window as a beautiful filter for the sunlight.
Our second “artsperiment” was melting down wax crayons and pouring them into new molds. After waiting 2 weeks for a replacement part, we were ready to fire up the Crayola Melt and Mold Factory. Luckily it didn’t get nearly as hot as we feared it would and we (eventually) successfully melted red and yellow crayon bits to make new swirl colored crayons and rings for our fingers. Though they ultimately proved to be super delicate, we didn’t care because we knew we could just throw them back into the melt machine. The kind of fun that keeps on giving!
Other than our usual skill building, we also sponge painted and enjoyed our play doh. Here are some fun pictures from the week…
Category: Preschool, Preschool Room 2, Uncategorized
