Preschoolers, and children generally, learn best through hands-on activities. Help them with their ABCs learning letters with this fun, hands-on watercolor painting for kids. This is another post within our 31 days of activities series, and this activity has been provided today by Homeschooling in Progress.
Learning the letters of the alphabet is an important skill for preschoolers, and younger children generally. Once they begin recognising various letters, they want all their activities to include those letters. Kids love writing and coloring letters. A wonderful activity for your child is to create letter paintings using watercolor paints.
Watercolor painting for kids is an inexpensive activity that only uses a handful of materials. You probably already have many of the materials on hand, which makes this a great rainy day or last-minute activity.
Materials for ABCs learning with watercolors
- Watercolor paper/Cardstock
- Watercolor paints
- Paintbrush
- Masking tape or painter’s tape
- Cup of water and paper towel
- Table covering (newspaper, towel) to protect table
How to create a watercolor letter painting
After you gather your materials, you’re ready to begin….
First, you’ll want to decide what letter to make with your tape. Create the letter with tape on your paper. Regular masking tape will work on watercolor paper, but you can also use painter’s tape if you’d like the tape to come off more easily. Make sure the tape is pushed firmly onto the paper. You don’t want any watercolor paint to seep under it!
Next you’ll add the paints to the paper. If your child doesn’t know how to wet watercolor paints, then this is a great opportunity to teach that. You can model for your child how to dip the paintbrush in the cup of water, and then dip the wet paintbrush tip into each cake of dry paint in the colors you want to use.
Your child should paint the entire paper, including over the tape. This will ensure the letters will be nicely outlined with paint after you remove the tape. Once your child is happy with the paint coverage, then set the paper aside to dry completely.
While waiting for the paint to dry, clean up your materials. After the paint is completely dry, carefully remove the tape from the paper. An adult should do this part so that the paper doesn’t tear. Now your child can enjoy the watercolor letter painting!
Important skills learned through painting with watercolors
Painting with watercolors may just seem like a fun play activity for kids. However, preschoolers learn best through play, so they are also developing important skills with this activity. First, they learn a lot about creating art. Preschoolers learn just how much water to add to the paint in order to get the amount of color they desire. They also begin to understand how certain colors look mixed together.
Through tape resist watercolor painting, kids also learn how to add enough paint to the entire paper. If they don’t cover the whole area, then they’ll realize that it doesn’t give as nice of a picture once the tape is removed. Following directions like this is a very important skill for all kids to learn. Hands-on activities like watercolor painting help preschoolers build the hand muscles needed for writing. All these skills learned, and here your kids are just having fun painting!
Variations for watercolor painting with kids
Creating a letter with this tape resist watercolor activity is a fantastic way to learn letters for preschoolers. However, there are also several other great ideas using tape resist with watercolors.
- Kids can paint entire words instead of just a letter. Use less tape to make smaller letters so the words fit on the paper. This is perfect for kindergarten sight words or spelling practice for older kids.
- Younger children may enjoy creating tape resist shapes through watercolor painting. Instead of using the tape to make a letter, make a shape or many shapes, like circles and squares, instead.
- Let children add the tape to the paper themselves. They may not make a particular object with the tape, but they will love to be able to create a painting from start to finish all by themselves.
- Create different objects, like trees or houses, with the tape.
- Don’t use tape at all. Have children paint an entire piece of watercolor paper. Once dry, have your child cut out a variety of shapes, letters, or other objects. They can glue this onto a separate sheet of paper to create a beautiful watercolor collage.
Children learn so much by creating with art materials and using their hands. We’ve got some great tips for teaching art to kids, and this activity could be a wonderful addition to a classroom. Creating beautiful watercolor paintings for kids, especially preschoolers, helps them develop many skills. Through hands-on activities, children build muscle strength necessary for good handwriting. They also get the pleasure of creating beauty themselves by using art materials like watercolors. Most importantly to them, they get to have fun! Grab your paints, paper, and tape so your child can create an amazing watercolor painting today.
If you like this, do check out our weekly, and we will send you an activity a day to try and help you out with the kids.
If you want more activities to do with your toddlers how about these from the site.
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Thanks for stopping by,
Helen
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Christy Jacob
Christy Jacob is a homeschool mom of four who enjoys laughing and learning with her kids. She believes a homeschool day can be manageable and enjoyable. Christy shares tips, ideas, and activities to simplify the homeschool day so homeschool parents can feel confident and enjoy teaching their kids.
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