Our third project for Over, Under, and Through the Woods for winter was Northern Lights pastels. I checked out a bunch of books from the library with pictures of the Northern Lights or aurora borealis so the kids would have something to help them come up with ideas.
We used black paper (Strathmore Artagain Drawing Paper Coal Black- 24 sheet pad purchased at Michael's) and pastels.
The pastels are "cheap" kid ones I've had for years so I don't know what brand anymore. "Expensive" does make a difference, better colors, sticking to the paper power, and blending abilities, but does tend to have "toxins" in it so I don't give those to kids. Read the labels and if they do say they have elements in them that are not safe or if you are unsure, use a dust mask.
We used our pastels by drawing with the sides, or a corner, or the small end to see the different effects. We used tissues or paint brushes to blend. We also scraped the pastels with a pan scraper to get little flecks.
I used Grumbacher Matte Final Fixative spray as a fixative. I went outside for that and do recommend not spraying it inside the house. We folded a half sheet of newsprint in half to use as a "folder" for each one to send home since even with fixative pastels are messy.
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