PreKinder Navajo Sand Paintings

I repeated this project from last year:

PreKinder Navajo Blankets

This year, I made the "sand" more vibrant by adding much more food coloring to the white cornmeal and rubbing alcohol. The brighter colors look so much nicer!

I set up 6 stations on the patio outside of my room with 5 bottles of glue. I demonstrated to the students how to create a line of glue and "Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle" (hearing 25 little voices whispering these words as they worked was priceless) the colored sand onto the glue line. They shook the excess off into the containers and then moved to their next color choice.

By having the students physically move from color to color this year, it helped keep the colors separate. Last year, each station had all of the colors in it and by the end, they were just a big rainbow of sand.

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PreKinder Navajo Blankets

My PreK classes are learning how to make lines, so I decided to incorporate that into a lesson on Navajo blankets.

I prefolded black paper and had them use construction paper crayons to draw the lines dividing each section.

In the middle of their paper, I had them write the first letter of their name (I had cards written up for those who are still learning the letters in their names) and draw a circle around it.

Then they made a different line in each different section on their paper- using as many different colors as they wanted.

I made colored "sand" for them. I did this by using white cornmeal, rubbing alcohol and food coloring, all shaken together and let dry. The colors that I got out of this were so bright!

For this next step, we moved outside- I didn't want my room 

filled with colored "sand".

The students traced their lines with glue and then sprinkled the colored "sand" onto the glue. The PreK teacher, assistant and myself helped them pour the excess back into the containers and then they moved on to the next line.

This actually took us 3 class times (I only see them for about 25-30 minutes), but they look so bright in the hallway, it was worth it!

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