Paint is such a versatile and energetic medium for children to explore. It can be thick or runny, pale or bright. It can be layered up with other things and it can be dabbed, spread, brushed, flicked or squelched. Paint encompasses all the visual elements of colour, pattern and texture (Painter and Thirlwall, 2006). Children might mix all the colours up together and be delighted with the muddy brown colour they have made, or they may be more specific with their mixing to create a range of colours. Texture can be investigated by adding things to the paint or dragging tools through very thick paint and seeing the effects when it is dry. Children can discover patterns in their paintings, noticing that a cluster of paintbrush dabs has made their picture ‘spotty’. They can be encouraged to explore this further by searching for patterns and recreating them with paint. As Matthews explains, paint is all about movement: ‘It is a rhythmical, patterned dance or play with paint and body actions in space and time’ (Mathews, 1994 p.24). Painting activities Use these activities as starting points for explorations with the children. It is a good idea to demonstrate some basic techniques, such as how to load a brush with paint, how to rinse it in water, how to wash up afterwards and how to hold your picture flat so that the paint doesn’t drip (see Development Matters in the EYFS p.44). Have aprons and other resources within easy reach and keep a camera to hand to record the painting process. Make time for the children to reflect on their own work and that of others. Explore and Experiment Encourage and support the inventive ways in which children add or mix media, or wallow in a particular experience. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 22-36 months, p.43) Thick and runny – ask the children to help you mix up some very thick paint. What could you add to the paint to make it thicker? Add flour and a little salt or corn flour and see what happens. Pour it into a builder’s tray and let the children explore it with their fingers and hands. Add twigs, small sticks and combs that they can drag through the paint to make marks. Then invite them to help you make some runny paint. What would they use to make the paint runny? Let them explore the runny paint using some of the same tools. Does it feel different? Add some straws and let them blow the runny paint around the tray. Talk about the feel and smell of the paint as they investigate. Squeezy paintings – ask the children to help you fill up some squeezy bottles with a mix of thick paint (paint, flour and salt). How can you get the paint into the bottles (spoons, funnels)? Show the children how to squeeze the paint out onto paper to make patterns. (Louise Park). Brush strokes – make a collection of different sized brushes from very fine and tapered to large, flat decorating brushes. Place some paint in trays and use paper attached to easels or large rolls of paper taped to the floor or outside space and let the children explore the effects of the different brushes. They will be using lots of body movement as they paint. Hands and fingers – allow the children to explore thick finger paint using their hands and fingers, either in a big builder’s tray or in individual trays. Have some paper on hand so they can transfer the paint onto the paper if they want to. Unusual tools – collect together a wide variety of things that can be used to apply paint on a large and small scale: cotton wool buds, sponges, mop heads, toothbrushes, glue sticks, spoons, plungers, scrubbing brushes, rollers, twigs, small sticks. Use them with paint outside and inside, on huge rolls of paper, with paper on easels, and on tables. Painting the fence – provide buckets of water and large decorating brushes and rollers and ask the children to ‘paint’ a fence or wall. Talk with them about the movements they are making as they paint. Looking at paint – give the children some magnifying glasses and look for painted surfaces around the setting, inside and outside. Can they see the brush strokes? What does the dried paint feel like? The paint might be peeling outside on a window sill or bench. (Eglington). Splattering paint – show the children how to flick paint onto paper with an old toothbrush. Let them explore the patterns they make. They might like to cut some shapes out of card and lay these onto a clean sheet of paper. Flick some paint all over the paper, then lift up the cut out shapes and see their outlines left on the paper. (Louise Park). Stencils – show the children how to hold a stencil very still on the paper. What would be a good way to apply the paint over the stencil? They might like to explore different methods and talk about which work best. Show them how dabbing with a sponge gets the paint on evenly. Wet paper – use thick paper or card. Help the children to wet the paper all over by putting it in a tray of water for a moment. Using brushes, invite them to paint onto the wet paper. Talk about the effects. Water colours – provide some water colour paints, fine brushes, pots of water and thick paper. Let the children explore this kind of paint, showing them how to rinse their brushes in the water and add water to their paper. Are the colours bright and bold or pale and faded? Painting words – as the children are painting talk with them about the movements they are making and use lots of vocabulary: brush, spread, stroke, comb, smooth, dab, splat etc. Colour Explores colour and how colours can be changed. