Avalon Nature Preserve

BLOG: SEEDLINGS SHARED

June 2, 2022

UBIQUITOUS CHALK STICKS

If you have a child or a grandchild, you probably have a bunch chubby chalk sticks laying somewhere around your home.  They are a wonderful part of childhood play which can occupy a child for hours.

I remember my daughter used to love to draw roadways on our driveway and ride her tricycle around and around.  When she was really tiny, she used to like to put them in her mouth which still gives me the chills. Instead of trying to chew it (chills) or draw with it, the chalk can also be used to make paint.

On one of our adventures, the Seedlings kids settled in and crushed up chalk using a mortar and pestal or a hammer.  After smashing the chalk into dust, they poured the colored powder into small containers and added water to create their own paint.

The process of crushing chalk can be satisfying. The crusher can make it as fine or as rough as they’d like.   All this hard work results in the fun of using the homemade pigment to paint! 

The kids sat atop a hill below an umbrella of newly opened green leaves and began a journey into their own creative worlds. Hidden away in one of our secret spots called, the Nest, the kids mixed the pigment and water and painted the fallen trees surrounding them.  Their creations were so colorful, one of the kids named the space, “the magical forest.”

You can do this at home where you can keep the paintings, wash it away with hose or wait for the rain to fall.  If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, use a rock to smash the chalk. Just try not to chew the chalk!  Ew!   

Make your own chalk!

https://www.atlantabsa.org/files/31416/Sidewalk-Chalk-Recipe