Winter Winds: Watercolor Magic and Salt
This week, your young artists discovered the magic that happens when art meets science! They explored watercolor resist, created symmetrical snowflakes, and watched salt create sparkly, crystalline textures.
What Your Child Created
On watercolor paper, your child created a winter scene with snowflakes drawn in white crayon, painted over with watercolor (the crayon resists the paint!), and finished with salt sprinkled on wet paint to create sparkly textures. They added silver flakes for extra shimmer.
What They Explored
Resist Technique
Students drew snowflakes with white crayon, then painted right over them with watercolor. Because oil (in the crayon) and water don’t mix, the crayon drawing stayed white while the paint colored everything else. It’s like magic, but it’s actually chemistry!
Snowflake Symmetry
Creating symmetrical snowflakes isn’t just art, it’s math! Students learned that real snowflakes have six-fold symmetry (the pattern repeats six times around the center) because of how water molecules freeze. They practiced making their own snowflake designs using this same principle.
Salt Magic
Here’s where it got really fun: students sprinkled salt onto their wet watercolor and watched what happened. The salt absorbs the water and pigment, creating lighter spots and crystalline patterns that look like frost or sparkle. Each piece turned out unique!
Artist Inspiration
We chose snowflakes as our subject because of Wilson Bentley, a Vermont farmer who became the first person to photograph snowflakes under a microscope in 1885. He photographed over 5,000 snowflakes and proved that no two are exactly alike! His beautiful photographs showed the world just how intricate and geometric snowflakes really are. We wanted your kids to explore this same geometric beauty in their own snowflake designs.
Why This Matters
This project combines art, science, and math in a hands-on way. Students build fine motor skills, learn to work with unpredictable materials (the salt does different things each time!), and practice embracing happy accidents. Learning to plan some things while letting other things surprise you is an important creative mindset.
Questions to Ask at Home
“What happened when you added the salt?” “Did your snowflakes turn out how you expected?” “What was the coolest surprise in your painting?” “Would you try this technique on a different subject?”
At KidzArt, we celebrate curiosity, encourage courage, and honor each child’s creative journey. Every artwork tells a story.
Questions? Contact us at help.stjohns@kidzart.com or 904-287-8603.
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