Finger painting is always fun!* Kids have permission to cover their hands with paint and slip, slide their fingers through gooey color. Finger paint is the epitome of sensory art and, for young children especially, sensory art is important for development and even helps them learn.
We recently tried a newly-developed kind of finger paint from Discount School Supply called Sensory Sand Finger Paint. It added a whole new layer of sensory fun to the activity!
***Note: Readers will have a chance to win a set of six Sensory Sand Finger Paints at the end of this post.***
Discount School Supply, one of my lovely blog sponsors, sent us a set of the paints to try out and review along with some finger paint paper and a big ole plastic finger paint tray
.
The finger paints feel as slippery and finger paint-y as any finger paints, but they are also slightly gritty. It sounds like a funny combination, but the kids liked it, and it worked really well. The sand element is very fine—not coarse at all—but you can definitely feel it.
Here's what we did with our sensory sand finger paint ::
Squish, squeeze it...
Swirl and rub it around...
Draw and write in it with a finger...
Mix colors...
Make monoprints...
Drum, drum, drum with it...
Play back and forth with it...
And draw in it with all ten fingers at once...
We started out using the finger paint paper in the tray, but about half way through the kids switched to painting directly on the tray.
It was the perfect finger painting situation! The paper was okay, but it kind of got in the way of a full-on sensory finger painting extravaganza. It bunched up a little and you had to be a bit more careful.
Painting directly on the tray was freeing.
I generally like to keep things basic and don't usually go in for "extras," but boy, I have to say I like that finger paint tray.
We've painted directly on the tabletop plenty of times, but it felt different with this tray. It's extra smooth for one thing. It's plenty big enough, but the space is defined. And I really liked knowing that I could take it outside and spray it down with a hose when the kids were finished painting. (If it were winter or I lived in an apartment, I'd probably wash it in the shower or maybe the sink.)
Unfortunately it arrived cracked along two of the lips, but the one time I had something similar happen with a Discount School Supply product a few years ago, they apologized and replaced it immediately. (I didn't ask for a replacement this time since they sent it to me for free.)
It is nice to have a painting on paper to display, though. Here's one of the dried paintings. You can make prints from the paint in the tray (and we did lots of that!) but they have a very different look than the the finger painting that was done directly on paper.
Here's a close up of one of the dried paintings so you can see (barely) the grain of the sand from the sensory sand paints.
*Note: There are some children who don't like the sensory stimulation of finger painting (or other messy art projects). It is more commonly a phase that a child goes through but it can also be a more ongoing preference. (And, occasionally, it can be the result of a sensory processing disorder.) If the child doesn't want to touch the finger paint, you can let him paint with a tool (a brush or chopstick, for example) or put some paint in a plastic bag and let him squish it around with his hands. Next time, he may be ready use his hands.
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Note: I am a Discount School Supply affiliate and the links in this post are affiliate links. I only use affiliate links for products we use and love. If you follow a link and place a purchase, I will receive a small percentage of the sales price from Discount School Supply and will send you virtual hugs.
***GIVEAWAY***
Sensory Sand Finger Paint Giveaway
Readers who leave a comment to this post by 11:49pm EST Saturday, July 28th, will be entered to win a a set of six Colorations brand Sensory Sand Finger Paints
. Winner will be chosen by random number generator and posted here on the morning of Sunday, July 29th. Giveaway open to readers in the contiguous United States only.
Good luck!
Giveaway now closed.
The random number generator gave me #84, so andiejaye wins the set of six Sensory Sand Finger Paints. Congrats! (I will e-mail you...)
we've never tried this type of paint before, but it looks like so much fun!
