A really simple way to make your own watercolor paints, and perfect for an outside activity on a warm summer's day.
My 3 year old paints nearly everyday and more often than not we use watercolors. We recently decided to take our painting session a step further by trying to make our own unique watercolor paints using ice and food coloring. It was so much fun!
What you need:
- ice cubes- food coloring
- muffin tins
- spoon or scooper
- paintbrushes
- watercolor paper
- large tray to help contain the mess
How it works:
I set out all of the materials and asked baby sis to start off by scooping one ice cube into each muffin tin compartment. This was a fun way to explore a slippery sensory material, whilst also working her fine and gross motor skills. We even snuck in a little bit of counting too.
Next I asked baby sis to add one drop of food coloring on top of each ice cube. I made sure that we had enough to also let her make a few ice cubes with two colors dropped on top. this was a fun link to color mixing as she predicted what color paint it would make.
Baby sis then used a spoon to give the ice and food coloring a mix as it started to melt.
We left the paints for about 15 minutes outside in the sun which was just enough time for the ice to melt. Baby sis was so excited to see her new watercolors that she had made.
My little one could not wait to paint a picture! She loved testing out each color on her paper. If you can I'd definitely recommend using watercolor paper, or at least white card, or else the picture might get a little soggy.
It was great to see my little one so engaged and she really did feel extra proud of her creation having made the watercolor paints herself. There was quite a lot of paint leftover so we used it for a follow up rainbow waterfall painting activity with droppers. You could also just enjoy some color mixing, or freeze it back again to make colored ice cubes. Lots of extended play opportunities!
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