There is more to dripping paint than meets the eye…

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I had received one of those e-mails that start with: “check this out!” I usually check out the sender’s name first because I get a lot of those animated Powerpoint slides with promises of health, money, laundry, free vacations in Hawai’i and everything else under the sun (and the moon!). Like the other two million people, I clicked on this link: Tall Painting.

Such gorgeous art! I shared it with my kids and they immediately got to work!  Well, you can probably imagine what ran through my head: “what are we going to do with this?” Our flat surfaces are 100% curated with kid work/art/imprint. Never mind all that thinking. Their curiosity was well over it and I followed behind.

The next step was to decide what type of paint we would use for this (I was no way interested in spending money on this project). We tried using tempera, but it didn’t work so well. I went to our local hardware store to get leftover paint – they stack cans at the end of the day from mixing mistakes or shades no one would buy – and the video confirms that!

They went back to the recycling box, got what they could out of it and built their bases. There was much negotiation in that stage. They also had to rely on a mix of predictions and some previous experience since they had never done this before. The conversation was rich and after all, it was a creative process as well. They experimented with the starting points for the pouring and what happened when the bottom was smaller than the top (see video for this).

After the first structure was painted, there was the familiar “Oooh! I want to do this again” and lot of digging in the recycling bin. Nine structures later, they were drying in two rows and my younger child said: “They look like a town. This could be a street and this could be a school.” Almost a month later, this project turned into “Tall Painting, Tall Town – Part 2.” This is what is wonderful about children who are active agents in their learning process: when they are ready, the opportunities for in-depth conversations, new vocabulary, science, math, geography and history are all there. Como back next week to check it out!

Set-Up for Episode #25:

• Paint – I used free exterior paint from our local hardware store.
• Lots of recycled containers
• Trash bag/old shirt for smocks
• Cups for the paint
• Cover your floor with an old shower curtain if you have rug/carpet

We refilled these cups several times. They were the right size for the children’s hands!

The more they poured,the more the layers merged. I did ask them to stay within the borders of the large paper underneath their structures! Trust me, this did not stifle their creativity and learning!

These curious pattern showed up and the kids spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how and why this happened. Maybe the rim on the cap?

“Drying rack:” the floor! It was a rainy day or I would have put them outside in the sun.

One of nine…

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