Cut, Rip, Punch, and Colored Glue

I'm a big fan of open-ended, child-driven projects. Today, the children decided to use colored paper, scissors, shape punches and glue to make their own creations. We don't have a lot of glue that isn't colored here. When I first opened my daycare (5 years ago this week!) I purchased a large quantity of small glue bottles. I labelled them with various colors and added a little bit of liquid tempera paint to the glue. (I recently learned that you can use the markers that don't work to color glue too!)

I'm not a fan of giving children glue in a container and using a qtip or other utensil to use the glue. I like to give them the experience of having to squeeze the glue out of the bottle. It is great for their fine motor skills. We use a lot of glue here. I know that children will need to use glue to stick things together when they get older, and that they will probably hear things like "a little dab will do you!" Later, not here, and not from me. Glue is inexpensive and for a young child is a great substance to explore:

Sometimes we use glue, just for the sake of using glue. It is fun to squeeze and I look so proud when I can do it all by myself. (This is the main reason why we have colored glue. Art is about the process. When you use regular glue, the process that the child went through is not reflected in the product as it dries clear! When you add color, they can share what they did with their family as the glue is visible.)

When we learn that glue really makes things stick... sometimes we match the colored glue to the color of the paper.

And sometimes we like to use the glue to stick some paper together, and we still like to just squeeze! How much glue is enough glue to hold things together?? As we grow and we continue to try, we will explore and learn.

I wonder what will happen if I put the glue on top instead of on the bottom? (I don't know... I guess we will just have to wait and see.)

I think we will need to refill our bottles this afternoon. Time to find the funnel and the paint. It is a good thing we buy glue by the gallon!

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