Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

Do you use chalk? Do you ever end up with iddy biddy chalk stubs? What do you do with them? I found this great idea from The Chocolate Muffin Tree   and   The Imagination Tree where you can crush them to make paint, but we decided that rather than making paint, we would just SPLAT our stubs all over the wet sidewalk! The technique is quite simple. Wait for the rain to stop OR go out in the rain... Plop a chalk stub down and hit it with a hammer.... and SPLAT! Lovely bursts of color! An opportunity to use real tools. If/when the sidewalk starts to dry up, make sure you have a water bottle available for spraying!  Spraying, pounding, drawing.... great fun with chalk! And, when you get tired of chalk, attempt to recreate the plunger print pumpkin patch.....   that the rain washed away!  Have fun pounding the pavement  sidewalk! (For more photos of our explorations, don't forget to stop by our Facebook page !) This p...

I don't remember where I first heard about the fabulous "plunger painting", but it is a wonderful activity for the children. I don't have the plungers available all of the time, so that when they do appear... they are a treat!  I apologize  for a few blurry photos here. (I didn't realize that the camera was switched to auto-focus). I casually set a couple of plungers in the play room.  "Ms. Amy, what are these?" "I don't know, what do you think they are?" "Can we play with them?" "Of course you can play with them....." The children find all kinds of ways to play with them..... It is great fun if you have different types of flooring for them to explore. It took very little time before they were able to investigate enough to realize that the plungers stick to the linoleum floor if you push down on them: But, they don't stick to the carpet..... Hmmmmm..... I wonder?  Can I get two of them ...