sunflower oil

from left: Jake Twigg, 4 years old; Kgoitsimang Mbatha, 4 years old; Matthew King, 4 years old

The theme for the week was 'oil' so I had the idea of having the kids paint with oil. First we observed a variety of oils, getting familiar with the different textures, uses and smells. I showed them a sunflower and we chatted about how the seeds are crushed to make oil for us to cook with. We then drew sunflowers in pastel, painting over the entire flower with oil. Thereafter we used food colouring to paint over the background. The oil repelled the water-based dye and created some interesting effects. One of the 6 years olds was even brave enough to attempt painting the bottle of oil instead of the flower - love that! When we were done with that, we made popcorn and listened to music.