Blue Sky Daycare Fifth Annual Tie-Dye Day!

As we did our calendar and weather routine this morning, we thought our Tie-Dye day would be a washout, but we were wrong. It turned out to be the perfect day for being outside. The morning was cloudy, but the children enjoyed listening to a story about rainbows. In the story, I used wet--on-wet watercolor to illustrate how red, yellow, and blue couldn't agree who was the most beautiful color. In our story, the colors went on and on about why each one was the best for so very long that the angels in the heavens began to cry, and when their tears splashed on the colors, the colors changed... and melted... and mixed... ... and created a breathtaking rainbow that was more beautiful than any of the colors alone. Our story concluded with red, yellow, and blue agreeing to work together forevermore, and our watercolor that began as red, yellow, and blue mixed and turned into a beautiful rainbow painting.

Next, we looked at some pictures of tie-dyed shirts and each child picked out a fold design that I was more than happy to make for them. Some of the children even helped with putting the rubberbands on the shirts. I gathered all the other materials, everyone put on a smock, we talked about how to use the dye tubes, and the we headed outside for some tie-dye fun.

As the big yellow sunflowers nodded overhead the children and I were prepared to explore color mixing and create our own wearable works of art. the children sat with their folded item in front of them and took turns squirting dye onto the fabric.

The children added a little bit of blue here...

...a little red there...

... and there...

... and some yellow over here...

... and some yellow here, too.

At last, everyone knew their creation was PERFECT!

I wrapped the shirts as the dye settled in. Tie-dye requires lots of patience, so we left the shirts there, stripped off our protective clothing items, and headed over to the sandbox on the opposite side of the yard so we woudn't be tempted to peek and see how our shirts were doing.

In the afternoon we had a nice time reading a wide variety of books with a full moon theme including Kitten's First Full Moon, Happy Birthday Bear, and When The Moon Is Full.

In the evening I got to preview the tie-dyed clothing, and it looks like they came out great!

And from these silly smiles, I'd say they pack some good vibes!