January 27: Project Day a Day Early: Marble Painting

Mixing the marbles in the paint.

Project Day is usually Friday, but with plans to play with Cousin Isaac tomorrow we decided to do the project today!  I'm not sure where I first saw the idea, nor do I know who should receive credit for this as I've seen it in numerous books and on a variety of websites:  Marble Painting! 



Marble painting with ALL the marbles...
and with gusto!



First, I found a 9x13 pan and taped a piece of white construction paper to the bottom.  Then, we took little paper Dixie cups and squirted a little paint in each one.  Then we dropped a marble in, swirled it in the paint and dropped the marble in the pan.  Ty shook the marble around the pan and was delighted with the pattern it made.  All told, he made three marble paintings and probably could have made more!  He made two of them using one marble at a time, and the third we put all the marbles in at one time...that one didn't turn out as well as all the paint began to smear together. 

This project had very little mess associated with it as we simply threw the Dixie cups away and dumped the painted marbles into a cup of soap and water.  The pan had a few paint marks which washed up easily and quickly.  I'm sure we'll find a day to do this again as Ty has already asked about it.

Marble painting with one marble at a time.