Recycling Old Markers = Homemade Watercolors

My preschool art class shared with me this week that the project we just completed was their most favorite project of all times. I just chuckled but in all honesty it was a project that they spent the most time on in weeks. It was so much fun to watch their faces glow in what started as a science project and turned into an art project.

Last week, when we were coloring with our markers, the students noticed that the markers were slowly loosing ink and that they needed to be thrown away. I mentioned to them that if they found a marker that had no ink, just place it in the empty box and we will do a science project. Over the course of the day the markers grew in number.

Each of the preschool students volunteered to take a certain color of marker and place it in a cup or jar. They each poured water over their specific color of marker. Afterwards we notice in the green and blue marker jar (Ocean Blue) that the color was coming out of the tip of markers and into the water. It was easier to see in just that it was in a glass jar, as the other colors did the same thing in their white cups. We continued to let the markers sit overnight and see how much stronger in color they became the next morning when they came into school.

Art Project

Take white glue in a bottle and move it around your page forming shapes or just squiggle lines around your paper. Next sprinkle salt on top of the glue, let it sit for just a moment and then shake the excess salt off of your paper.

Then you will take your homemade watercolor and gently "paint" the salt and watch the watercolors spread across the glue/salt mixture. The students really have a lot of fun watching the paint move.  When I say "paint" really what is taking place is that we gently place the tip of our paint brush on top of the glue/salt mixture and it does all of the spreading. You really do not use brush strokes.