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You are here: Home / Art / Rainbow Sponge Painting on the Easel

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Rainbow Sponge Painting on the Easel

March 7, 2012 by Sheryl Cooper

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We’ve done plenty of rainbow painting activities, but painting with a sponge on the easel was new. Painting rainbows with sponges has been featured on many blogs, such as Teach Preschool and Hands On As We Grow. However, I was looking for something we could do on our easel. It occurred to me that sponge painting rainbows on a vertical surface could be pretty cool! And it’s also a great lesson in color mixing, as you will see in this post.

rainbow art

What you will need:

  • Plastic squirt bottles, one for each color

  • Sponge

  • Tempera paint: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet (purple)

  • Upright surface, such as an easel

 

 

preschool rainbow art

Setting up this rainbow activity:

Pour tempera paint into plastic squeeze bottles. (I hope you love these bottles as much as we do. We use them for lots of different art activities, even with glue!)

preschool rainbow art
 …
Squeeze a line of each color on the sponge in rainbow order.
preschool rainbow art
 …

 Invite the children to paint a rainbow!

 preschool rainbow art
…
 preschool rainbow art
 …
I could have told them to stop once they had a nice vivid rainbow on their papers. But, that’s not my style. I let them keep on going, because the fun for them is to move that paint around!
 preschool rainbow art
 …
 

This also worked with our youngest class, our 2 year olds.

 
preschool rainbow art
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They were just as excited to watch the colors smear on the paper as they moved the sponge back and forth.
preschool rainbow art
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 preschool rainbow art
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Some made sure to cover the entire sheet of paper.
 preschool rainbow art
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 rainbow painting

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Art, preschool, Toddlers Tagged With: art, colors, preschool, toddlers

About Sheryl Cooper

Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.

Previous Post: « Easy Toddler Transportation Art Using Lego Cars
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. stephanie leah

    March 7, 2012 at 3:12 am

    YES! As I read thru this and saw the pictures, I wanted to throw my hands up in the air and cheer “yes! this is how this activity should be done!!!” i love your open-ended style, sheryl.

  2. TammySF.

    March 7, 2012 at 12:55 am

    A “mess” can be cleaned up, but the experiences a child has can never be replaced:) Awesome!!!

  3. Elune

    March 8, 2012 at 3:11 am

    That looks like fun even for adults 😀 I might try that some time.

  4. TammySF.

    March 8, 2012 at 3:18 am

    I’ve just given you the Top 10 award over at my blog! Go check out my post for tonight!!
    http://www.123teachwithme.com

  5. Michelle

    March 8, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    Sheryl,
    Did you put the paint on the sponge for the 2’s or did you let them do it themselves??
    Great idea… I want to try 😉
    Michelle

    • Sheryl @ Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

      July 14, 2012 at 9:37 pm

      At first I did it. Then, when I saw that some wanted to do it themselves, I placed the bottles at the edge of the counter and let them go for it.

      (I apologize for not seeing this comment earlier!)

  6. Tami

    March 8, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    This is a great idea! I have to try it with my 2 and 3 years old’s. You are right though, they will eventually mix the colors together. Oh but the fun they have!

    This is my first time visiting your site. I run an in-home child care service. My website is http://www.aunttamishouse.blogspot.com

    • Sheryl @ Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

      March 10, 2012 at 9:22 pm

      Happy to have you here, Tami!

  7. Carla at Preschool Powol Packets

    March 10, 2012 at 5:38 am

    Fabulous!! I love how you let them keep going–it’s so tempting sometime to steal the art work when it first looks done–but it still looks so cool when they decide it’s really done!

  8. Anonymous

    March 10, 2012 at 6:25 pm

    excellent site, some brilliant ideas to use.

    • Sheryl @ Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

      July 14, 2012 at 9:32 pm

      Thank you!

  9. aGibson

    March 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    I found your blog on pinterest – love it! Perfect for my “baby” girl (3). Also liking that easel – what brand is it?

    • Sheryl @ Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

      March 10, 2012 at 9:21 pm

      Little Tykes. Not as bulky as some of the others we’ve had, and folds flat easily.

  10. Emily

    March 13, 2012 at 8:39 am

    This is such a great idea! My three-year-old loves to paint and we’ve used everything from brushes to our fingers to chopped vegetables, but it never occurred to me to use sponges. I love the different textures the kids created and the way they blended the colors. I can’t wait to try this with my daughter!

  11. notafreakingcricketmatch

    July 14, 2012 at 3:40 am

    Oh my gosh. I just discovered your blog tonight, but I’m obsessed. You are such an inspiring teacher!!!!

    This quote… “Yes, if my desire was for it to look just like a rainbow, I would’ve pulled the paper off the easel right then. But I didn’t. I knew they wanted to experience more. And they did.”

    This is exactly what I needed to hear. It sometimes really irritates me when a child makes something like this… like a rainbow, but then they just CAN NOT STOP THEMSELVES from putting more and more and more paint on. But you said it right. You hit the nail on the head. They just want to EXPERIENCE more.

    And I need to accept that this okay. This is GOOD. THIS is the GOAL. 😀

    • Sheryl @ Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds

      July 14, 2012 at 9:35 pm

      It’s very hard for me to watch a teacher/adult stop a child from adding his own touches on work. I know we tend to have expectations on what it should look like, but we are not them. This is THEIR work, THEIR experience. I now love to sit back and watch as they take it to their level. I love the look in their eyes as they discover. To me, that is much more important than the outcome. This is why I try not to do cookie cutter art work, except perhaps special seasonal projects.

  12. Beffy Bef

    October 3, 2013 at 4:30 am

    Occasionally for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. I may want to have a rainbow (or whatever) and I do take the paper right then, but I ALWAYS then let them continue to do more papers however they want. I always explain that this one is for me but you can do anything you want on the next one. Love the paint on the sponge idea!

    • Sheryl Cooper

      February 12, 2014 at 6:34 am

      Yes, I’ve done that, too! If it’s something for a special event, I quickly hand them another piece of paper to “finish”. 🙂

  13. Anonymous

    February 10, 2014 at 11:49 pm

    Would also be a great way to teach that red and blue make purple and so on without them even realizing. It would be priceless to watch the light dawn! You’ve certainly hit on a winner!!

  14. vassilia vigneron

    February 20, 2014 at 2:26 pm

    excellent idea!

  15. KreaTitis

    February 20, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    We try the same with his hands. Each fingers get a different colour and woala. He made his own rainbow handprint 🙂 after he tested all kind of movement with his painted hand and he love that he get different colours and shapes.

  16. Yesi

    February 22, 2014 at 3:59 pm

    What kind of paper did you use?

    • Sheryl Cooper

      February 23, 2014 at 2:29 am

      I believe we used a slick paper, such as finger painting paper. Being slick allows the sponge to move easier.

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