In the Beginning, there was nothing at all in the world. Everything was “unformed and void” a mixed up, upside down, dark “Mishkababble.” To depict the world before Creation the children used different
colors of paints and
different kinds of painting implements to spread the paint all over the board. Many of them used circular motions because they wanted to replicate the round world they had seen in some pictures in a book about Creation.
Day 1:
It was also very, very dark. We closed our eyes really, really tight until we couldn’t see anything at all; that’s how dark it was. Then God said, “The world needs light” and there was light. God called the light “Day” and the darkness “Night” and that was the First Day. To depict the night the children first painted the board with
black paint and then glued pieces of different black fabric all over it. To depict the light and daytime the children first cut different kinds of white paper and then glued them all over the board. They especially loved the pieces of
iridescent paper.
Day 2:
On the Second Day God separated the waters that covered the earth and made the blue sky and the clouds. To make the sky the children first cut little
pieces of light and dark blue tissue paper. They then covered the board with the
tissue paper and, finally,
sprayed water all over the tissue paper. They had a great time (though we did find that we had to move children out of the “Splash Zone”!) and enjoyed watching the dye “bleed” out of the tissue paper. After it was dry we took the tissue paper off and saw the beautiful blue design that was left behind.
In order to make the water that covered the earth the children used
spray bottles to spray different shades of blue paint all over a poster board. They were very excited about this activity and waited very patiently to have their turn to do the spray painting. We also glued soft cotton on cloud shapes so we could have fluffy, white clouds in our sky.
Some of our activities related to clouds: After showing the children a diagram of the water cycle and talking about what a cycle is (we discovered the word cycle in a familiar word: bicycle) we did an “experiment.” First we had a dry cotton ball, which represented a cloud. We observed that it was light and soft. We then dipped it in water until it became saturated (and much heavier). When we then held the cotton ball up over the pan, even without squeezing it at all, the children observed that it was “raining.” The wide-eyed, open mouth expression on each of the children sitting in the circle was heartwarming and delicious. They were absolutely enthralled. Of course their favorite moment came next, when they each had the opportunity to fill their own cloud with water and then watch as it rained back down into the ocean (this explains the drenched clothing that resulted for some)!
We observed the clouds in the sky and discussed what they looked like. With all the rain we had at the beginning of the week it was a great time to look at clouds.
We also read two books about clouds: Little Cloud by Eric Carle and It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. Those books inspired paintings of clouds which the children created using thick white paint and sponges.
