Let's Make a Rainbow...and get a little messy!

Bringing a little colour into our lives and sort of tying into the St. Patty's Day theme (pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...it's a stretch, but whatever!)

What You Need:

Plain white paper
Paint (we used red, green, yellow, purple, and blue)
Brushes
White liquid glue
White foam shaving cream
A black marker

How to Make it:

Draw a rainbow with clouds on your piece of paper using your black marker. This will be your stencil.

In a small bowl mix equal parts white glue and shaving cream. Mix it together well. I let my son paint the clouds first but you could do them last. You want them to leave it as thick as possible. When this dries it will be soft and fluffy, like a cloud!




Then, give them brushes and their colours and let them paint the rainbow. I tried to show my son how to paint one colour per line, but he was having none of that. But, that's OK, it's his rainbow!


Then, just let it dry and you have a colourful and fluffy indoor rainbow!




Our second craft is a messy one. And I mean, MESSY!

Ice Cube Paintings

What You Need:

Ice cube tray
Popsicle sticks (or toothpicks)
Paints
Water

How to Make it:

Place a blob of paint in the bottom of the each ice cube compartment and then top it off with water. Mix well. The more paint you use the brighter the colours will be, the less paint the lighter. I also use water and food colouring, which acted more like watecolours.

Place your posicle sticks in the ice cubes and then freeze until solid.

Give you child a piece of paper and let them paint! I put the paper in a tray but most of the mess got on my toddler's hands.








What they can learn:

-Different painting styles: Dabbing, sliding or watching cubes melt
-Mixing colours
-temperature (my toddler kept telling me it was "pretty cold")
-fitting the cubes back into the tray
-identifying their colours
-working on fine motor skills

 

In the end, the mess was definitely worth all the fun he had!