No Mess Finger Painting in a Pinch

Because of my work schedule, messy art projects are generally reserved for the weekends. I never want L to feel rushed while she's creating something marvelous, so usually painting on a weekday morning is not an option.  So you can imagine the thrill I felt when a friend shot me a text the other night and gave me this brilliant idea: put the paint in a bag! Still a cool art experience, but no muss, no fuss. Could it be? A quick and easy "painting" project that could be carried out without paint all over the place? What a brilliant idea, especially if you're short on time! I got to work right away.

I simply filled a Ziploc bag with a bit of tempera, sealed the top, and taped the whole thing to the top of L's art table.

I made a smiley face and left the bag for the night. I couldn't wait for L to wake up in the morning and start having a blast "painting" with my new creation. Oh, how quickly my dreams were dashed.

Illustrating perfectly that you never know how kids will react when you present them with something new, L promptly melted down when I showed her the bag taped to the table. I was so bummed that she wasn't finding this new project as glorious as I had.  Things turned around pretty quickly, however, when we peeled back the tape and she had free reign to squeeze the living daylights out of the bag and explore it in her own way.

So things didn't work out exactly as I thought they would (such is the life of an early childhood teacher!) but the activity turned out to be great fun anyway. It was a wonderful sensory experience and I have complete confidence that L will enjoy it the other way eventually.

I can also see how, in the future, this will be a great way to practice letter writing. I gave it a whirl and thought it was pretty groovy...I'll show L sometime when she's not so busy annihilating the bag!