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Colorful Friendships: Sometimes a Rock Is More than Just a Rock - from the Messenger

September 13, 2018

Getting a group of creative preschool students all set to paint a friendship rock is quite an undertaking for Riverside Early Learning Center outdoor classroom teacher Ann Moenck.

It starts with making sure that they’re all wearing an old shirt to protect their clothes.

“Everyone get a paint shirt,” she said Wednesday morning.

One of the students took it just one bit too far.

“You don’t have to take your shirt off. Put the paint shirt on over your shirt,” Moenck instructed.

painted rocks sitting on plastic to dry

Once everyone had their painting shirts on and got seated in front of the rock they would be painting, the requests for their favorite colors came in several hues.

“I want purple.”

“I want pink.”

“I want every color.”

“I like this color,” a chorus of voices announced.

“You can paint them any color you want,” she said. “When they’re dry, I’ll cover them with a special spray so they don’t run in the rain. We’re going to put them with the other friendship rocks by the flagpole. Every day, when you come to school, you

“It’s pretty,” she said.

“It only has a few colors. Purple and, yeah, pink,” she said.

But painting is messy.

“I see lots of purple and pink on your arms,” Moenck said.

student painting a rock

Damoni Clayton, 4, got a lot of paint on his hands and arms too.

He created a design from nature.

“I made a rainbow on my rock,” he said.

Emerli Moore, 4, was very happy with the way her’s turned out.

“Mine looks beautiful,” she said.

The budding artists also got to learn some other important lessons.

“We are learning how to be friends,” Moenck said. “We will read a book too. It’s about how everybody can be friends and everyone can share and be appreciative of art.”

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