Finger paint fun
(Finger paint is a misnomer – it is actually hand painting – you use your whole hands!)
Finger paint recipes
Starch – A cup of starch in a heat proof bowl – add about a cup of cold water and mix well and then perhaps 2-4 more cups of boiling water stirring continuously (depending on how thick you want it.)
Corn Flour – A cup of corn flour in a pot. Add a cup of cold water and mix well. Then add 2-4 cups of water and cook on stove stirring continuously until it thickens nicely.
Then add paint or food colour to the mix.
Also – peanut butter, custard, cheese spread, milk puddings (or soya)...
1. Pour the paint onto the table. The children use their hands to make pictures or patterns.(Pour any leftover paint in the water play basin to make coloured water)
2. Pour the paint onto the table. The children use their hands to make pictures or patternsand then take prints from them by pressing paper onto the paint and then lifting it.
3. Make very bubbly water with cheap washing up liquid. Pour on table and let children move their hands around in it.
4. Make very bubbly water with cheap washing up liquid add coloured paint. Pour on table and let children play. Remember and USE the fact that if you put blue on a red table there will be some purple colour. Same for other mixes of the primary colours.
5. Make cardboard rakes to draw patterns through the finger paint.
6. Use scrunched up newspaper and make patterns in the spread out paint
7. Use scrunched up cloth – dip in the paint and make prints on the paper.
8. Use an old comb on the spread out paint
9. Use saved ice cream sticks to make marks in the spread out paint.
10. Use a fork (plastic is also fine) to make patterns in the paint.
11. Put out four trays on the table. Put a dollop of custard on them and let the children make patterns with clean hands and then eat it if they want too. Then they wash and dry the tray and put it on the table for the next child. (Have a basin of water, washing up liquid and a dish towel nearby)
12. Do the same with other kinds of puddings one mixes with milk.
13. Spread the paint and then use marbles to make patterns in it by rolling them around.
14. Use old matches to draw in the paint.
15. Have two primary colours of finger paint. Place a dollop of each on the paper. Spread together to make secondary colour.
16. Use templates. Place on the paper. Squidge the paint into the template with fingers and hands. Lift template.
17. Place paper in beer tray and then add a dollop of paint. The children sit on a chair and ‘paint’ and spread it with their bare feet. Do outside and have a place to wash their feet and a towel for drying.
18. Finger paint with mud and or clay.
19. Finger paint to cover medium sized stones or large pebbles. (Use the hand to put the paint on!) Feels lovely.
20. Add sand from the sandpit to the paint for a gritty finger paint experience.
21. Mix maizena (corn flour) with cold water. Spread on trays for a strange sensory experience.
22. Add colour to the maizena and cold water for a different experience.
23. Roll old golf balls in the paint.
24. Use old roll on deodorant applicators to roll marks in the spread out paint.
25. Use old curlers to make patterns in the paint
26. Make a peanut butter sauce by adding water and soya sauce (optional) and warming it on the stove. The children spread it on a plate with their clean hands and then mop it off with a piece of bread and eat it. Have a washing up bowl with washing up liquid and a dish towel so that the children can wash the plates and dry them and put them back on the table for the next child (washing is also enjoyed!)
27. Cheese spread can also be used as a paint on a plate and then eaten off clean fingers or by mopping with some bread. Use bread sticks to make patterns in it...
28. Yogurt and strawberry jam mixed on a plate with clean hands and mopped up with half a banana...
29. Melted chocolate – need I say more?
30. Make the paint very thick. Use artists palette knives to move the spread out paint around to your satisfaction.
31. Make the paint very thick. Use old cake mixer spatulas to move the paint around...