Today, we want to experiment with more painting! Painting is a common activity at Today’s Family centres, but we usually have children use paint brushes; not only does it keep the mess manageable, but brushes also help develop fine motor control skills. Children can learn a lot from mixing up common activities, though. This activity will show how changing one thing in an understood activity can help create learning opportunities.
What you will need:
- Red, blue, and yellow paint
- A large plastic container
- A large piece of paper
- Toy trucks (or other wheeled toys)
Steps
- Get the paint ready
Pour some of each paint colour into the plastic container. - Get ready to paint
Run the truck toys through each of the paint colours. As you do, you will be blending the colours together. - Paint!
Wheel the trucks over the large piece of paper. Try mixing up how fast and how slow the trucks move and try to see if there is any difference in the resulting tracks. - Clean up
Don’t forget to wash the trucks and the container with warm, soapy water before the paint dries and gets stuck on them!
What’s going on?
The wheels of the truck will naturally blend the three primary colours together to make new colours: orange, purple, and green! This is a great opportunity to help explain the colour wheel to children, and for them to experiment with different colour combinations. This is also a very tactile activity that can help children learn about using speed and different painting techniques!
