Growing up, I was always fascinated by how quickly water would disappear after covering the hot pavement. I would dip my finger in a glass of water and paint over a pebble or nearby stone with it and wait for my "painting" to disappear.
As a Pre-K teacher, I enjoyed watching the children in my class ooohhh and ahhhh out on the playground when I'd allow them to take a handful of paint brushes and rubber stamps out and dip them in water to paint the ground, fence, or whatever they chose. They were so excited to see that they could actually create a picture with water. It was also a wonderful lesson in evaporation and discussing various things that come up in the process.
I remembered this activity with my students, today, and just had to do it with my daughter. She LOVED it. She thought it was so neat to watch her pictures disappear and she could make them again. Yes, she got frustrated too... :/ She would finally get the picture the way she wanted it and then it would disappear.. Guess I'd feel the same way. She tried painting on various surfaces, including: The patio bricks, fence, door, fire pit cover, and patio table. She discovered that her pictures would show better on certain surfaces and she would naturally be drawn back to those areas to create her bits of art. We discussed why we could see it better in those areas and why we couldn't in the others. She seemed to understand, but I still question how much she actually "took in" when she was so busy having good old fun!!
I love the learning opportunities in almost everything that we do and most of the time, she doesn't even know it ;)
As a Pre-K teacher, I enjoyed watching the children in my class ooohhh and ahhhh out on the playground when I'd allow them to take a handful of paint brushes and rubber stamps out and dip them in water to paint the ground, fence, or whatever they chose. They were so excited to see that they could actually create a picture with water. It was also a wonderful lesson in evaporation and discussing various things that come up in the process.
I remembered this activity with my students, today, and just had to do it with my daughter. She LOVED it. She thought it was so neat to watch her pictures disappear and she could make them again. Yes, she got frustrated too... :/ She would finally get the picture the way she wanted it and then it would disappear.. Guess I'd feel the same way. She tried painting on various surfaces, including: The patio bricks, fence, door, fire pit cover, and patio table. She discovered that her pictures would show better on certain surfaces and she would naturally be drawn back to those areas to create her bits of art. We discussed why we could see it better in those areas and why we couldn't in the others. She seemed to understand, but I still question how much she actually "took in" when she was so busy having good old fun!!
I love the learning opportunities in almost everything that we do and most of the time, she doesn't even know it ;)