Teach Preschool » Painting

Marble painting with preschoolers

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:45:58 +0000

As you might have guessed, we have been exploring marbles and you just can’t explore marbles without including a little marble painting in your planning…

Every time I introduce marble painting to a group of preschoolers, I change the process a bit. I adjust the process based on the age of the children, the size or kind of box we will use, the kind of paint we use, how many children will paint at one time, and anything else I think will need adjusted to make the process fun and age appropriate for the children in my class…

For my PreK class, I let them squeeze out some tempera paint on a sheet of paper and then they were good to go. You will notice in the photo above that I also set out some plastic wrap. We would have wrapped the box with the plastic wrap if needed to help keep the marbles from falling out of the box but we decided it wasn’t needed. By adding the plastic wrap, the children can still see inside the box while they roll the marbles through the paint with out worrying about the marbles falling out…

But since these children were older, they were able to manage the marbles and the box without needing to add the plastic wrap. It was actually good eye-hand coordination and a little practice in multi-tasking for them to tilt the box, keep an eye on the marbles so they don’t fall out of the box, and direct the marbles through the paint all at the same time…

Once the marbles get a little too much paint on them, it is a good idea to rinse some of the paint off in between each child’s turn. This helps keep the marbles rolling through the paint better. Otherwise, the marbles can get all goopy and not roll very well at all…

Some of the children had a little trouble getting the coordination of moving the large box from side to side. If they preferred, they could have a partner hold one end of the box to help them tilt the box back and forth. Working with a partner is also a challenge because the children have to tilt the box the same way at the same time – not an easy thing to do…

Regardless of the challenges involved in marble painting, the children stayed engaged in the process. Simplifying the process does not always make the project more fun – those little challenges along the way can actually be an important part of the process…

Our marble painting turned out bright, colorful, and beautiful…

All that paint, movement, concentration, and freedom in the process and almost no mess – now how do you like that?

Can you see the name hidden behind all that paint?

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Working on our Thanksgiving costumes in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 11:00:38 +0000

We are continuing to work on our Thanksgiving costumes in preschool. We completed our pasta necklaces from the colored pasta we made the other day…

And when we weren’t threading the pasta onto our twine, then we had fun just playing with our pasta beads…

We also made vests for our Thanksgiving feast…

To make our vests, the children were each given two sheets of manilla paper that was stapled at the top for shoulders. Then a neck hole was cut in the center. Next the children used scissors to fringe the ends of the paper (the bottom of their vests). Some of the children fringed their vests before painting and others still have to fringe theirs after the paint dries…

To add color to our vests, the children used a variety of tools. Some of the vests were painted with blocks dipped in different colors of paints. Some of the children tried to make symbols or patterns on their vests like we talked about in circle time…

Other children painted with brushes or used bottles of paint to squeeze lines and circles on the paper. We worked on vests on two different days so the techniques continued to change…

Although the painting techniques changed, the process stayed about the same. Remember that the children have two sheets of paper stapled together and they are only painting on one of those pieces of paper. Once the painting was complete, they folded the non-painted paper over on the painted paper and rubbed them together…

Then they opened the paper back up to see the finished design on both the front and the back of their vests…

Here are a few of the vests we have completed so far…

We haven’t quite finished them all but we should be good to go in plenty of time for our Thanksgiving feast!

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Painting with Eric Violette and a preschooler

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:00:38 +0000

I had a few special guests stay at my house this past week. Eric Violette, the guy from the free credit report . com commercials, and his fellow band members were in town to perform and while staying in my home, I asked Eric if he would like to join Wy and I to do a little painting…

Eric was a really good sport to paint with us and being that he has no experience with early childhood education, it was a good opportunity for me to make a few observations about adults versus children when it comes to creativity…

I started by having both Eric and Wy sign their names on their canvases. When I handed Eric the marker and told him that I would like him to begin by writing his name on the board, he asked where he should write it and how big or small. I explained that it was his artwork and he can write his name anywhere he wants and any size he wants. I then handed Wy the marker and he made his “name” too…

I placed a set of squeeze bottles and a set of spray bottles filled with paint next to Eric and told him that he could create anything he wanted using the bottles. I could see his hesitation and he asked me what I wanted him to make. I redirected him to the paint and said “it’s your painting, you can do anything you want”…

Eric chose to begin with the spray bottle and Wy chose the squeeze bottle. They both began their work…

They traded materials and worked side by side on their paintings…

There were two distinct approaches taking place that I thought was interesting. Wy was focused on exploring and squeezing the paint out of the bottles – he was not focused on the end result – he was only focused on the process…

Eric was focused on creating something more distinctive. He used the paints to work towards an end result even though he did not know what that end result would actually be as he went along…

I noticed that as adults, we do tend to think in terms of finished products. We go into our work expecting to produce something specific. Unlike adults, young children go into their work without these expectations. Their desire is to explore the materials and see what happens…

As adults, we model different forms of creativity. When Eric chose to paint with his fingers, Wy decided to try it too…

I am not sure exactly at what point in their development children begin focusing their attention on the end product but I do know that young children need the freedom to explore the materials without having to worry about adult expectations. When it comes to the young child, we need to realize that it is what they get to do that keeps them engaged in the creative process not what they get to make.

In the end, I had two beautiful paintings to save for my wall. Each painting was unique and each represented the artist that painted them. One was a result of exploration and the other was a result of imagination…

Thank you to Eric for painting with us and allowing me to observe and write about the process…

Learn more about product versus process from Educational Creativity!

“The opposite of play isn’t work, it is rote. ~Dr. Edward Hallowell” This quote was shared by Teacher Tom. Read more about how exploration and play can make a difference in the future of a young child…

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Ketchup and mustard squeeze painting in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 10:30:41 +0000

Yesterday I shared about how we painted on the grill for our barbecue dramatic play day and today I want to show you our ketchup and mustard squeeze painting…

The mustard and ketchup bottles actually contain red and yellow paint…

The canvas is a large piece of currigated cardboard that I cut up into squares…

Squeeze painting tip

One suggestion I would like to make to those of you who are concerned about squeeze painting. Try squeeze painting on something like a paper plate. Choose 2 colors that will blend together to make another color like red+yellow=orange. Then let the children squeeze away. When you are finished, simply bend the plate and pour the back into a container for another day. You will have a new color and very little wasted paint. The colors left behind on the paper plate still make a nice design if you want to send something home…

Tristan had much more paint on his canvas so he tried tipping the paint from side to side to make the paint flow around the canvas. By the way, I didn’t water down the tempera paint…

Our finished ketchup and mustard squeeze paintings…

See this fun large group squeeze painting from Kreative Resources!

See these beautiful Squeeze Paintings from Little Running Teacher

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Painting on the grill in preschool

Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:00:00 +0000

To go along with our pretend barbecue, the boys had fun with a little ketchup and mustard painting on the grill…

First we used a basting brush to spread a little ketchup and mustard (red and yellow paint) on our grill (aluminum pan with holes in it)…

The paint flowed through the holes leaving fun little dots on our red paper…

At first, we had only set out yellow paint in a mustard container for this but the boys wanted to add ketchup too….

They were quite fascinated with the holes in the pan and the dots that were left on their paper…

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