My mommy-brain works the best on weekends and I think I am at my creative supreme when I have ample time in hand to be spent with kids. So last weekend we thought of taking one of our current favourite books a step further by combining it with some fun activity. As such, Blow Painting is great on its own, but if you want to make it educational, you can teach your child a little about germs before the activity.
For very young kids who don’t know what germs are, I’d recommend the book, Supergirls Play A trick by Katha India that talks about basics of hygiene and cleanliness without dwelling too much into germs etc.
After talking about germs and how to stay safe from germs, you could tell your child that they would be creating their own ‘pretend’ germs using colours and paints!
Blow Paint Art Supplies-
- Paint
- Water
- Paintbrush
- Dropper (optional)
- Straw
- Thick white paper
- Glue stick
- Googly eyes
- Glitter tubes (optional)
GERM ART DIRECTIONS:
1. Water down the paint enough for your kids to easily blow it around with the straw.
2. Use a paintbrush or dropper to add small blobs of paint onto the paper.
3. Use the straw to blow the paint blobs around in all directions.
4. Repeat this step with each of the colors.
5. Let the paint dry completely.
6. Let the child decorate their germs using googly eyes, glitter etc.
That’s all there is to it!
Now you can have fun at home making all sorts of germy artwork and best of all, there’s no need to worry about getting sick from these little germs!
For toddlers, Blowing is a really great way to get a good workout for mouth muscles. Besides, it also helps in-
- Hand eye coordination
- Motor skills development
- Fine motor skills development
The trick was to blow as hard as you can on the colour drops. You may need to help your child because at first the pressure of blow might not be enough to make the paint drop move. Also, for starters, try this out with water first as sometimes kids tend to suck in instead of blowing out!
This experience, whilst primarily being a sensory exploration, can also be considered an early scientific inquiry into forces, as the children investigate air pressure by pushing and pulling the air through the straw in order to make the paint move or change direction.
Try it out and have fun with your tot!
Go Mommy!