Rock Art (plus a bonus game)

 

So as you all know my girls and I are obsessed with rocks. We are often at the river cooling off, playing pretend and obviously finding new rocks. The other day my girls came home with a bucket of rocks so I knew it was time to play. Rock Art Play!

The very first step to this activity to to go on a rock hunt. Make an afternoon of it. Hop in the car and go to the river, lake, mountains, forest. Bring a bucket or bag.

Once you have your rocks you can get busy with the activity.

Supplies

• Rocks (my girls collect all types but I made sure to throw in some flat rocks that are easier to draw on).
• Something to make your mark
  • Permanent markers
  • Acrylic paints
  • Chalk (dipped in water is fun)
  • Chalk markers (Our personal favorite) LINK HERELINK HERE
• Mod Podge (optional)

Set up

• Well….put some rocks on the ground
• Add drawing utensil
• Get busy

Activity Time

I am a complete control freak so I always start any activity containing my precious chalk markers with a short lecture. It goes something like this, “Now remember these are mommies special markers. I love these markers more than all the markers. I really want to keep the for a long time so we need to treat them softly. Do we jab them on the ground? Do we draw on our legs? Do we stick them in our mouth?” You know, just cover the basics. HA! It is always a good idea to put the ground rules out there before your children are half way through coloring on the nasty cement.

These markers are so fun, but part of the joy is the bright colors we are adding to our neutral rocks. If you are using paint or pens make sure you grab some bright colors. This type of art has so much discover involved in it.

If I am doodling with my girls I try not to do anything too cutesy. My oldest will look at my flower and declare her rock no good. I just doodle and enjoy the process. I think that example helps my children find joy in their art.

This part of the activity took up at least 45 minutes. It was fun to remember who found what rock. Sometimes the rock looked like something already, a face or heart. Sometimes the rock just needed a good scribble. My girls loved this.

Make your own rock game

I really have been wanting to make a game out of rocks. I have seen other use rocks for dominos. I did spend a little time making a small domino game with the longer rocks while my girls decorated theirs. But then I had an idea for a different game.

I decided to make a Uno/Quirkle game.

I am not going to lie I did this part of the activity after bedtime. I sat down and watched a little Big Bang and busted out my new game.

I picked 6 colors and 6 shapes. I drew the 6 shapes in EVERY color.

TIP: I knew I wanted this game to last so I added some mod podge after they dried.

Game Time

I was planning on using these stones like the game Quirkle. (If you haven’t played you should!!) But as soon as I sat down with the girls it quickly turned into Uno meets Dominoes.

I handed out 5 stones. We placed one in the middle. The first player could lay down the same color OR the same shape next to it. After the player laid down they drew a new stone. We quickly decided we could play either way on our line. This reminded me a lot of Dominoes.

Even my 2 year old started to understand the rules. At least with the colors. We would tell her she needed yellow or purple and she would find the right color and match it to the correct end. My oldest loved to switch the color.

We had so much fun playing RUno….(name is a work in progress). We played a few times.  The great thing about this set of rocks is we can do so much with them. The girls can sort them by color, or shape. We can count them. We could stack them. We can make patterns out of them. My favorite part is we can easily replace a missing piece or add to the game. All it will take is a walk by the river!