Art in Parts

Experimenting with paint, paper and folding. This project can be done in many, many parts. It's a quick fix for a kidlet who wants to "DO SOMETHING" and it can be done over a period of time with little storage or prep work.
What you need:
*big sheets of paper or newspaper
*acrylic or tempera paints (watercolor will also work)
*splat mat or paint friendly surface
*clothespins or paper clips
*paint brushes or sponges or alternatives to paintbrushes
scrumdilly-do it

Set out your supplies and get ready for some experimenting! The first thing you want to do is prep the paper. This involves folding it, not unlike as if you were making a paper fan but staggering the fold so that you can see all the edges you made. It may take a moment to wrap your head around the "HOW" but once you do, it will be fine. You end up doing a small fold then flipping the paper over for the next fold and then flipping it over again. Repeat. This step may best be done by you. Your children can fold their own paper any way they wish for the second adaptation of this project.

Once you're stir crazy with all the folding, clip the folded edges down using paper clips or clothespins. The idea is to keep the folds as flat as possible so that when your kidlet begins painting, they won't be painting under the folds.Hand over the paint brushes or sponges and let them paint their little hearts out. Set aside to dry.
Once dry, or the next time they want to paint, unclip your clips or pins and unfold the paper. There will be neat colorful lines of paint and big stretches of blank paper stripes. Refold the paper in the same style but stagger your folds so that your wee ones will be painting on new batches of white. Clip, paint, repeat.You can keep doing this until all of the paper has been covered in paint or stop whenever you feel like it.

You can also hand your wee one a sheet of paper and have them fold it up like crazy. Clip down all folds and let them paint, paint, paint away. Once dry, unfold and then refold and paint again.
If the paper has been covered with paint, hand over a color that will stand out and let your wee one paint with a stick or car or other alternative paintbrush.

Give them globs of glue and fun things to collage with. Cut the painting up and turn it into a wall hanging. There are endless opportunities here.

The experimenting comes in when your wee one figures out that that paper under the folds won't get painted on, that each time they refold their paper, a whole new painting emerges. Try using just one color scheme each time. Or just one color. It doesn't matter how the paper gets folded. After you do it enough, both sides will be covered in art. I can't wait to see what your wee ones come up with!