THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB....

 CHALK PARTY...

 











So here's how the first session of THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB went down...
The Theme of the day was CHALK PARTY...
We made our own homemade chalk, colourful blackboards and fizzy chalk paint...
....and generally had lots of messy fun in the garden...
So today I want to tell you what we did and how we did it, and show you some fun pictures Monday's session...



As it turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far here in the UK on Monday, I put up Little Miss Moo's tipi in the garden , so that the kids had somewhere to retreat to, out of the sun ,for refreshments....



I had all my materials and bits and bobs at the ready, so that when the kids arrived, we were ready to go...We had 3 of Little Miss Moo's friends turning up:
Martha, Tristan and Freya...LMM was very pleased to have her friends around!!



Mixing up the chalk recipe....Looking nice and clean, but not for long...

The first thing we did was to make our own chalk...



We made 4 colours: Red , yellow, blue and green...

 

DIY CHALK RECIPE

2 cups plaster of Paris
1  1/2 cup water
 tempera paint powder (1 tbsp. per colour)

Mix the plaster and water well together in a bowl,
divide the mixture into smaller containers (one for each colour),
then add the tempera paint powder and mix ...




Poor the coloured mixtures into a mould...ice cube trays work well, and leave to dry and set for at least 1 hour...



So, whilst the chalks were setting, we got busy making our
BLACKBOARDS...
I had already cut some rectangular pieces of wood ready for this...
so all we had to do was make up our own.....

BLACKBOARD PAINT

I let the kids choose a colour each out of my selection of emulsion tester pots...
Then we simply mixed a tablespoon of powdered grout in with their chosen colour in an old jam jar...
before painting it on to their bit of wood...



Painting their very own black boards...

The paint will be a bit lumpy...just help them brush it on as smooth as possible..
Let the blackboards cure overnight....then rub a piece of chalk all over the surface, to prepare it to be drawn on....

...As Tristan said: "this is hard work....I think we need a snack break".... this is exactly what we did next... 

Having a biscuit and juice break in the tipi.....

When the kids had filled up on biscuits and juice...we checked on the status of our homemade chalk...
....as all the water had dried up on the surface of the chalk mix, we turned the  moulds upside down, and knocked our chalk sticks out so they could finish curing in the sun...
There was some that broke, but we managed to get most of them out intact....



So, with the (colourful ) blackboards curing and the homemade chalks drying out in the sun, it was time to make some ....

FIZZY CHALK PAINT



 



 Now came the fun bit....painting the ground....
One thing to remember about entertaining kids: the more mess they can make...the more fun they are having....
...so I let them go nuts...

When they had almost used up all their paint mixture I gave them some plastic spray bottles filled with white vine vinegar...

The Vinegar will react with the baking soda and washing up liquid, and make the paint fizz when its sprayed on...



See what happens when we spray vinegar on the paint mix!!



Martha is going for the fizz...




 Tristan is wondering what will happen if he sprays some vinegar straight into his cup of paint mixture....

"what will happen if I...."



Martha and Little Miss Moo realises they can make the paint fizz even more by using their paintbrushes to mix the vinegar into the paint... 

"Look...what happens when..."

This was the best part of the session...the kids had so much fun experimenting with the fizzy paint and getting very messy....I guess it's not every day they are allowed to paint the ground (and themselves)....

Fun washing all the paint and chalk away....

The good thing about chalk and chalk paint is that it will simply wash away with water...
...and luckily...another thing kids love to do, is playing with water....so I set them to work...

 

Freya and Tristan sees who can reach the highest to clean off the big blackboard....


Kids say the funniest things...

Whilst they were busy, having a wail of a good time , I decided to ask them all what they wanted to be when they grew up....all the girls wanted to be princesses (no surprise there then...) But Tristan gave me a very serious look and said: " I just want to be a regular person"....



Martha and Little Miss Moo using their homemade chalks to draw on the "pavement"...

When they were finished "cleaning"...they tried out their homemade chalks and left me with some lovely murals in the garden...

I think they all had lots of fun...I did anyway!!

They all did really well coping in the heat, and it was a pleasure to have them all around...

Little Miss Moo's friends all came away with their very own blackboards ( although they were green or pink or purple....) and a handful of homemade chalks...

 Have you got any fun ideas for things to do with the kids in the holidays?
Maybe you know of any fun chalk based games...?
Let me know by leaving a comment below...

xxx
June