Art Connections: Sand Painting

For thousands of years, people all over the world have used sand of different colors to create beautiful paintings. In this activity, you'll make your own sand painting, using sand you find outdoors or aquarium sand you get from a petstore.

1. Get Ready    

 Three different colors of food coloring
White glue
Water
3 cups clean, washed sand
Four baby food jars
Three plastic spoons
Paintbrush
Two or three white paper plates
Pencil

2. Do and Wonder

Decide what you want to make in your paintings. Then use your pencil to create a design or drawing on each plate.

In one jar, prepare a glue/water mixture that is half glue and half warm water.

Fill each of the other three jars about halfway with sand. Then add just enough water to each jar so all the sand is moistened. Next add a few drops of food coloring to each jar (a different color in each). Use a plastic spoon to stir the sand well (a different spoon for each jar), and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then spread out each color of sand on a paper
towel to dry (about 20 minutes).

Follow these steps to create your sand paintings:

1. Select one jar of sand, and think about all the places on each painting (plate) where you want to use that color. Brush a layer of the glue mixture on each of those places.
2. Sprinkle the first color of sand over the places painted with glue. Gently wiggle each plate around so all the places receive a good coating of sand. Dump any loose sand off the plate.
3. Put the plates away to let the first color of sand dry in place.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 using the other two colors of sand. Be sure to let the second color dry before adding the third.

3. Think and Write

Write a note about how you made each painting, and tape it to the bottom of the plate. Then display your paintings or give them as gifts.

Explanation    

Sand is a mixture of tiny particles of rock, so the color of the sand depends on the color of the rock. If you look at the sand along a shoreline, you'll see that the tiny rock particles are usually mixed with tiny pieces of shell and coral. You can find sand deposited by wind in sand dunes, by water on beaches, and below the ground in layers that were once shorelines.