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 30-50 months, p.44) Chooses particular colours to use for a purpose. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60 months, p.46) Muddy colours – give the children lots of opportunity to explore paint colours and what happens when they mix them up. Use trays of paint, pots of paint, easels and large sheets of paper. During initial explorations give them access to lots of colours so that they can really experiment. Talk with them about the colours as they make them and the changes in the colours as they mix in more and more. Mixing colours – provide opportunities to practise using different equipment to mix paint colours in. Offer the children pallets, plates, small and large trays. Use spoons, brushes, glue sticks, twigs to stir and mix paint. Show the children how to transfer colour from one section of a pallet to another to mix a colour. Looking for colours- ask the children to pick a colour. It might be blue. Look for all the blue things inside and outside the setting – a blue chair, a blue dress, a blue bucket, the blue sky. Are all these blues exactly the same? Talk about light blues and dark blues. (Eglington). Light and dark – invite the children to explore light and dark colours. Use a primary colour and white and black. Which will make the colour lighter and which will make it darker? Give them time to investigate through free painting on paper on an easel or table. Colour stripes – offer the children two primary colours, e.g. yellow and blue. Cut some strips of paper. Show the children how to mix the two colours and talk about the colour they have made. Experiment by adding more yellow or more blue. At each stage invite the children to paint a stripe of the latest shade onto the paper. Explore with other primary colour combinations. (Painter and Thirwall). Warm and cool – collect together objects of different colours in the ranges of oranges, reds, yellows and blues and purples. Can the children sort them into colours that make them feel warm and those that make them feel cool. Talk about their choices – they might be unexpected! Choose warm or cool colours to focus on and provide the children with appropriate paints. Ask them to do a warm, or cool, painting. Talk about how colours make the children feel. Are there happy colours and sad colours? (Eglington) Colour matching - ask the children to pick a colour from the primary colours. Ask them to help you find things that are that colour in the setting. Put them on a table. The objects might all be red. Offer them the red paint and white and black. Invite the children to choose an object and have a go at mixing the red that matches the red of their object. Is it light or dark? They might want to paint the shape of their object with the colour or just concentrate on experimenting with the colour. Still life – have lots of interesting things available for the children to observe and paint at any time e.g. a conker in its spiky case, a vase of flowers, pebbles, a bright red bowl, a green parrot toy on a perch, leaves, fruit (whole or cut open to show the pips). Look at the object closely with the children. Use a magnifying glass, feel it, smell it. Support the children as they explore how to represent the form and colour of the object with paint. Pattern and Texture Talk to children about ways of finding out what they can do with different media and what happens when they put different things together such as sand, paint and sawdust. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60 months, p.44) Looking for patterns – search for patterns with the children inside and outside – a rug, curtains, a scarf, the criss-cross of branches, paving stones, planks of wood in a fence. Talk about the kinds of patterns you can see – overlapping, in and out, stripy, spotty, grids, checks etc. Painting the ground –provide buckets of water and big decorator’s brushes outside. Invite the children to ‘paint’ lines on the ground. When you or a child calls out ‘All change!’ everyone has to change the direction of their water line. Stand back and look at the criss-cross pattern they have made. The children might like to fill in some of the shapes that have been made with more water ‘painting’. Animal patterns – look at pictures of wild animals. Talk about the patterns on their fur. If possible collect some animal patterned paper – e.g. tiger’s stripes, crocodile’s skin, snake’s skin, leopard’s spots, zebra’s stripes. Look at these with the children and invite them to choose a pattern to recreate with paint. Talk about the colours they need and the brushes they will use. Real objects – provide an interesting object with a strong pattern, e.g. an African rug or a Mexican tile. Look at the object closely with the children, talking about the patterns and shapes they can see. Trace the patterns with their fingers. Invite them to try and reproduce the pattern using paint. Or they might like to make up their own pattern using the object as inspiration. Bricks – provide some coloured wooden