Please welcome our guest blogger Jen Berlingo. Jen is an art therapist, and mom to a radiant four-year-old little lady. Her blog, Paint Cut Paste aims to inspire parents, teachers, and caregivers by sharing developmentally appropriate ideas to elicit creative expression, mostly with materials you likely have at home. You can follow Jen’s art-ventures on facebook and on twitter. Take it away, Jen!
Hot Colored Rocks
I’m excited to share with all of you an art project I’ve been wanting to try with my 4.5 year old daughter for quite some time – coloring on hot rocks! I was waiting until I felt she was of age to take care not to touch the hot rocks, and I knew that with supervision, instruction, and a calm atmosphere, she would really be able to enjoy this art form.
Recently we collected many rocks when beach-hopping near our home along the Northern California coast. There are so many beautiful treasures – these particular rocks are hot from the sun and colored by mother nature alone.
We were inspired by these “rainbow rocks” (as my daughter called them) to make our own. Because the sun wasn’t too hot the day we made these, we chose to put a few rocks in our oven for about 5 minutes at 200 degrees. (If it’s a very hot summer day, you could put some stones out in the full sun for a while and color on them outside. This would probably save little fingers from the risk of getting burned.)
When we took them out, we placed them on some art rags that we could get dirty and so that we could hold and move them using the cloth to protect our hands. I put out buckets of some extra crayons, and my daughter chose bright summery colors to color her rock with.
She was so delighted when she saw how the crayon wax melted when it touched the hot rock surface, and she loved experimenting with swirling different colors together.
We’ve loved having these pretty rocks around our home.
Note: One other thing we’ve learned about these rainbow stones is that they can be used to color with, like large round crayons!
Posted in: staycation
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I like the effect – really cool!
I like the effect – really cool!
Love this and have been wanting to try this too!
thank you so much for the opportunity to share this with you all! have a sunshiny summertime!
Jen – you are such an inspiration. I love all your ideas. So glad you agreed to guest post for me
thank you so much! anytime!
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