This really appealed to my three year old. How often do you get to use a ball to paint?!
You will need:
- Tempera paint
- A heavy duty paper plate
- Paper
- Marbles and other small balls
Good to have:
- A muffin tin for the paint
- Paper towels
The Project:
Before we started, I cut the paper into pieces small enough to fit on the plate. One piece of standard paper made four smaller pieces that fit on the plate easily. We used a muffin tin to mix our paints. Jeffrey got to drop the marble into the paint and then pick up the whole paint tray and swirl it to roll the marble around, coating the marble in paint. Meanwhile, I put the first piece of paper on the plate. He dropped the marble on the plate and swirled it around to make the marble roll all over the piece of paper, leaving a trail of paint behind it. We didn’t even rinse the marble between colors. We did, however, wipe his hands on the grass (you could use a paper towel) a couple times. After he felt each sheet of paper was colorful enough, I simply put another piece on the same plate. We even saved the plate to reuse the next time we do this project because it was colorful and still in great condition.
Tips:
- I bought disposable muffin tins; a two pack was only $0.70!
- This would make a great card!
- We only used one marble, but this would be a lot of fun with a variety of smalls balls, one at a time or a few at once.
- For older kids, challenge them to write their names or draw simple pictures… it’s not as easy as it sounds!
- The marble fell off the paper plate a few times, so I wouldn’t suggest doing this project over a carpet or rug. To make it an indoor project, replace the paper plate with something that has higher edges, like a baking pan.
- If you wanted to do a larger sheet of paper, you could use a cookie sheet with edges instead of the paper plate. (They have those super lightweight ones made out of foil that would still be easy for a younger child to lift and maneuver.)
- This project does not require a lot of paint, and would be a great quick project to do with some leftover paints after another project.
