9 replies to this topic

[Matilda]

Any nice ideas for finger painting anyone? My children have poor fine manipulative skills and I thought it would be quite a nice activity to help with this. Thursday evening and can't think of anything inspiring though. Love to hear any ideas.

[fairynough]

Hi there,

Hi Matilda :)

My children loved this last year

Cover the table with a plastic sheet. Provide losts of ready mixed paint in different colours and sheets of white paper.

Get children to choose one colour and squeeze a good blob on the paper.
(you could use two for colour mixing)

Encourage children to use palms to spread out smoothly over the sheet
( not the whole sheet, just the space they are working in.)

Encourage children to explore pusing/pulling with fingers to make any design. When child is finished carefully put white paper on, gently smooth over and then peel paper away.

We used the finished prints to make a border around one of our notice boards.


Hope this is the sort of thing you were looking for.

[KJH]

Matilda

At the end of another busy day, my brain has deserted me, but two ideas I have are finger painting leaves on a tree - could easily tie in with Autumn and finger painting spots on a ladybird - just be careful they are not too enthusiastic or else you end up with more spots and less red - I speak from experience!


Karen

[Susan]

Hi Matilda, Ive also provided outlines for the children to pfinger print over and have used simple shapes such as spirals to represent fireworks ( not too far away now!!). I also encouraged the children to make flowers for Mothers day (observational pictures of daffodils) which were very effective and individual so anything goes really.
One of my long lasting memories of infant school is the finger painting as described by fairynough although I remember doing this at an easal and covering the paper with paint and then drawing in it with my fingers.

Have fun and make sure the children have suitable protective clothing to ensure maximum participation!!

[Matilda]

Thanks guys, some fab ideas. I like the idea of giving them free reign to produce patterns etc. We have looked at colour mixing this week so this would tie in nicely. Thanks again. :)

[Posy]

Hi Matilda,
I made pouches of paint using polythene and tacky back to seal edges, I ended up with squashy sort of cushiony things -a bit like those gel filled eyemasks. You can add glitter or rice to paint to get a different texture/appearance
They can be used to push the paint around with fingers/hand/feet, make patterns, etc. I made them slightly bigger than A3.
And it's such fun when one child discovers how to get his/her hand inside the pouch, usually about five minutes to lunch time!

[Lisa E]

Thinking of fine motor- an activity that had the children queing up this week was clay and pegs. Children had blobs of clay and talked about how it felt (comparisons to familiar playdough). Rollers intorduced palin and textured. Then given pegs and small pulses (lentils, coloured rice etc). children then had to use the pegs to choose what they wab=nted (tricky for some but the sense of achievemnt for one boy with SEN was mazing as he waggled a butter bean in my face). If some children struggled then they were encouraged to use their pointy finger and thumb to select small amounts. The pulses were then pressed into the clay (not so easy for some children as the texture/ firmness of clay is so different from the play dough/ slime/ sand/ wet sand that they are used to.

have to say used a whole sack of clay for the FS unit as the activity was very popular and some children returned to the activity. Also had sorting trays and pegs/ pliers/ tweezers etc.


Back to finger painting (which I love) encorage children to make it with you opportunity to sprinkle flour into large bowl/ pour water and if you have the time pipette the water in (like the idea just haven't had the time yet!)
Sprinkle in powder paint to colour etc (zap it in the microwave (children pressing buttons/ turning dials). lots of fine motor before they even paint (plus scent with squirts of shampoo). I love finger painting!!!!!!! I sound obsessed I know.

Lisa

[Rea]

I used to provide a mix of things, cornflour, flour, coffee granuels, lemon juice, tea leaves, water, veg oil (small amounts, it makes a REAL mess), sand, rice, and cover the table, and add some things from the home corner. Some children would stay forever at it, mixing and pouring. They got so engrossed it was a fab session. The language was brill too. :D

[sunny]

I have been doing finger painting this week for my adult led activity. I made the finger paint out of cornflour and water which was cooked over a low heat until the consistency of custard, i then added vanilla oil. The children used a spoon to help themselves to the mixture and were then encouraged to use their fingers and hands to spread it. Once they had enjoyed the experience of feeling the mixture colour was introduced. The children chose a colour (liquid paint) and mixed it in to make finger paint, they then chose another colour and were facinated in the colour changes. I then put on a cd of rain and thunderstorm and the children listened wide eyed, we moved our hands and fingers through the paint in time to the music a bit like write dance, the children loved doing this and used their fingers to pitter patter like rain drops. This was a very sucessful sensory activty with no pressure of an end product. The activity was done on plastic mats laid on the table and after the activity had finished i just folded the mats up and put them straight into the washing machine with the aprons hence quick tidying up.

[Matilda]

What lovely ideas, I shall definitely give them a try. Many thanks.