Sea Urchin Painting

During our ocean unit we painted with some sea urchin's  cut up sponges!

First, cut a sponge into strips.  Mine were multiple colors, but they certainly did not need to be.  I had ideas of using the sea urchin sponges to play games with, so I wanted them to be more colorful.

Next stack them in two rows of four (see the photo below).

Then use a piece of string and tightly tie a knot around the middle of the stack of sponges. Once you tie the string tightly, the individual sponge pieces will pop up.

I originally tried using fishing line, but it was not strong enough and kept breaking on me so I switched to string.

Then left the kids dip them in paint and enjoy!  My students loved painting with these sponges!