If you are looking for a great activity for your children this summer, sand painting can be a fun way to take painting to a new level!
If you’re looking for art projects to keep the kids busy during the summer, you must try this activity! It’s a great way to help toddlers practice their fine motor skills, make choices about color, and get creative.
You can even collect grains of sand on your family vacation and use those to make your own beautiful paintings. How sweet is that?
What is sand painting?
First, let’s clarify that there are two types of sand painting. The first and most prominent method is a traditional method used by the Navajo Tribe in which a Navajo artist carefully pours colored sand onto a surface to create a design. Sand artists usually create beautiful sand paintings for healing ceremonies and they are very different from the activity we use here!
The second type of sand painting is a novel way of painting with kids. Basically, you combine dry sand with tempera paints. The sand adds a thickness and texture to the paint that makes it really fun to play with.
This is a fun kid craft idea that will help your child learn important skills, too. Painting has lots of benefits for children including improving hand-eye coordination, aiding colour recognition and allowing them to be creative.
Sand painting gives you a wonderful opportunity to add an extra sensory dimension to painting, and can allow your children an opportunity for some great sensory play too.
Equipment Required
- Sand
- Coloured paint (tempera, acrylic)
- Paint brushes
- Paper plates or plastic cups (for mixing paint)
- Paper or card stock
How to Make Sand Paint for Toddlers
- Add a small amount of sand to a cup or dish. Carefully stir in a little paint at a time until the paint can hold onto the sand.
- Set out a piece of cardstock or paper for your child to paint their sand picture.
- Give them the brush and let them have at it!
Tips for Sand Painting with Kids
As you can imagine, using these ingredients with kids can easily result in a mess. Here are some tips to make this fun activity a little less chaotic.
Get the proper mix – Add a little paint at a time. You should still be able to paint a line of color, but you also want there to be enough sand to add texture. Play with it until you’re happy!
Choose the right area – Select an area that is easy to sweep or mop up in case of spills. Avoid carpeted areas as it can be difficult to remove sand from carpet and furniture.
Protect your clothes – Wear old t-shirts or aprons to keep the sand paint off your kids’ clothes.
Use thicker paper – Since sand will add grittiness to the paint, I recommend using a thicker paper that can withstand a little more friction and weight. A thick cardstock is perfect!
Since the paint allows the sand to stick to the paper, this is a low-tech way to make textured paints. Your kids will love making a sand picture!
More activities like this for toddlers
Looking for more fun things to do with your little ones? Check out these too.
- Spring activities to get your kids outside NOW!
- 5 top tips for creating imaginative play spaces
- Baby sensory cards
- Father’s Day Messy Play card
- 6 reasons why playing music helps your child
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Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!