Preschool Project: Marble Painted Jack-o-Lanterns

Wow!  After 7 weeks, I finally feel like things are settling down just a tiny bit at school.  Most of my crafting happens at school these days and it's of the "preschool project" variety, I've decided that I might as well start blogging about those things, or I probably won't get to blog at all!

So today, I want to share a fun and quick Halloween project we made at school this month.  

Marble Painted Jack-o-Lanterns

Have you marble painted before?  If not, you are totally missing out!  I took pictures of the process, but they all have students in them so I can't use them on my blog.  However, it's fairly simple.  

Here's what you need:

Shallow box or lid big enough to hold your paper (I used the lid from a box of paper, it had about 3" sides.)

8-15 Marbles

Orange Tempera Paint

Plastic Cup

Plastic Spoon

Construction Paper (White, Black and Tan)

Masking Tape

Scissors

Glue

Here's what you do:

Make a small ring of masking tape, attach it to the center of a piece of white construction paper and then stick it down inside the box

Put some orange paint in the plastic cup and add the marbles to the cup

Stir them with the spoon until they are coated well

Dump them out into the corner of the box with the paper

Gently tilt and shake the box to make the marbles roll across the paper

When you like the design, dump the marbles back into the cup and pull the paper out

Once the paint is dry, cut the paper into a pumpkin shape

Cut Jack-o-Lantern features and a stem from the black and tan paper

Attach with glue and you're done!

If you are making a classroom bulletin board, a title such as "We've just rolled in from the Pumpkin Patch" ties in with the rolling marbles. (Clever, huh?! Ha! If you think of something better leave me a comment.)

My students loved making these and keep asking when they can marble paint again.  So I guess I've have to figure out a few more marble painting projects this year!  Hope you have been making some fun Halloween projects of your own!

And, since I haven't posted a picture of my boys lately, here they are!  18 months old and enjoying a beautiful fall evening on their new John Deere tractors that Grandpa Steve got them!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Anika