Chalk Fireworks

I originally did this project when I was in elementary school, but with white paper and crayons. Then when I was teaching I did it with my 3rd graders, but again with crayons, and a little more advanced (I'll talk about adapting it for older kids below). I decided for the 4th of July it would be really fun for Kylie to do with black paper and chalk, making "fireworks." I think I'll do it again during the holidays, because it's just too cute to only do once a year, and plus Stella should be old enough to make her own.

It's not even that messy (chalk dust can be... annoying), it's easy to set-up and clean-up, and most importantly, Kylie loves making chalk pictures and they always turn out really nice! (she's been doing her own pseudo pics all summer and teaching her friends; too cute!)

We started with a black piece of construction paper, and Kylie put dots all over the paper (these will be her "starting points" for each firework)...

Then she used different colors and drew tons of lines coming out of each dot. The more lines and colors, the better! (she did sneak some flowers on her page, but that's fine, to each their own, I guess) We talked about making thin lines and thick lines, and even some curvy lines, to help make each firework "special."

The finished product stayed on our fridge for the entire summer!

*** To adapt for older kids (Kylie was 4 when we did this), start the same way with having them put dots all over the paper. Then have them choose 3 or 4 colors to use for the project. Go around each dot with lines or tight zig-zags maybe 1/2" long. Then use the 2nd color and go around the lines you just did with the 1st color. Then use the 3rd color, and so on. Soon the "fireworks" will start to touch, and that's the fun part... you just continue to go around what you can, and soon the outer fireworks will become one. It will look amazing! If I can find an example from my teaching days, I'll post in case I'm as confusing to you as I think I might be to me!
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