Submitted by: Lenora Falciani, a teacher at Teacher, Hope Preschool, Ashburn, Virginia.
Objectives:
Teaching the concept of color mixing to your young kinderartists while introducing new sensory experiences.
What You Need:
a plastic tray to be used as a work space
a white bar of soap
a soap dish
a small watercolor brush
a primary tray of watercolors
an eye dropper
1/2 cup of water
paper towels
an adult to talk with and make observations with
What You Do:
Place a bar of soap in a soap dish. (so that it doesn't move around)
Give the child a paint brush, a tray of primary watercolors (three colors to choose from, red, yellow and blue) an eye dropper, and a plastic container of about 1/2 cup of water.
Tell the child to paint the bar of soap. Each time she wants to change her design, show her how to use the eye dropper to rinse the paint off of the soap. A spray bottle might work nicely too.
When the child finishes painting tell her to take the soap dish and soap to the sink and rinse it clean for the next person.
Note:
Be available to talk with the child about her discoveries and observations. The soap makes the watercolor thicker than usual. An adult needs to be available to rinse the paint tray or wipe it occasionally with a sponge so that the colors remain vibrant. The children enjoyed using the eye dropper which gave them great fine motor practice. Some instruction and/or demonstration may be necessary to help the children learn how to use an eye dropper.
Another student sat directly across the table from the soap activity and tried his hand at mixing colors using eye droppers and food coloring.
KinderArt ® Preschool/ECE
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