Painting our way!
Date: June 22, 2022
Time: Work time
Facilitators: Simran J and Jasmine
PROPS USED
Tempera paints, plain sheets, sheets of paper with the body of the butterfly (except the wings), empty plates and paper cups.
What was the activity?
During work time, we had two small activities involving tempera paint as the main art medium. On one table we had hand-painting with a butterfly template and the other table had cup-painting with blank sheets. In the first one, the kids were supposed to put the impressions of their palms as the wings of the butterfly and in the latter, kids were supposed to imprint the base of the paper cup on the blank sheet.
Why did we plan this activity?
As per our general observations, this class loves using tempera paints, so we had two variations of using this art medium.
Sensory Experience: These paint colors stimulated sensory experience since they had cool, soft and moist texture. The kids explored different colors and myriad ways of moving their fingers across the paint colors spread out on a plate.
Fine motor skills:The toddlers had to pick up the paper cups, put the base over the paint and then dab them on a sheet of paper, all of which involved a lot of fine motor and gross motor skills. Even while imprinting their hand impressions, their fine motor muscles were engrossed.
Language and speech development: Our arthlings recognised and learnt about names of different colors along with the different shapes and direction of the fingers and hands on the sheet. Also, there was verbalisation about different directions and action verbs like “Dab the hand over the sheet” were used to enhance language skills.
Focus and attention: The toddlers were able to channelise their focus onto the different shades of paint and the process of putting the imprint on sheets of paper.
The Series of Steps engaged in?
In one tray, paper cups and some tempera paints were kept and the other tray included the sheets with the body of the butterfly printed on them. The educators squeezed the paints onto the plates for easy accessibility to colors. The kids were invited by showing the paint colors and the butterfly sheets. Educators modeled the behavior of how to get the imprints of the hand and cups on the sheets.
How did it go? (Finally!)
On the table with the paper cups, Saanvi, Atharv Gupta, Radhya, Nyra and Ratujit participated. Saanvi didn’t want to dirty her hands and subsequently, she seemed quite interested in picking up the cups and getting their imprints on the paper. All others began with cups but eventually ended with putting their hand impressions over the paper.
On the butterfly table, Aaradhya, Neyansh, Daksh, Kaira, Yuvaan, Shivansh, and Jasvi participated. Most of the kids used more than one sheet of paper and it seemed that they enjoyed moving their palms across the soft texture of the paint colors. Yuvaan tried squeezing the tempera paint bottles directly onto his sheet but was not yet equipped to open the cap of the bottle. Neyansh was reluctant to put his palms over the paints spread out on the plate, so the paint colors were squeezed on his sheet directly and he dabbed those areas with his fingers and palms. After this activity, all the kids went for hand washing.
