Around the World in 12 Dishes: France

This month, Around the World in 12 Dishes landed in France.

Ah France! It’s the country at the very tip top of my dream travel list, so I was excited to do this month’s projects.

The girls and I haven’t explored much about France, so I decided to start with one of the most recognizable landmarks in the country, the Eiffel Tower. We looked at pictures, learned a few things about the Eiffel Tower, then created some beautiful artwork.

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Supplies Needed:

Black paper
Chalk
Scissors
Glue
White pape
Paint

For the first step in this project, we drew the Eiffel Tower.

Wait, I take that back, I drew the Eiffel Tower.

My original plan was to give the girls a pencil outline of the tower, then let them trace it with chalk and fill in the details. They didn’t want to. They wanted to paint. Oh well, we trudged along and I drew their towers.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the chalk will smudge. If you don’t want it to, spray a light coat of hairspray over the drawing (a trick I learned in high school art class).

If you’re like us, and don’t own any hairspray, just be careful not to touch the chalk or redraw any smudged parts. Once you’ve drawn the Tower, cut it out.

While I was drawing, the girls were painting their backgrounds. They painted the sky, a pond, a garden with flowers, and a bright yellow sun. They really got into it and enjoyed spending the time painting.

Once they were finished with their paintings and the paint had dried a bit, we glued their Eiffel Towers to their paintings.

The completed paintings were wonderful! I would have loved to have seen their version of the Eiffel Tower, but you can’t win them all. I don’t want to pressure them when it comes to art because I don’t want to do anything to take away their joy of creating.

Would you like to join in this month? You can download a printable passport page here and a placemat here.