Painting in a Tub

We got more than we bargained for with this project, all mixed up with a lot of fun.We played with paint yet didn't get too messy, we talked a lot about colours and what we expected to happen, and we moved around all over the place.

I saw some great pictures on teaching 2 and 3 year olds of kids rolling a huge can around the room. Inside was paint and golf balls. We get yogurt in one litre plastic tubs from the supermarket and always have too many table tennis balls lying around, add paper and paint, then I just had to hunt down the scissors to cut the paper down to size. We quickly had a mini version of the one I had seen. I love anything with such simple preparation.

He chose blue and white for the first colours. Once everything was sealed tightly in the tub, we rolled it around the floor. Then we threw it, kicked it, bounced it (this got lots of giggles), spun it, and he sat on it before opening it up to see the surprise.

The balls matched the paper with an interesting mottled pattern which impressed us both. He immediately wanted to have another go. We ended up with all the colours in the tub and beautifully decorated table tennis balls.

These are things we did that B benefited from:

• Measuring the paper to make it fit in the tub
• Choosing which colours to squeeze in and what effect the might have
• Pushing the lid on tightly
• Moving the tub around in different ways and talking about what it was doing
• Expectation of a result and comparing that to what we saw
• Experiencing transference of liquid onto different surfaces
• Practicing handling tricky objects (paint covered ping pong balls)

So what I thought was just going to be throwing around a tub full of paint actually turned out to be an opportunity for extended conversation and practicing numerous movements. And we loved the final products.

Paint Bags

My son is going through a phase of not liking messy hands. My image of enjoying crazy painting, gooey play and sticky craft with my two year old has been shattered. It is also making me think differently about crafts and how to make it fun for him - not just for me!

We tried using ziplock bags for mixing paint and enjoyed it, until the bag developed a hole. However, my son seemed a little disappointed about not having something to keep at the end.

As it is Spring, most of the craft ideas I see are about flowers and butterflies. These are things he likes, but what he really loves is vehicles. So I cut three pieces of card to fit three bags, drew a (very basic) picture of a car, a bus and a train on them and we were ready to go.

The first bag, the car, got all the colours sqeezed in - red, blue, yellow and white. The second was only given blue as it was a train and that is what colour Thomas is! We didn't get round to doing the bus. We did them one at a time, pressing down on the paint so it spread across the picture. The colours on the car didn't mix quite as much as I had hoped, but the effect was interesting as we cut open the bag and pulled the plastic away. The paint on the train soaked right into the cardboard showing the pattern underneath.

Sometimes I think he enjoys preparing the activities more than doing them. He talked a lot about the measuring and cutting, and then was quiet during the spreading of the paint. I have to really hold my tongue to stop myself telling him what to do. I always have an idea what I want to achieve but have to remind myself that it is his actions and not the finished work that counts!

Some things we achieved:

• talking about size and shape when cutting the cardboard to fit in the bags
• discussing different vehicles that he wanted me to draw, and parts of the vehicles
• choosing colours for the vehicles and how much paint to put in the bag
• using fingers and palms to move the paint around
• learning about colours mixing and liquid moving
• I had practice in not telling him how to make his art

The results are pretty good and look interesting on the wall. It's a really simple and quick activity. I was disappointed that we couldn't see the pictures well underneath the paint, but maybe we can find a solution to that through a brain-storming session beforehand, hmm. It's something we can do often and find different techniques.