One day in the School-age 1 program, we spent a little extra time outside as the children were very focused on their rainbow unicorn. When we first got outside, our friends noticed that the ground was wet and wanted to experiment what the chalk would look like on the wet ground. Everyone began drawing their own pictures. Aubree then pointed out a puddle and four of our friends moved over to the puddle. They noticed that as they were colouring, the colours of each chalk were blending together. "Look they are mixing together" Nolan had said to the group. "Because the water is moving around!" Skylar had said to Nolan. They began working as a team to creating something beautiful. Skylar, Nolan, Sophia, and Aubree spent about 20 minutes working together to create a "Rainbow Unicorn" as Aubree called it. They added ears and a horn to their drawing and Sophia said, "Now it definitely looks like a unicorn!"
During this creative arts activity, the group noticed that the chalk was darker then when they drew on dry cement. This got the children thinking and Aubree said "It's not dusty like it always is." Everyone else then noticed that the chalk was more of a paste when they coloured on the cement. Educator Nicole asked them, "Why do you think that the chalk is different when it's wet?" Sophia answered back, "Because we are adding water to it so it makes it darker and heavier."
Once we got inside, educators Nicole and Natalie began to ask the children what else we could do with chalk. "We can crush it in a bag and then add water to make our own paint," Nolan said. "We can bring chalk inside with black paper," Sophia said. "We can try mixing it with mud," Skylar suggested. We will continue to explore these ideas and more as we discover other ways to get creative with chalk!
