Joyful Paint

I’m taking a commercial break today from the difference between theme teaching and emergent curriculum to talk about the simple joys of combining white glue and shaving cream.

Combining these two art mediums in approximately equal amounts and mixing them together creates homemade foam paint that is wonderful to use. We add liquid watercolor to ours to make many beautiful shades.

Today we used it to make the bottoms of shoebox habitats that we have creating for polar creatures that the children made out of clay a couple of weeks ago. They had to use our non-fiction books and look at the pictures to “research” where the animals lived and rip paper to decorate the background scenery in which that animal would live; land, water or both. Today they used this magnificent foam paint to build ice caps or ocean waves or snow drifts.

This paint has depth, texture and fullness. It feels luxurious to use. The children often rub it all around their hands as they use it, so make a lot. Remember young children need a lot of a material like this and they need time to just play with it.

The only way my students were able to use this paint in a project was because they have had ample time to explore its properties. Process is so much more important than the product. And even with that-my students and my assistant and I were pretty covered today.

But as I always say, “a dirty kid is a happy kid.” Today, we were joyful.