Materials
- drawing paper or construction paper
- tempera paint
- paintbrushes
- rainy day
What to do
1. Provide paper and encourage children to paint on it. They can use wet or dry tempera paint. If children paint both ways, they can compare the results at the end.
2. When it is raining, put the paintings outside for a few moments. Count to five with the children. Children can experiment with how long they leave the paintings in the rain, and compare differences. When time is up, bring the paintings inside to dry.
3. Allow the paintings to dry on a flat surface so the spatter spots remain and run together.
4. Encourage the children to examine and compare the resulting patterns.
More to do
Art: This activity can also be done when talking about snow. The children can place snow or ice chunks on their paintings and watch as they melt.
-Sandra Nagel, Whaite Lake, MI
Instructions
1. Make a castle pattern on poster board and cut it out. Make several patterns
for children to share.
2. Ask the children to draw an outline of a castle on oak tag using the castle
pattern and cut it out.
3. Provide glue for children to spread all over one side of their castle outlines.
4. Encourage children to sprinkle various colors of sand all over their castle
outlines. They may want to add pretend jewels, too.
5. When complete, set them aside to dry.
6. Encourage the children to use markers and scissors to make people cutouts
for their castles.
7. Children can glue their castles and people to another piece of construction
paper to give it support. If desired, they may want to make a frame out of
construction paper to frame their work.
8. Hang them to display.
