Today’s lesson was part process art and part science experiment. The children were excited when they found out they would be using chalk and buttermilk to “paint/draw” their pictures. Buttermilk’s consistency is thick, somewhat like drinkable yogurt. When used with chalk pastels or sidewalk chalk, it creates bright bold colors and a creamy texture. Each child had a choice of grey drawing paper or black or purple construction paper. Any chalk shows up better when used on a dark surface. The children were first encouraged to use the sidewalk chalk or chalk pastels dry on their paper, then dip them in buttermilk and try again. They compared the difference in texture, color, hue, and brightness of the dry chalk against the buttermilk dipped chalk. They also had the choice to use regular oil pastels as a control, and compare what they drew with both dry and wet chalk and regular oil pastel.
We found out that the buttermilk dipped chalk was the closest match in both creamy consistency and color to the regular oil pastels. Another thing we discovered was that when the buttermilk dipped chalk dries, it returns to its powdery chalky consistency; then closely matching regular dry chalk in color saturation and consistency.
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This was interesting, as the children learned you can change the color brightness and consistency of chalk simply by dipping it in a thick liquid such as buttermilk. And also like magic, the chalk will change back to its original form when it dries.
Finally the children learned about blending. We used q-tips to blend dry chalk colors together creating new colors, and also to blend the buttermilk chalk. The last thing we learned was information about buttermilk itself. Everyone wanted to smell the buttermilk’s distinct odor and a few children dipped their fingers into it to feel the consistency. Some children used their fingers to blend the “wet” chalk drawing, which also brought a sensorial/tactile experience to their art.
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