Take art outdoors and help your child explore colors as you create a tablecloth together!
What You Need:
- plastic squeeze bottles
- water and food coloring
- old white sheet
What You Do Together:
- Fill several squeeze bottles with water. Then let your
child add a few drops of food coloring to the bottles, using
a different color for each. Encourage your child to have fun
shaking the bottles until the water is brightly colored.
- Outside, place an old white sheet on the ground. Ask
your child to find four rocks and to place one at each corner
of the sheet to hold it down. Then ask your child to take
off his shoes and socks.
- Let your child choose one of the squeeze bottles. Ask
him to walk around the sheet, squeezing the bottle and
squirting the colored water on the sheet as he goes. Point
out that if he keeps squeezing the bottle, the colored water
will mark his path.
- Invite your child to do the same thing with the remaining
bottles of colored water. Ask him about the different colors
he's using. Do any of the colors mix to form new colors?
What shapes and patterns has he made?
- Talk with your child about the colorful design he created
on the sheet. When it's dry, you can use the sheet as a
picnic blanket or tablecloth. Or hang it on a clothesline
and watch it billow in the breeze!
More Ways to Learn
Create a crushed-chalk design: Collect pieces of chalk, a hammer, pie tins, liquid starch, a paintbrush, and an old
white sheet. Outside, place the chalk in the pie tin. Help
your child press the hammerhead against the chalk and grind
it until it's crushed. Then let him dip the paintbrush into
the liquid starch and paint a design on the sheet. Guide him
to pinch bits of the crushed chalk and sprinkle it on the
design. The chalk will become bright and colorful!
Make a Rainbow: Cut five strips from an old white sheet. Each strip should be one inch wide and as long as your
child's height. Mix water and food coloring in plastic
containers, and soak each strip in a container. Then remove
the strips and let them dry. Help your child tie a strip to
each finger on one hand. To make a rainbow, he can wave his
arms in an arc over his head. Then he can move his hands to
the rhythm of his favorite poem or song -- or run free -- and
watch the colors dance along.
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