When You See Everyday Items: THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX!

Look closely. What do you see?
Paintbrushes
A tray of paint
Paper
A jar of water
An electric drill.

Someone shared a video of kids painting with a cordless drill and I just had to try it. I came home from work that night and showed the video to my husband. "Can I borrow your drill?" 

It does not work to use the drill like this

I am blessed with a husband who is willing to help me, with my out of the box ideas. He disappeared and returned with this drill. A quick lesson on how to use the chuck and chuck key and a little coaching on how to select the proper size brush and I was ready for work the next day.

Let me give you some tips. The shorter the brush the better. You are fighting gravity, motion and turning ratio. A long brush works but quickly falls out of the drill do to the momentum at the end furthest away from the drill. Hang the paper up on an easel. It is harder to paint with the drill pointed down at a table. Try it first yourself with out children.


Trust me this is fun! I didn't want to share, and I am a grown up. My coworkers didn't want to share and they are grown ups too.

Introduce the drill to the class.
Use open-ended questions to find out what they know about drills. 
Warn them it might sound loud to them. 
Let them feel the weight of the drill before it is running. 
Teach them how to hold it and stay close, this is a power tool.

 Wash the brush between colors and dry on a towel.  I helped the kids do this.  You get neat spiral patterns as you paint.  There is lots of movement and texture created in these paintings.

Some of my favorite pictures: