Painting is such a regular activity at our house that we are always needing to find new ways to paint to keep interested and learn new things!
You can use this activity to focus on a variety of things from patterns to textures to colour mixing and more.
To avoid big messes, I always have things set up well to make it easier.
Pouring in the PVA glue. Listen to the observations your child makes as they do this. Lead them by asking them what they see? What is the glue doing? Why do you think it's doing that? etc
Adding some paint for colour. How much paint should we add? Let them play around with this and explore for themselves.
Mixing the glue and paint together. Watch as it makes swirls and eventually all blends into one. Talk about the shade of the colour if your child is at that level.
Pouring and squeezing takes a lot of concentration. What happens when you hold the bottle higher or lower?
Swirling the coloured glue together. "I'm making purple!"
Once the novelty of painting with paddle pop sticks wore off, it was time to tip and swirl the glue out.
Watching how the glue fell and observing the patterns she could make
Time to swish it all together
Couldn't resist painting her hand. "It feels so sticky! Not like real paint"
After hand printing for a while she wanted to stick paper down and peel it off. She was delighted about this.
Some tips:
- To simplify this activity for younger children, pre pour and mix the glue and paint and just let them paint and experiment with it
- To extend the activity, see what happens if you paint on plastic instead of paper and let it dry!
- The key to ensuring your child is making connections about what they are experiencing is by talking with them about their observations
- Ask your child questions about what they are experiencing to help lead them in their understanding
- Keep a damp cloth beside them so that they are able to wipe down their hands easily and quickly
Debs :)