How to Make Paint for Preschoolers

I had wanted to make some paint for my preschoolers for a while. In fact, when I did the research for it, I found it was so easy I was able to include Abs and Becs in the whole process so that not only did they paint with the paint, they also got to make it themselves!

Read More! My ‘Artists at Play’ sessions worked so well for my two girls. Click here to find out more and see some photos of the first session.

How to Make Paint for Preschoolers From Household Ingredients

Firstly, I made up some base for the paints I wanted my little scientists to make the next day to use in their ‘Artists at Play’ hour.  Basically paint is thickened colour so I mixed some water, with thickener (flour) and ended up with a white base. I made it a little thicker than I eventually wanted it.  The reason for this was that as part of their science lesson I wanted the little ones to colour jars of bases to make up their own paint. 

Next, I made up the colourants. I did this by adding lots of food colouring to a little water. When I had achieved the concentration of colour I needed, I popped the coloured water into the test tubes.

The next day arrived and with it much excitement. If you want to make paint for your preschoolers, I really encourage you to give it a go! My girls had so much fun! I instructed them to add one colour to each tub and then give the tubs a good mix. 

We popped the lids on and put them to one side for the next day’s art fun:

In addition to making paint for preschoolers, we have also had a lot of fun colouring shaving foam and painting with that! Oh, and just to make it even messier, I gave them spray bottles of coloured water as well. I honestly think, so long as an activity is messy, preschoolers will love it!

Find Out More! Our foam painting and coloured water spraying was one of our most successful ‘Artists at Play’ sessions.

Let me know if you make some paint with your preschoolers!