Homemade Scratch Boards (and a comparison with store bought ones).....

Making your own scratch boards is lots to fun and much more economical than buying the store ones.  I also had some store bought ones in gold and silver and thought that this was a great chance to do a bit of a comparison (I just love a bit of an experiment).

Interestingly the children actually preferred using their homemade ones over the store bought ones.  They were much easier to scratch, yet probably won't last as long.  Next time we are going to try and make our own gold and silver ones.  Some of the younger kids just enjoyed scratching random patterns and the older kids enjoyed doing pictures.

What you need:

• Cardboard or thick paper
• Oil Pastels
• Black Paint
• Thick Paint Brush
• Wooden Skewers

How To:

• Show the children how to cover their piece of cardboard with oil pastels in patches or stripes.  Remind them to apply the oil pastel thickly so it covers all the white paper.
• Paint over the entire piece of cardboard with black paint
• Leave to dry (we left ours for a week)
• Scratch in your design with a bamboo skewer

The Results:

 Here are a few I captured on the way out....

Cheers

Fiona