paint with cotton balls

 

In preschool we set up paint invitations daily. The easels are always open, there is always paint available at the painting wall, and the children know where they can get more paint, paper, and paintbrushes when needed. Sometimes, we set up a painting invitation in a new way to encourage the childen to explore paint differently. 

Here, we set up tinted paint (as we tell the children, a tint is when we add white paint to another color), black paper, and cotton balls with clothespins to act as brushes. 

it's a bus!

paint mixing...

After mixing up pink to paint our classroom chair, the children had mixing on their mind. We mixed up paint in a variety of ways for a number of different activities. After we discussed warm and cool colors, the children got to mix their own classroom paint. Some went for warm, most went for cool, and they mixed, mixed, mixed away to create their own paint. I think their favorite part was naming it. We will use this paint for the rest of the year, re-mixing when we need to. I can't wait!

self-portraits...

Sometimes our rainbow hair is seen in our minds eye....I think I may love self-portraits by the young even more than their elepehants.

circle circus

This is a project I did in when I was in first grade class with a visiting art teacher. We created our circles with black paint and used crayon to add our color. I recently happened upon my happy paper of circles and thought how much fun it would be to revisit it with brighter colors and markers for a more fine line feel to it all. Are you ready?

 Materials 

large sheet of sturdy weight paper 

acrylic or tempera paint in three shades of one color 

shallow dish or paper plate 

assortment of cylindrical containers such as yogurt containers, paper cups, etc 

markers

Set up your plates with your paint. Here we used two shades of blue and two different sized containers. Dip your container into the paint. And make a print on your paper.

Repeat the printing process until you have covered your paper with a circus of paint-happy circles. Here is where you can change it up by using only one color, two colors or a trio of happy colors.

Gather your markers and get to doodling. You can have your kiddo stick with dots or stripes or they can jazz up the spaces with squiggles and stars. Use all the colors in the markers pack or use just one or two colors. 

Your kiddos can make one ENORMOUS piece of art or several all summer long. Try making one in each color of the rainbow. Save the artwork and repurpose it as gift wrap. Make a tiny print using a drinking straw for your circles and toothpicks dipped in watercolor for your designs. Happy summer!

sometimes we paint furniture

 

building a {chalk} rainbow...

painting with a straw

 

It takes a little coordination to paint with a straw. First you need to use your fine motor skills to transfer liquid watercolor from a paint cup to your paper, then you need to work on your hand-eye coordination to position the straw where you want it, then you have to remember to blow air through the straw, not suck up the paint! Sometimes, the paint is blown completely off the paper, sometimes the straw is abandoned and hands become brushes, and sometimes, the paper itself becomes the brush when it is picked up and tilted this way or that way. 

Have you tried painting with a straw?