Rock On, Kids!

I know this isn't the most original of project ideas, but we painted rocks recently. Actually, it was Mia's idea. We started the looooong process of clearing out our rock bed in the front of the house, and she commandeered some of the rocks for painting. Since I know I good (simple) idea when I hear one, that's just what we did. This project can be as simple as you want (paint all rocks a single color each, and display on a shelf or in a jar) or more complex such as painting designs or even creating dimensional faces with yarn, puffy paint, googly eyes, or other materials that you have available.  If the weather is nice, you could even do this outside to save yourself some cleaning up. Don't have rocks? Take a nature walk; then you have a two-for-one activity. Or try smooth pieces of wood or all those sea shells you have sitting around.

{Even little ones can do this.}

Materials:

• rocks (any shape/size available)
• paint (We used acrylics; tempera would also work.)
• paintbrushes
• smocks or old clothing
• newspaper (to cover work surface)
• paint tray (We use old Styrofoam meat packages -- Wash well before using.)

{Mia's Rocks}

Optional Materials:

• puffy paint
• googly eyes
• feathers
• pom poms
• sequins
• beads
• yarn
• buttons
• acrylic gems
• stickers or rub-ons
• tacky glue (unless you used self-adhesive items)