Chasing Cheerios

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Homemade Water Color Paint

O and I made homemade watercolors which were inspired by this post at Dim Sum, Bagels, and Crawfish.

To make the watercolors you need 3 Tbs cornstarch, 1.5 tsp corn syrup, 3 Tbs baking soda, 3 Tbs white vinegar, food coloring, and small containers. When you mix the 1st 4 ingredients, you'll see (and hear) lots of fizzy fun! This was O's favorite part of the activity. She was VERY impressed with the fizzing! We then poured the mixture into several small containers and added food coloring. This was yet another lesson in color mixing since we made orange and purple. She wanted to mix yellow and blue to make green, but since we already had green (and we didn't have enough mix to make 2 greens) we didn't make another.
O enjoyed painting with the watercolors, but after 4 paintings she said "O tired. Going to lay on the couch. Need blankie." I got her down from the kitchen helper, and she acted worn out and tired and laid on the couch with a blankie over her for about 2 seconds :) Here are her watercolor masterpieces. I'm planning on incorporating them into her color book somehow, but I haven't really figured out how yet. I'm hoping to finish her color book before she goes to college, but I don't know if I'll make it :)


7 comments:

  1. i posted abou these a while ago they are great if you let them dry too http://teachingtinytots.blogspot.com/2008/08/homemade-watercolor-paint.html

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  2. This is great! I'm going to try this with my daughter! Thanks!

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  3. Glad you guys enjoyed them! We were also impressed by all of the fizzing.

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  4. Hi Melissa,
    Do you use any special kind of food coloring? I wonder if it's safe for kids use. Thanks! Miri

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  5. I know this is long after your original post, but I'd love to try this activity with a group of kids. How long do the paints last after you make them (hours, days, weeks)? Do you need to store them in the fridge? Thanks, and thanks for the recipe!

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  6. Laura- I don't remember for sure, but I think they lasted a few weeks, and I can't remember if we kept them in the refrigerator or not. Sorry I'm not more help :(

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  7. Great idea for home and the classroom.

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