Chalk Paint

Do your kids love scooping, pouring, and mixing as much as mine do? The girls love to be helpful, but sometimes I find it hard to let them practice because I’m short on time, I don’t want the mess, or I don’t want all of the ingredients on the floor!

Making chalk paint allowed them to be in control of the whole process and it was a breeze to clean up since we were outside. I’m guessing you could also do this in the shower or an empty bathtub because the food coloring would be so diluted. This was a fun way to let them practice those reasoning and fine motor skills, even if the end result wasn’t quite what I thought it would be- see below for the scoop.

Here’s what you need

• Food coloring. I keep stock of this mainly for activities. I can’t even remember the last time I used it for food!

• Corn starch. I like the sealed bag this one comes in-great for scooping and doesn’t spill in my pantry. We use it often, so I actually ran out of this bag right before this activity!

• Water in a bowl or sensory bin

• Muffin tin or bowls. I just ordered these silicone ones (came in a 2 pack) because they can go into the dishwasher! You can clearly see we don’t use this muffin tin for baking anymore! Definitely worth the storage space for me to have some dedicated for the kids to use.

• Paint brushes. We love this set and use it all the time.

• Scoop or measuring cup

Set up

5-20 minutes. Part of this activity can be the setup if your kids are interested. If you just want the painting part for them, you could get this set up in only a few minutes. We spent a long time scooping, adding colors, and stirring.

1. Fill a bin or bowl with water.

2. Scoop corn starch into the wells of the muffin tin. We used about 1/8 cup in each well by just filling 1/4 cup half way.

3. Scoop water into the wells of the muffin tin, but leave a little room for stirring. We used about 1/4 cup in each well.

4. Use 1-4 drops of food coloring in each well. The kids loved to make new colors and different shades of the same color.

5. Stir, making sure to incorporate the corn starch at the bottom. You should get a pastel look to your new paint.

Clean up

2 minutes

1. There are a few ways you can dispose of this

   1. Dump out the leftovers in the grass/driveway.

   2. Add warm water to dilute as you slowly dump it in the sink. You want to avoid the corn starch and water separating and clogging your drain. If you dilute with warm running water, this won’t be an issue.

2. Rinse off paint brushes

3. Clean muffin tin

4. Empty water bowl- we just dumped ours outside.

The food coloring was a highlight for the kids during this activity. It was great practice for coordination, hand/grip strength, and fun to hypothesize what different combinations to make. There are so many great learning opportunities in activities like this.

Please know that I don’t always have time to talk through every color or step! We did this activity while Ellette was sleeping which allowed me to give my undivided attention. I planned to not multitask during this activity. If I had other things I needed to accomplish, I would limit the setup to 5-10 minutes and then let them paint, which requires less of my attention.

I find myself getting unfairly frustrated if I try to pack too many things in a short time frame. It is very helpful for me to dedicate time to give my undivided attention for a short period instead of constantly trying (and failing) to balance 5 different things in my brain. Check out this post on how I use Theme Days to accomplish this.

The colors were not outstandingly vibrant on our driveway like I was expecting. I think they would have dried brighter, but it started raining and all of the paintings got washed away before I could take many pictures. See below for the one star/snowflake I did capture.

Thankfully we love a good rainy day and were able to pivot to a walk with umbrellas and “rainy boots”.

We haven’t gotten around to repeating this activity yet, so please comment below and include a picture if your chalk paint doesn’t get washed away! I would love to see all of the masterpieces.

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