Ms. Cullen’s K2 class built boats or ships out of paper and straws. The students used magazines, paper, colored with crayon and straws as the masts. The materials they used will enable the boats or ships to float in the water on their own. The crayon covers the regular paper with wax to protect it from the water soaking it. We first did an experiment by coloring the paper sails with marker. we then dipped the paper in water and the students watched as the sails colors mixed together like watercolor paint and dripped into the water making the paper sails weak and could be easily torn. I explain that using crayon on the sail would protect the sail because crayon was made from wax. The students then asked “well what is wax?” I asked them does anyone know what wax is.
One students said “You mean like a candle?” and another relating it to what was familiar said “ we have wax in our ears, do you mean like that?” I said yes they were all very similar. We then did a short experiment using a glue gun and a crayon. One student peeled the paper from the crayon and I said “lets see what happens if we use heat to melt the crayon like a candle melts when it is burned.” Immediately the students could smell the wax melting and one student said “it smells like a birthday cake after you blow the candles out!” I said yes, now you are connecting it, I then explained that covering the paper in wax would help the paper resist the water just like in our underwater sea pictures when we colored the fish with crayon and then painted everything blue but the fish did not turn blue did they? The answer was a resounding YES! After a moment of class excitement we resumed coloring our sails adding items to the boats and ships, whichever the students chose to call their vessels. I hope each student is able to see the vessel they made float when they take them home next week.
Standards 1, 2,4,5,6 visual art
