09/08/2026
I’m going to be sharing our full Deserts + Dinos recap soon, but this is one of those projects I get excited to see come back every year. 🌵✨
It starts simply. Part one is a black piece of paper, a Q-tip, and white paint to create the stars. Then a cotton ball becomes the moon. For our littlest learners, that may be the whole activity—and honestly, at this age, that contrast of white paint against black paper is exciting all on its own.
Part two is where the project starts to build. The children use their paintbrushes to follow the printed lines and create the striped desert landscape. It’s one of those early opportunities to practice moving a brush along a guideline without the path being too long or complicated.
Once everything dries, the painted piece gets flipped over and the silhouette is cut out. For our younger children, teachers help with this step. Our older kiddos get to practice their scissor skills and cut the shape themselves. Then they glue it onto their night sky and suddenly all of those little steps become this really beautiful finished piece.
And this is one of the things I love most about repeating projects year after year. A baby may only make the stars and moon. The next year, they may paint the landscape. The year after that, they’re following the lines more carefully, cutting out their own shapes, and assembling the whole thing themselves.
Same project. Different child. New layer of skill.
At this age, so much learning really is practice, practice, practice. Returning to something familiar gives children the confidence of knowing what’s coming while still giving them something new to master. And there’s something pretty special about watching them realize, year after year, I know how to do this. ❤️
