Midnight Pictures You Can't Resist

Here's a classic from my childhood. You've probably done this before, even with your kidlets. turning it into a jack-o-lantern picture makes the old wax resist seem new again! Have fun!What you need:
*heavy white paper (you can use a paper plate in a pinch)
*crayons or oil pastels
*black watercolor or watered down tempera/acrylic
*paintbrushesscrumdilly-do it!

Set out your supplies making sure you are in a mess friendly zone. Children and watercolors cane get a little zaney. You are going to ask your kidlets to draw the most fierce or funny or wild looking jack-o-lantern they can imagine using the crayons. I did a test run with the three kinds of crayons I had on hand to see which would be most vibrant. I tested Paperchase, Rose Art and Cray-Pas. I thought the Cray-Pas (oil pastels) would be best but it looks like the Rose Art beat out. What do you think?Once you have your dazzling array of jack-o-lanterns. Set out the watercolors or prepared tempera. I used black bio-bolor with a lot of water mixed in. Hand them their paintbrushes and encourage them to paint OVER their picture. As you are doing this, start asking questions about the process."Do you think the paint is going to cover your pumpkin?" "Have you done this before?" "What is this process called?" "What other pictures could you draw for nighttime?" "What would happen if your picture was all in black as well?"We're focusing on black paint and jack-o-lanterns to make this activity Halloween-ish. You can of course use any color or as many colors as you like. Let your wee ones explore with the technique. Switch it up and give them white crayons on white paper like we did last year. Let your wee ones lead the way and you'll be surprised!

*ppsst...hey, if you won the candy corn contest I still need some addresses. Please email them to scrumdillydo (at gmail) .com. Thanks!