Thursday, July 10, 2014

Magic Water Colors

(4 Years)

I found this next art project on Pinterest from One Perfect Day.  I knew Little Miss and Wild One would have fun with it, because it involves glue - they love playing with glue.
Materials needed:
Glue - we used white school glue
Table Salt
Liquid Water Color - or liquid food dye
Ice Tray - we wanted vibrant color so we did 1:1 ratio of liquid water color:water
Medicine Droppers or Pipettes
Heavy Construction Paper
Tray - or a baking sheet/jelly roll pan (so that the salt doesn't go EVERYWHERE)

I invited the kids over with, "Do you want to do magic?"  Two seats were quickly filled, with skreeches of, "I do!  I do!  I do!"

I told them that today they were going to make color creep across a magical path.  They were so excited!  Start by having the kids swirl around the glue across the paper.



Completely cover the paper with salt.  Aren't you glad that you used a tray?  Let sit for just a few seconds, which is the perfect amount of time for your little ones to say a magical spell.  Then pour off the salt into a container to be used another time, or for us- since we do everything in twos, pour it onto the next artwork.

Now, the magic begins.  Using the medicine droppers squeeze a little bit onto the salt and watch it crawl through the swirls of salt, following the path.
Just look at that pincer grip!  
Wild One was amazed at how the color "magically" travelled across the path.

Little Miss almost always chooses pink.  Wild One dips into each color.  
Are we really sure they are twins?


Since this is made of salt, it will begin to crumble off of the paper.  Unfortunately, this isn't something that you can hang or save, unless of course you take a picture.  Why do it then?  It's fun!  The kids love it.  It strengthens their fine motor skills.  It's part of childhood to enjoy the wonder.  It allows the kids to use tools they normally wouldn't use on a daily basis.  You get to hear "wow!" and "look at that!", and you get to see big smiles.  I love those smiles!  Happy creating!

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