Easy Classroom Curtains

Those of you that follow this blog know that I advocate the process much more than the product when it comes to art experiences.  And you also know that I love to use and reuse materials in different ways.  So here is a post that makes both of these things possible….

We hung up store purchased drop cloths on our large outdoor easel.

They have a paper feel in the front and a plastic back to make them more absorbent as the name states. 

We filled spray bottles with watered down liquid water color paint (food coloring would work as well) and let the children spray away!  They loved it so much we went through three cloths. 

 

Of course, they also loved finding other things to spray such as the deliciousness that they were concocting in our outdoor mud kitchen. 

So this was the process part….cause and effect, hand exercise, color mixing and more.

But what to do with the product that remains?

I decided to use it to make curtains for our classroom.  I usually cut up some art work made by each class from our large outdoor easel for curtains as can be seen from the post on“toilet brush painting” from last year.  I cut them up and tape them.  They do start to fall down about mid year, so this year I got smart and bought tension curtain rods.

  I then cut up the drop cloths, folded over the top edge and sewed (ok, I used a stapler) across the top. 

 I slipped the tension rod inside the gap and they were done!  Once up, I decided to trim the bottoms.  The material of the drop cloth hung scrunched up so well making them hang so nicely.  They actually look like cloth curtains. 

And I’m not done…..

I cut up the scraps into various shapes and sizes to use in our block center next week as embellishments for our buildings.

And the final piece will be used outside…as a tunnel or a….. well, we will have to see how these incredible young minds use their “product”.  

So head to your hardware store and give it a go.  Have fun playing with spray bottles and you may end up with curtains.