Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Hot Rock Coloring

Today M and I found a big rock in the backyard and heated it in the oven. When it was nice and toasty I took it out, and we began (carefully) coloring on it with crayons. The effect was really unique. The crayon tips melted instantly, and suddenly it was like painting with hot wax.

M and I just kept saying "This is so interesting!" to one another as we tried different colors. After we painted the rock, we tried an old plant pot. That worked nicely too; you can see that when the colors mixed together it created a nice marbling effect. Unfortunately, the marbling effect became less pronounced as some of the wax got absorbed into the dark pot.

I was only willing to do this activity with M because she is an especially cautious little three year old and I could trust her not to touch the rock. It was hot! Also, next time I will make sure we all wear painting clothing. The sleeves on M's shirt don't look so good, and I don't think it's going to come out...oops.
It's Playtime!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! Thank you

MaryAnne said...

This is a great idea! I think if you use the washable crayons it would still come out of clothes...

Sue said...

Will you EVER run out of fun ideas?

Sandi said...

I love this idea! I also have a very cautious near-three year old that I can trust to stir things on the stove without burning herself. We'll have to try this! (When the snow melts enough for me to find a rock.)

Deanna said...

Rocks are my new fave thing! Have you been to the rock store over behind Ben White? They let me have some rocks for free! I found some water color pencils at Michael's and the kids write on the rocks - then we just rinse them off. I had thought to use the porcelain markers and bake them for cheap yardart/xmas presents but have not had good luck finding the markers at michael's.

Anonymous said...

Oooh! I really like this! I think we'll use it to make some ornaments...

~Carla

Jansen Family said...

Oooh! I really like this! I think we'll use it to make some ornaments...

~Carla

Deanna said...

Rocks are my new fave thing! Have you been to the rock store over behind Ben White? They let me have some rocks for free! I found some water color pencils at Michael's and the kids write on the rocks - then we just rinse them off. I had thought to use the porcelain markers and bake them for cheap yardart/xmas presents but have not had good luck finding the markers at michael's.

ViSart-DaLi Claying Mama said...

What a great idea! Thank you

Jena said...

My boys will love this.  We're making a pretend stone quarry and this would be a great addition to the project.  Thanks for the idea.  From Jena at www.happylittlemesses.com

Jenchris27 said...

I hope you don't mind, I linked this entry to my site.  If you don't want me to do this, let me know and I'll take it off.

Rachele Reyna said...

What a great idea!  Never would have thought to heat a rock up and color on it!  Thank you for sharing this on It's Playtime!

Havingfunathome said...

No, that's great. Thanks! :-)

Havingfunathome said...

The pretend stone quarry sounds fun. I'll have to come check it out on your blog.

jenny @ let the children play said...

Love it!  There was a similar idea over at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning a while back I think, only instead of putting rocks in the oven they just drew on rocks that had warmed in the summer sun (mind you we are in Australia and it does heat up!)

Happywhimsicalhearts said...

I'm bookmarking this to try with my 3 yr old, geat idea!