a jack-o-lantern mosaic

Many of you lovely blogging friends gave me great ideas
of things to do with paint swatches.

SO,
today we used them to make a jack-o-lantern mosaic.



First, I drew an outline of a jack-o-lantern on a big piece of paper.
I set out paint swatches in shades of orange, green and black.
I cut and glued on a few, so the children would get the idea
of what colors went where.

In the beginning, it was a little tricky for some of the children
to visualize what in the world we were trying to make,
but as the jack-o-lantern filled in, they all caught on.

It was kind of like working on a big puzzle...
each child stopped by the mosaic throughout the day,
pausing to cut and glue on a piece or two (or twenty),
and then went along with his or her daily business.

It's not quite finished
{it will be waiting for the children tomorrow morning}
but I wanted to give you a peek at how beautiful it is.

I love the sense of community it's brought to the classroom, too.
The children so often make things for themselves or their families;
it's been extra special for them to make something for their classroom!