Being a kindergarten teacher I come across loads of different painting techniques. I thought it might be helpful to share some of my favorites with you to either do yourself or make with your child on a rainy day.
What I love most about this first painting technique I want to introduce to you, is that most probably you will have everything you need at home and can do this any time you feel the need for some fun creative time or your child needs some entertainment or stimulating.
In addition this painting technique is an excellent sensory activity, it is relaxing and fun. It supports your sense of touch, creating patterns and promotes creativity. My daughter found great joy in just making lots of swirls, dipping her whole hand in paint and experimenting with the colors.
Another great pro to this technique is, it is not messy at all and cleaning up only takes a few moments.
Needed items:
- plastic wrap
- tray
- paints
- white paper
- paper plate
any items you need to then create your craft (scissors, glue, colored paper…)
Step 1
Take the tray and wrap plastic wrap a few times around the whole thing, covering everything. Don’t worry about wrinkles in the plastic wrap. These give the print some nice structure, so the wrapping around doesn’t need to be perfect.
Step 2
I found the easiest approach to this painting technique was putting the colors you’d like to use on a paper plate, that way if they get mixed it doesn’t matter. Now you can begin. Dip your finger in the colors of your choice and paint patterns and pictures on the tray. Make sure you keep going and don’t take too long breaks, so the paint stays wet for the print.
Step 3
When you are satisfied with the amount of paint, the pattern or picture you drew on the tray, take your piece of paper and print it on the pattern you made. You just made your own picture print.
Now you can start over again and create as many different prints as you like.
Step 4 is optional
If you chose to make patterns instead of drawing a picture, you will have a bunch of papers with nice patterns printed on them. You could now use these papers as a base for a craft. My craft suggestion is a snowman, since it is winter here where I live.
If you’d like to make a similar snowman:
I cut out 3 circles sizes 14cm, 12cm and 10cm. Then I cut out a hat, carrot nose, arms and using a circle punch I made the eyes and mouth. For a special effect I chose real buttons to go on the body of the snowman.
Glue it all together and there you go, your snowman is done in no time!
