Materials
Newspaper
Paint
Shallow pans
Paint smocks
White paper
Small racecars (one for each child)
Instructions
1. Help the children put on paint smocks.
2. Give each child a piece of fingerpaint paper. Write each child's name on the
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non-slick side of it using a ballpoint pen.
13. To anchor the paper, wet the table. Place the paper on the table, slick side up.
14. On each child's paper, place a spoonful of blue paint on one half and a dab
of red on the other half.
15. Ask the children to put one hand into each color and spread the colors separately
on the paper.
16. When they have spread each color smoothly and thoroughly, encourage the
children to blend them together. Encourage them to swirl the paint, keeping
some of the blue areas unmixed, all the way to the edges of the paper.
17. When they have finished painting, ask them to shake silver glitter on the wet
paint to make stars in the sky.
18. Allow the paintings to dry overnight. The next day, weight the dry paintings
with several heavy objects to flatten the curled edges.
19. Show the children a variety of pictures and photos of the planets. Invite
them to create their own set of planets and moons by cutting out circles
from the construction paper. Provide help and patterns if necessary.
10. Give each child his own fingerpainted sky scene. After the children experiment
moving their planets around the sky, show them how to glue the
celestial bodies in place.
11. Allow the pictures to dry before displaying them.
More to do
Math: Count the planets in our solar system. Make planet cutouts, number them,
and order them by distance from the sun, then by size.
Science: Put out a large globe and encourage the children to explore their own
planet.
