Painting with Tennessee Dancing Gourds

It's that time of year when there's all sorts of fun fall materials around that are perfect for a variety of different projects. We love finding new ways to use different materials. So we were excited to be given a handful of these "Tennessee Dancing Gourds" grown in my school gardens.

The boys love how the gourds can spin like a top, they really get some great motion when they get going. Watching them spin gave me a great idea for painting. 

Materials: 

Tennessee Dancing Gourds 

Washable Paint

Paper

Cardboard box or cookie tray

We found it easiest to set the paint up in one of our small paint trays, but the paint could also be set up in small dishes or on styrofoam trays. 

When we were ready to paint the boys carefully dipped the gourds into the paint color of their choice. 

Setting the gourd gently onto the paper, the boys would give the gourd a quick twist and send it spinning across the paper. 

The edges of the box kept the gourd contained on the paper (and also kept the paint contained.) 

The gourds made twisty lines as they painted. The boys started mixing colors by dipping the gourd into multiple colors. 

They filled several pages with different twisty, colored lines. 

We're thinking we might use these colorful prints to create note cards (much like we did with our Monster Truck Painting.) 

Although these gourds were specific to spinning like a top, it would be great to see how other gourds would work as well too! 

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