Tempera Paint - Page 6 of 7

Yarn Painting

Draw a geometric shape or a picture on the paper and fold it in half (i.e. square, pumpkin, a person, butterfly, etc.). Let the child cut out the picture and open the paper.

Cut a piece of yarn (about 6-inch long). Put paint into the container and ask the child to dip one end of the yarn in the paint while holding on to the other end. Instruct the child to place the painted end of the yarn on one side of the paper, at the top. Fold the paper again and tell the child to pull the yarn out, from the bottom.

Open the folded paper, place the painted yarn at the top again, fold the paper, and pull the yarn out. Repeat these steps until the picture is painted.

You can use different colors and cut a piece of yarn for each color the child is using.

Winter Snowflakes

Have the child fold the paper in half vertically (independently or with assistance). Ask the child to draw any half-shape to be the base of the snowflake(i.e. half circle, half diamond, etc.). Instruct the child to draw more geometrical shapes along the edges of the paper, which can be cut out. Once the child is done drawing, let the child cut out all the shapes.

Let the child unfold the snowflake and decorate using crayons, markers, glitter, dot paint, stickers, etc.

To grade this activity you can:

1. Have lower/younger kids just cut out the big shape and then color in shapes that you draw for them (or you can draw and they can trace) if cutting the small shapes is too difficult

2. To make this activity easier you can also do half sheets of paper to make smaller snowflakes, less to color/cut/fold.

3. Have older/higher kids try to cut out shapes without drawing them first if they can. They can also fold the snowflake in half a second time (so it is in quarters) and do more cutouts on the snowflake.

Rainbow Fish

On the paper plate, draw a V shape, starting at the edge of the plate and pointing to the center of the plate (once the child cuts this part, it will be used as the fish’s tail). Ask the child to cut the lines (provide assistance as needed) and glue the “triangle” to the paper plate, forming the fish.

Have the child use the water colors to paint the fish, using as many colors as he wishes. Let the child glue a googly eye or draw an eye for the fish using a marker/crayon.

The painting can be done using water colors, tempera paint, markers, and even dot paint. To promote pincer grasp, let the child peel small stickers and decorate the fish with them.

Stickplane

Use the wooden sticks or craft sticks as the airplane wings.

Let the child paint or color the sticks with markers and decorate with stickers.

Once sticks are dry, instruct the child to glue on stick at the bottom of the clothespin and one stick at the top.

Using pincer grasp, instruct the child to pinch and open the clothespin while placing the third wing in the middle.

You can have the child glue the middle stick or do not glue the middle wing to allow the child to practice his grasp by removing the middle stick for a two wing airplane model.

Sunflower Handprint

Let the child cut the following pieces:
– 4-inch circle out of brown or black construction paper
– Stem (12-inch by 3-inch rectangle) and leaves out of green construction paper.

Use a large construction paper as the background and glue the stem from the bottom up. Glue the leaves to the stem.

Paint the child’s palms with yellow paint and instruct him to print his palms on the top part of the paper to form the flower petals.

Glue the 4-inch brown/black circle in the middle of the palm prints.