Painting tracks with toy cars

Children can create tracks, trails and prints by putting a variety of toys through paint and then putting onto paper.  We usually start of with toy cars being driven through the paint and across the paper to create tyre tracks, but children can experiment with other (washable) toys, for example animal and doll footprints.

Equipment required

• Paint
• Paper
• Toy cars (washable)

What do we do?

• Push the toy car through the paint
• Drive the toy car across the paper

What are we learning?

• Colours and colour mixing
• Patterns
• Fine motor skills

Links to Te Whaariki

• Strand 4 - Communication.  Goal 4 - Children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive.

Golf ball painting

Golf ball painting is the process where children create tracks across paper by rolling a golf ball (or similar) through paint and across the paper.  Several variations exist, e.g. a group project rolling balls across a table as pictured, individual projects using a shoe box or some other container to put the paper and golf ball into, or large scale outdoors using larger balls.

Equipment required

• Paint
• Paper
• Golf balls (or similar)
• Some kind of way to contain the balls and stop them rolling away (e.g. shoe box)
• Some way to pick up the paint covered balls (e.g. spoon or tongs)

What do we do?

• Place paper into shoe box
• Dip balls into different colours of paint
• Using a spoon or tongs or your fingers, place the painted balls into the shoe box on top of the paper
• Tip the box from side to side and watch the golf balls roll around, leaving trails behind them

What are we learning?

• Colour mixing
• Force (gravity in terms of tipping a box, or motion in terms of rolling/pushing balls)
• Fine motor skills (handling the slippery, slimy balls)

Links to Te Whaariki

• Strand 3 - Contribution.  Goal 3 - Children experience an environment where they are encouraged to learn with and alongside others.
• Strand 5 - Exploration.  Goal 2 - Children experience an environment where they gain confidence in and control of their bodies.
• Strand 5 - Exploration.  Goal 4 - Children experience an environment where they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical, and material worlds.

Potions

Potion making allows children to experiment with mixing different materials and colours together to discover their own end results.  It allows creative expression and can incorporate elements of fantasy play as children imitate activities they have seen at home (e.g. cooking).

Equipment required:

• Individual containers for all children (we used ice cream containers here)
• A selection of scooping and stirring instruments
• Water
• Liquid dye with droppers
• Foam (not shown in first picture), dishwashing bubbles, or other messy play concoction
• Some kind of plant material (lavender buds are used here, however anything can be used, e.g. grass, petals, leaves, etc)
• The children should be allowed to add any other ingredients they wish (e.g. sand)
• Glitter should be discouraged in case children try to drink their potion

What do we do?

• Allow children to freely experiment with scooping, tipping, mixing, pouring, whichever ingredients they wish.

What are we learning?

• Fine motor skills (holding cup/spoon, stirring, squeezing eye dropper)
• Colour mixing/changing
• Turn taking with other children
• Measurements (full, half full, etc)
• Properties of objects in water (floating, sinking, etc)

Links to Te Whaariki

• Strand 3 - Contribution.  Goal 3 - Children experience an environment where they are encouraged to learn with and alongside others.
• Strand 5 - Exploration.  Goal 2 - Children experience an environment where they gain confidence in and control of their bodies.
• Strand 5 - Exploration.  Goal 4 - Children experience an environment where they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical, and material worlds.