Monday, Jan. 22, 2007

It was time to make the paint. I had purchased several different supplies for our project. I had collanders, a nut chopper, a bag with different kinds of paint brushes and sponges along with storage bins and of course, glue.
I read the directions to the students and told them to first pound the dried soil with their spoons. I enjoyed watching my "cool" fifth graders playing in the dirt. They didn't seem to mind that they were getting dirty. After pounding the soil, we put it through a collander or the nut chopper to get the particles as fine as possible. Then came the tricky part - adding equal parts of glue and water. Some used mixing cups and others used their eyes to judge. The results were great. The children had various shades of brown ranging from dark brown to light brown to red. They had fun with the various brushes and sponges.

I was very pleased with their results. Some of the kids even went back to their classrooms to show their regular teachers and classmates. The children were so funny. They wanted to bring their paint home. After realizing that they couldn't take it on the bus, I told them they could do this at home. What a nice alternative to sitting in front of the TV or playing video games.

I plan on mounting the pictures and framing them for display. The texture of the soil added to the beauty of their work. The children chose to paint landscape or scenes having to do with nature.

Our next video conference is on Thursday evening where we will share our paintings with our Japanese friends.

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