Childhood101

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Kids Art: Mixing


Whatever our creative endeavour at the moment, Immy loves to make it all about ‘mixing.’

We mix colours for printmaking…
… children are fascinated by paint and the many transformations it undergoes when mixing colours or applying paint to a surface.

We mix with felt tipped pens…
…’Mixing, mixing, mixing,’ Immy chanted as she drew round and round with colour on top of colour.

We mix on ourselves…
… Immy loves to explore the feel of paint or paste on her skin.

For this painting experience, I offered Immy a variety of painting implements – cotton buds, popsticks and a paintbrush.
The marks to the right were made first, with the cotton buds. Then it was onto the paintbrush which made thicker, more prominent marks. The popsticks came last and were harder to use to apply paint to the paper… but were great for mixing!
For more ideas for painting implements, why not revisit this post, Painting Round and Round.

Now it’s your turn, what have your kids been creating this week?

Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. jenny says

    Toddlers are such sensory little creatures aren't they.

    The kids at preschool are mix masters ;) They are potion-making fanatics - I blogged about making potions here:

    http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/2010/03/mixing-potions-more-messy-play-with.html

  2. Raising a Happy Child says

    My daughter is older, but she enjoys color mixing just as much as Immy. Every time when she gets paints in a palette tool she is more focused on mixing colors than on actual painting. Cute photos!

  3. Teacher Tom says

    Mixing! We left a pot of old playdough outdoors in the rain. Oh it was ooey, gooey and generally gross. Our hardcore mixers have been going at it for a couple of days. I took pictures, but they may simply be too disgusting to ever show anyone. =)

  4. Steff says

    OOh i lov Immys smock - so many smocks are horrid plasti that the girls just dont want to wear - that one looks comfy - let me guess you made it yourself :)

  5. Christie - Childhood 101 says

    Immy loves mixing outside and when we cook as well, Jenny.

    Can't wait to see, Teacher Tom, gooey playdough sounds like fantastic fun!

    Steff, I did not actually make Immy's smock, it is a hand me down from a very good friend and it is great (though the inside is plastic lined, guess it sort of has to be to do the job properly)

  6. Liss says

    I must say the mixing is my favourite part too! I give the girls half egg boxes and encourage them with a spoon to see if they can mix as many different colours as possible. They love it!

  7. Anonymous says

    at preschool recently we did a mixing activity that fascinated many children
    a bowl of milk, some food colouring dots added and then a small drop of detergent in the middle, the colours spread out in an unusual pattern depending on the placement of the food colouring and detergent and continue to move and swirl, to speed up the mixing process you can use a cotton bud with a dab of detergent on the end to slowly swirl

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