One kiddie pool + one large sheet of butcher paper + several balls dipped in paint = a super fun warm weather painting activity.
I've been wanting to try this large scale ball painting project with Maia for a while now and and am glad I finally did. (We've done something similar on a much smaller scale with marble rolling.)
I taped a sheet of butcher paper to the bottom of our plastic swimming pool, poured tempera paint into cake pans, and found an assortment of balls--bouncy balls, a huge wooden bead, and musical egg shakers. Tennis balls, wiffle balls, and softballs would work great as well. You could also try this with large ones such as soccer balls or basketballs.
By the way, the paper is actually construction paper (literally) bought in a large roll from Lowes for $10. This is a much better price than $40 Discount School Supply sells their butcher paper for! And much sturdier than the paper on newsprint rolls. I'm loving it.
First Maia and her friend Marlise covered the balls in paint.
Then they dropped the paint-covered balls in the swimming pool and rolled them back and forth and all around by tilting the pool.
Of course they were soon adding hand and foot prints to the painting. And, since paint is slippery, bottom prints.
I sprayed them (and the swimming pool) off with the hose and thought they'd want to splash around in the pool afterward but they chose a warm bath instead.
Have any of you tried painting with rolling balls or marbles?
