Sand Painting

Everyone loved Sand Painting!

 We looked at pictures of Native American Sand Paintings - they are intricate and amazing but use lots of basic, geometric shapes to create the paintings. So we did the same thing ( on a simpler scale!)

I always have them sand paint on sand paper. It adds an element of fun and is different from other surfaces we usually use.

This is what makes sand painting controllable for me and keeps the school janitor from coming after me!! I put the colored sand in containers that are large enough to put the whole piece of sandpaper down in it. I put the containers on large trays and put them on a table that is low enough that the child can easily reach into the containers.

                    We used tracers of basic geometric shapes to create pictures of our homes. We drew the outlines with black crayon.

 

Then we painted a shape with glue and went to the sand table to sprinkle the color of sand we wanted on our wet glue. It is so fun to watch their faces as they shake off the pile of sand and their pictures start to emerge. This is the hardest part for my 4 year olds- you can only put glue on one shape at a time or the sand sticks to the whole picture. So it's a fun process to participate in. Paint with glue, spread sand, shake it off and go back to the glue table and do another shape. You get to get up and go to different tables for the different steps in the process.

They turned out great!! They have a unique textural quality and the colors are nice. You can color your own sand if you want but a friend bought 20 bottles on clearance this Summer for just a $1.00 each so I am set. It is inexpensive and comes in tons of great colors at

 Hobby Lobby and Michael's.

They are a little curly right now because they are still drying and we used a lot,

 I mean a lot, of glue.

** a huge bonus to this project in a classroom setting is that boys really like this project as much as the girls.