Last week we had Vacation Bible School at our church. I taught in a room of 5-year-olds...kids that will begin kindergarten this fall. Our theme was a star-gazing theme and we explored all kinds of space-related activities in addition to the Bible stories about God and Jesus.
One of my favorites was nebula painting. The instructions called for painting on a mirror. We adapted a little bit. (Do you do that? I seem to adapt a lot!) We covered trays with aluminum foil and painted on the foil.
Kids enjoyed mixing the colors and creating their own interesting colors and shapes. When the nebula was formed just right, we pressed a piece of manila paper on top of the painting to create a print.
And the results were spectacular, just like real nebulae!
Painting on foil is a little different experience than painting on paper. The texture of the foil makes the paint slip around a little bit.
The tray allowed children to explore as far as they wanted without "expanding" the nebula onto the tabletop.
My fives loved it. I think just about all of them explored this activity.
