A supermoon is a full moon at its closest approach to the Earth. The average distance, as the moon nears the Earth each month, is about 238,000 miles. During a supermoon, the distance becomes less than 224,851 miles. The supermoon appears bigger and brighter than an ordinary full moon. You could have seen a supermoon, in this area near Sioux City, Iowa, if you had been awake at 3:30 AM on July 13, 2014. We probably won’t be seeing the August 10th supermoon because it occurs at 12:46 PM. We have another chance to see a supermoon this year, on September 7th at 10:33 pm. In this art project we show our version of the supermoon.
Watch this YouTube video, What Is A Supermoon?, for some interesting information.
Supplies:
• 12â€x18†white construction paper
• Green and black construction paper
• Colored chalk
• Kleenex
• Hair spray or a sealer
• Coffee filters
• Water
• Plastic gloves
• Liquid water colors or food dye
• Newspaper, tinfoil and paper towels
• Black Sharpie
• Glue stick and white glue
• Two shades of red poster paint or craft paint
• Q-tips
  
 
Directions:
1. Wad up a coffee filter, dip it in water, squeeze gently and place on a piece of tinfoil. Drop two or three drops of water color or food dye on the wad. (For the example, I used drops of red and yellow food dye.)Â Wear plastic gloves and gently squeeze the color through the coffee filter wad. Carefully open the coffee filter flat, place between two paper towels and press down to get rid of excess liquid. Lay the coffee filter flat to dry.
 
2. Spread out newspaper (for easy cleanup). Using the flat side of pieces of colored chalk, apply color to the white construction paper. Use sheets of Kleenex to gently wipe away excess. Spray with hairspray or a sealer.
 
3. Tear strips of green construction paper to represent distant hills.
4. Tear strips of black construction paper to represent the close-up landscape.
5. With a glue stick, glue the green and black strips to the chalk prepared background paper. Apply white glue to the dry, prepared coffee filter and place on the background.
 
6. With a black Sharpie, draw tree trunks from the landscape to the top of the background paper. Add branches and fill in the tree trunks with black Sharpie or paint.
 
7. Choose two shades of red craft paint, or red and purple poster paint. Use Q-tips to “dot†paint leaves on the trees.
5th Grade Projects Gallery:
Hi Claire! I haven’t tried sidewalk chalk, but it would be worth a try. The biggest drawback that I can imagine would be the size of the chalk. I like to lay a smaller piece of chalk on it’s side, to apply the color to the paper. I don’t see why the sidewalk chalk wouldn’t work. I only know that regular blackboard chalk doesn’t work well on paper. I’ve had my colored chalk for a long time, so it’s not in the box anymore and I don’t know what brand it is. I only have about eight different colors, it’s probably a student art chalk. The chalk pieces I have are square, not round.
I teach art voluntarily in an elementary school to between 30 and 60 kids at a go and have to buy most of the supplies myself. As a result, I am always on the lookout for ways to do things inexpensively. Aren’t we all!! 😉 I was wondering what type of colored chalks you used in the ‘Spectacular Supermoon’ project. I have picked up a variety of sidewalk chalks on sale and wondered if that would work, or does it have to be artists’ soft pastels?
Thank you so much for your help and for the amazing ideas that I always find on your site. It’s wonderful that you share!
Claire