Earlier, I showed the stained glass jar I made re-using a jelly jar. Today Jayde (7) and Jordyn (10) start with two pickle jars.
In Nancy Larson® Science 2, children learn to describe objects by their physical characteristics. One characteristic is whether the object is transparent, translucent, or opaque. With this project, children see the characteristics of a jar change from transparent, to opaque, to translucent, to almost transparent. The final version makes a colorful votive or candy jar that children can give as gifts.
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| The clean jars are transparent. To begin the project, coat the jar with white glue. |
Now Jordyn’s jar is opaque. We let the glue dry for several hours or overnight. |
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| The glue is dry and the jars are translucent. | We cut white copy paper to fit inside the jars. Now the girls draw the design they want to use and color it with markers |
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| Jayde places her paper design inside the jar to use as a pattern. |
Now Jayde uses regular watercolor markers and colors the outside of the jar. Her paper design shows her where to color. |
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| Jordyn is intent on following her pattern. She used several coats of color from the marker to make the colors more intense. |
Jayde removed the paper design from inside the jar and shows how she colored the jar to match the paper pattern. |
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| Jayde has colored her jar and is ready to make the marker color permanent. |
We spray the outside of the jars with clear acrylic varnish and watch the jars go from translucent back to transparent. |
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| Now that Jordyn’s jar has been sprayed, it can be hand-washed in warm water. |
We put votive candles in the jars so the girls could see how the light shows off their designs. |
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| We used battery-powered tea lights for safety. The girls have options for their gifts. |
They removed the tea lights. Then we filled the jars with jelly belly flops and other candies. |
The jars are ready to wrap and give. Jordyn has everything ready.