building bricks. Ask the children to help you build a tower. Talk about the colours you have used and how the bricks go up one on top of the other. Now try building a wall. What is different about the pattern of the bricks now? Invite the children to paint a picture of the tower or the wall. Some might focus on the colour of the bricks and others on their formation. The children might like to use large wooden blocks or cardboard boxes to make a wall on a bigger scale, and paint their wall on large sheets or rolls of paper. Or they could take some easels outside and paint a picture of a real wall. Marble rolling – provide a tray of paint, marbles and sheets of paper in the bottom of trays so that they can be tipped up to roll the marbles. Show the children how to cover a marble in paint and roll it about on the paper by tilting the tray up or down and from side to side. Look at the criss-cross pattern the marble makes. (Painter and Thirlwall) Painting on different surfaces – this is a great way to explore texture. Provide a variety of things to paint on – paper, builder’s trays, sand paper, pebbles, pine cones, corrugated card, bark, paving stones, canvas fabric. Thick paint – ask the children to help you mix up thick paint and show them how to apply it in different ways – glue sticks, combs, spoons. When it is dry, examine the texture of the paintings together. Grainy paint – add some P.V.A. glue and sand to paint. Use a variety of tools to apply the paint to paper or card. Talk about the texture as they paint and when it is dry. Experiment with rice or couscous. Layers – this can be done with any painting. Once the paintings are dry, offer a selection of other materials to layer onto the picture – tissue paper, pastels, patterned paper, glitter, sequins, rice etc. These will all create texture on top of the original painting. Using Artists’ Work Extend children’s experience and expand their imagination through the provision of pictures, paintings, poems, music, dance and story. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60 months, p.46) Jackson Pollock – show the children some of Jackson Pollock’s work. How do they think he made all those marks? Use words like splatter, splash, and spray. Explore working like Pollock using a variety of resources – squeezy bottles filled with runny paint, flicking paint with brushes, even filling a bucket with paint, tying string to the handle and making a whole in the bottom so that it can be swung back and forth. Work outside on a large scale. Paul Cezanne – show the children some of his still life work. Choose one of the pictures and collect objects that look like those in the picture. Ask the children to help you set up the objects in the same way as the picture. Talk about colours and shapes as they play with the objects. The children could have a go at painting the still life they have set up or just one object from it. Paul Klee – ‘Castle and Sun’ – show the children this picture. Talk with them about the shapes and colours. Offer them coloured wooden bricks to build with and cut out coloured paper shapes to play with. Invite them to paint what they have built. Henri Rousseau – look at some of his jungle paintings. Talk about the animal and trees and grasses. Collect ferns and long grasses. Look at them closely using magnifying glasses. The children might like to paint them. Use them with small world wild animals to set up a jungle scene to play with in a builder’s tray. Invite the children to paint the animals too. Wassily Kandinsky – ‘Concentric Circles’- this picture offers lots of opportunities to talk about shape, size and colour. Invite the children to practise making circles in their air with whole arm movements, and outside with water and big brushes. Talk about colours, mix colours and look at pictures of rainbows. The children can have a go at painting their own circles within circles. (Painter and Thirlwall). Van Gogh – ‘Sunflowers’ – show the children an image of this famous painting. Look at the colours and textures. Bring in some real sunflowers (maybe the children have grown some themselves) and look at them with a magnifying glass, touch them, smell them. Invite the children to select the colours they need to paint their own sunflower. What kind of brush will they use? Painting Resources Here are just a few of the resources to have available in an early years setting: Brushes of all shapes and sizes, combs, toothbrushes, twigs, small sticks, glue spreaders, rollers, sponges, straws, pots, pallets, trays of different sizes, buckets, paint of different thicknesses and colours, things to mix into paint to add texture/thickness, paper of different sizes, thickness, texture and colour, card, corrugated card, sandpaper, objects to explore and paint – that have a variety of colours, textures and shapes, work by famous artists. References Art and Design Resource File, Jill Painter and John Thirlwall, LCP, Warwickshire, 2006 Helping Children to Draw and Paint in Early Childhood, John Matthews, Hodder and Stoughton, 1994 Art in the Early Years, Kristen Ali Eglinton, Routledge Falmer, 2003 Preschool Art, Mary Ann Kohl, Brilliant Publications, 1999 Art Attack, Louise Park, Ashton Scholastic, 1987
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