- books or small blocks
- cups (plastic or paper)
- disposable cake pans
- eyedroppers
- food coloring
- paper
- paper towels
- tape
- water
- ramp
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.5: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.
Head Start Outcomes:
Approaches to Learning/Initiative and Curiosity: Demonstrates flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities.
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Uses scribbles, shapes, pictures, and letters to represent objects, stories, experiences, or ideas.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Composition 16: Use their own words or illustrations to describe their experiences, tell imaginative stories, or communicate information about a topic of interest.
Rolling, Sliding Drops of Color
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Creative Expression, Small Motor Skills, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Put several drops of a single color of food coloring in each cup of water. Make sure color is fairly dark and intense.
Invite children to make colorful ramp paintings.
- Help children tape a piece of paper to cover the bottom of the ramp (pan).
- Prop up one end of the pan on a few books or blocks to create a ramp.
- Use the eyedropper to “drip” color at the top of the paper. Watch what happens.
- Prompt children to use different colors to make colorful drip designs.
- Encourage children to make steeper ramps.
- Try making the ramp using a length-wise side of the pan.
Have children create their own pictures. Have them share how they created their drip painting.
Adaptation: If very young children have trouble dropping just a few drops of colored water, hold their hands and help them release one drop at a time.