Glitter, How I "Love" Thee!

For the past week, the spicy aroma of cinnamon has greeted me each time I enter the Kindergarten classroom. The cinnamon applesauce art projects have finally dried, so today the decorating part of our art project began. I went into the art closet and pulled out these cute little bottles of glitter glue.

I was thinking...hmmmmm...this would be a good way to eliminate mess! I mean, all the children would have to do is squeeze the bottle and decorate their art to their hearts' content! How difficult could that be? However, one thing that I have discovered about glitter glue is how quickly it dries out! The openings get so clogged with dried-out glitter glue, and the children have to squeeze and SQUEEZE to just get a little drop out.

It worked for awhile, but I was getting just a tad disappointed with how DULL the decorations were turning out. Little drops here and there of glitter glue was not exactly what I had pictured when I wanted the kiddos to decorate them! I wanted color and excitement! Soooooo...I decided to get out the REAL stuff - Elmer's liquid glue and glitter - separate from each other.

Again, I was thinking that I wanted to eliminate mess (ha!), so I took charge of the glue distribution on the various shapes. I would pour a little of the glitter in my hand, and I would tell the children to just take a little "pinch" of it to sprinkle on the glue I had squeezed onto their shape. Well, at first, it seemed like it was working, but then I noticed that whatever glitter remains were left on their hands were quickly brushed onto the table and floor. And I also discovered that no matter how little the "pinch" of glitter actually was - glitter clings to the entire hand (which is then quickly brushed off!). So, needless to say, glitter was flying in all directions, and the table and carpet were getting a nice sparkly layer of green, red, silver, and gold glitter! I just grit my teeth and kept reminding myself "This is fun! This is FUN! Think of the children...think of the children...they are having fun...they are having fun...glitter is pretty...glitter is pretty....glitter will come out of the carpet...glitter WILL come out of the carpet!!!!"

The results were definitely more colorful and exciting!! Wasn't that what I had wanted to begin with??!!

So there is definitely an abundance of glitter on some of these turkeys, leaves, and pumpkins!

And, yes, I actually knelt there at the table and took countless pictures of the glitter mess. However, no matter what angle I tried, I couldn't grasp the FULL effect! :) I am happy to report, though, that after about 5 swipes with Clorox wipes, the table was not only free of glitter, but thoroughly disinfected as well! (Might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone!) The vacuum was brought out, and the floor glitter was swept up as best as possible, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I haven't seen the last of the floor glitter for awhile! Glitter has a way of doing these reappearing magic acts. :) I have a feeling the Kindergarten carpet will have a sparkly glow to it for quite some time!