Kid Art: Painting with Cotton Balls

In my preschool class I like to change things up and give the children unexpected tools to paint with. It always makes things more exciting when you hide the paintbrushes and add something new.  During our Nursery Rhymes Week we were learning Mary Had a Little Lamb so I thought it would be fun to put out clothespins and cotton balls (lamb - wool, get it?!) to paint with versus paintbrushes.

Set-up for this was minimal. Provide paint, paper, cotton balls, clothespins and smocks. Then just let the kids explore the materials.

Some of the children used the cotton balls and clothespins like a paint brush. Others used the cotton balls with their bare hands - enjoying the feel of the paint right on their fingertips.

I encouraged them to try "pinching" the cotton balls with the clothespins because it was also sneaking in some valuable fine motor practice. All that pinching is actually fabulous pre-writing practice for those little hands. Sneaky, I know!

There is no wrong or right way to use the materials. It's all about exploring. There was no end product in mind. The children just freely enjoyed the process.

Of course we ended up with some cool looking paintings which we proudly displayed but most importantly - the kids just had fun and enjoyed using the cotton balls to create art.

If you enjoyed this be sure to check out our other Painting Fun ideas and our Kids Art Pinterest board.

Have fun cotton ball painting!

Bern

Nursery Rhymes: Exploring Humpty Dumpty in Preschool

Preschoolers adore nursery rhymes. They are generally a big part of childhood. How many do you recall? Lots I am sure. The rich language an rhymes inherent in nursery rhymes are actually wonderful pre-reading tools. They teach children how language works, build memory skills and generally encourage literacy in children.

There is so much fun to be had exploring nursery rhymes with children. We explored Humpty Dumpty in preschool during a nursery rhymes themed week and the children had such a blast. It was definitely my favorite out of all the nursery rhymes we covered that week.

Here's an inside peek at what we did -

Humpty Dumpty Egg Puzzles

I cut out egg (oval) shapes and cut them into puzzle pieces. The children had to put Humpty Dumpty together again using colorful band-aids. They LOVED this activity and it turned out so cute because they colored their eggs and turned them into Humpty Dumptys.

Plastic Egg Letter Match

I dug out some of our leftover plastic Easter eggs and wrote upper and lowercase letters on the halves. The children were invited to put Humpty Dumpty back to together again by finding the matching pairs of letters.  It was a quick and easy letter recognition activity that I was able to set-up in one of our centers.

Plastic Egg Shaker Painting

I don't know why I never did this with the Lil Divas because it was so easy and the kids had a blast. I used plastic (Easter) eggs and poured paint inside them and then sealed them with tape to keep them from opening while we painted.

The children just picked an egg and shook it over their paper or gently dabbed/tapped it onto the paper and the paint would come out of the tiny hole in the egg. We created some colorful and fun pieces of art using this technique.  Each one turned out differently depending on how the children used their shakers.

Egg Explorations & Science

Can an egg sit on a wall?

I let each child answer the question and recorded their answers. Then,  we explored if it was truly possible by trying to sit Humpty Dumpty (an uncooked egg with a smiley face drawn on it) on a brick wall (one of our blocks). 

The children found it so funny that I actually let the egg fall and crack that I had to repeat the investigation a few times by popular demand as we recited the nursery rhyme. It was lots of fun and a great way to retell the nursery rhyme with live actions. 

Can Humpty Dumpty (an egg) float?

After we discovered that Humpty Dumpty could not sit on a wall, we set out to see if he could float and if he preferred the pool (tap water) or the beach (salt water).

The children made their predictions before we began our experiment. Then, we filled 2 cups with water. We added our first Humpty Dumpty into plain tap water (pool).  

We added salt to our second cup and dropped our second Humpty Dumpty into the salty water (beach).

We found that Humpty Dumpty does indeed float under the right conditions - in the salt water. I guess he's a beach egg  ;)

Play - Build a wall for Humpty Dumpty

I invited the children to build a wall for Humpty Dumpty using our blocks. They were very serious about their construction and of course tried desperately to outdo each other as far as height and complexity. It was a fun way to bring play into our exploration of the nursery rhyme.

Have fun exploring Humpty Dumpty!

Bern