KG in the Atelier: Planets and Paint Pouring

From Nature to Space in Kitah Gimmel...

We began the year exploring clay. In this project, the children formed the clay into candle holders. They decorated them using dried flowers, tiles, shells, and other natural materials.

Next, the children created a garland out of natural materials such as; dried flowers, bark, sticks, and magnolia pods. 

They strung them onto wire, and the garlands were used to decorate tables for our Thanksgiving event.

The children began showing an interest in space, so Morah Yael wanted to incorporate planets into their menorahs. Morah Jessica printed out close up images of the various planets and the children each chose their favorite in terms of color palette. 

The children were given thinned acrylics in the shades of their planet. They poured the paints onto their tile, then tilted it up, down, back, and forth to move the paint across the tile.  

Once dry, the tiles were coated in protective layers of Modge Podge. The children sprinkled natural glitter made from Mica onto their tiles as a finishing touch. Morah Jessica glued hex nuts onto the tiles as candle holders.

The children enjoyed pouring paint in the previous project and we had leftover thinned acrylics. We had round tiles in a variety of sizes and canvases. We decided to make more planets with the leftover paints using the “dip method.”

Once dry, the tiles were glued onto a canvas painted by the children. They used glittery black paint to resemble space.

We wanted to create a space mobile to hang as a part of Siyum night. 

The children poured shades of paint for each planet into a bowl.

They dipped a plastic globe into a puddle of paint coordinated specific to each planet. 

On Siyum night, the globes will be hung from the ceiling, arranged to resemble the solar system.

For the next project, we focused on one of the other threads of interest in Kitah Gimmel. We brought the focus back to nature. The children collaged a variety of natural materials onto a canvas.

Once dry, they painted their nature collage in complementary shades of green and yellow, then topped it off with coordinating glitter.