Drop Painting Art

Paint Drops Can Work Like Colorful Raindrops

Materials

• chart paper
• paintbrushes
• large sheets of white mural paper
• newspaper
• masking tape
• primary-colored tempura paint, thinned with water

Warm-Up
Ask child what happens to something when left out in the rain. When it gets wet how does it change? What would happen if you left a painting out in the rain? Record their ideas.

Activity

1. Invite children to make their own rain with paint. Ask them to help take newspaper to open area on the floor. Then tape large white mural paper on top of the newspaper. Place containers of thinned paint around it. Invite children to dip their brushes into the paint. 

2.Observe what happens when paint drops hit the paper. Talk about the changes in shape, texture, and even color of the drops when they hit the paper.  

3. Invite children to try different colors, and talk about what happens when the drops splash together. Challenge them to try different ways of making drops, such as using different sized brushes or dripping the paint from varying heights.

Observations
How do children describe the paint drops? What comparisons with rain do they make?

Books:

• Plink, Plink by E. Kessler (Doubleday)
• Rain Rain River by Uri Shulevitz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
• The Storm Book by Charlotte Zolotow (Harper)
• Umbrella by Taro Yashima (Viking Penguin)

We found three out of the four at our local library.

 These were our main questions and predictions about what would happen if we used different sized brushes, colors, and drops from varying heights. The boys had fun and YES we got a little messy...but I don't really think art is supposed to be clean.

Activity found at 50 Art Activities for Your Kindergarten Classroom by Scholastic