School Paints: Free Painting Activities for teachers in the classroom

Making Monster Paint Blob Faces is great fun for kids of all ages.   They are colourful, very simple to create and they look great displayed around the classroom.   LEVEL: Pre-school and Primary.  Monster Paint Blob Faces You will need: Tempera Poster Paint – in squeeze bottles is helpful Paper Marker Pen Drinking Straws Let’s get started: Squirt a nice small blob of paint on to the paper.   Thin the paint with a little water if necessary. If you do not have a squeeze bottle just use a spoon to spoon a small pool of paint. Using the drinking straw gently blow the paint around so it spreads out into an interesting monster-like blob shape.   Once dry, you can decorate your blobs with the marker pen or anything else you might find interesting like glitter or string for hair. TIPS:    -   Keep it to one colour. -    We painted small white circles for the eyes on each blob. -  ...

LEVEL: Pre-school and early primary. This is a great out door nature inspired painting project.   It’s always good to get outdoors and let the children talk about all the colours that they can see around them in the trees, grass and in the sky.   Using these colours to create artworks is ideal for learning colour mixing, squeezing (fine motor skills) and natural colours.   It is simple quick and colourful fun. You can use a small spray bottle filled with water to create your own rain on a sunny day. You will need: : Tempera Powder Paints. : Kitchen sieve. : Old spoons. : A small spray bottle filled with clean water. : Paper - heavier construction paper or cardboard works best here. : Water tub or tray. : Paper towels for clean-up. Get outdoors with colour Let’s get started: You can do this in the rain; but we found it cleaner and easier to create your own rain with a small spray bottle filled with water. Layout your sheets of pape...

LEVEL: Pre-school and Primary. This is quick, colourful fun and easy.         Wonky Spider Webs [ Follow us on Facebook  and Pinterest  ] You will need: : Paper : Thicken Tempera Paint or a coloured PVA like 3D Craft Paint : Scraper or an anything plastic like an old plastic ruler. : Apron and a cover sheet or newspapers or paper towels. [ How to Thicken Tempera Paint ] Let’s get started: You can either outline with a pencil around a circular object to make a perfect circle or you can just do it by hand to make a wonky shape, like we did. It is easier to use a bottle with a nozzle cap for better control. We used a plastic ruler. Start from the outside and work inwards to keep the basic shape. Try not to use too many colours. When you have filled in the shape use a blunt straight edged object and drag from the inside to the outer edge.   We used a plastic ruler.   You will need t...

Funny face printing     Funny faces with school tempera paints LEVEL : Pre-School and Primary School. Make fun and funny faces with almost anything you can find.  A lot of fun and it gets the children’s creativity flowing.  You can use all sorts of objects to print from – Keys, forks, spoons, corks and buttons will work as well.  Check with an adult that you are allowed to use them before you cover them with paint.    You will need: : Objects for printing such as buttons, forks, pegs, cotton reels and plastic bottle tops. : White Paper : Tempera Paint – just a few colours. : Brushes : Paint trays or old plates for dipping the objects.   : Paper towels to use like blotting paper. : Apron and a cover sheet, newspapers or paper towels. Let’s get started: Before you start have some paper towels ready. Pour the tempera paint colours into shallow trays.   I found using a fork it makes interesting hair patterns.  1. ...

Handprint fabric prints on t-shirts: LEVEL: Pre-school and Early Primary. This activity is always popular as a meaningful take home artwork for kids to give to their parents and grandparents.   They can be t-shirts, hats, towels or even pillow covers. You will need: : A solid colour cotton fabric to paint on.   More basic the better. : A permanent fabric ink or paint.   FAS Fastex textile ink is ideal. : Plastic table top or you can cover a table with a plastic sheet. : Paint brushes or sponges and shallow trays : Have plenty of water and old towels for a quick clean up. : Apron and a cover sheet or newspapers – plus paper towels. Let’s get started: Before you start be sure that children and clothing is well protected as this type of product is designed to stain clothing permanently. Pour a small amount of the fabric ink/paint into a shallow bowl or paper plate. Solid single bright colours are better than mixed colours.   Colours can...

Paint Imprint Stamping lesson with school paints: [ Follow us on Facebook  and Pinterest  ]   LEVEL: Pre-School & Early Primary School. This is so much fun, it really gets kids thinking outside the square and using their imagination. In fact sometimes it’s more fun looking for, and collecting objects to paint with than the paint imprint stamping itself.   Try using old toys Paint imprint stamping is using any object and paint to make interesting imprints. Old toys are brilliant for this.   Tyre tracks from old toy trucks and cars and feet of dolls.   But you can also use sponges, corks and other interesting found objects to make a paint imprint stamping masterpiece.   You might need to wash some of the objects before you use them. You will need: : Look for objects to stamp and imprint with (see above). : A good thick Tempera Poster paint in bold colours. : Sheets of paper. : Shallow paint trays + paint brus...

LEVEL: Pre-School & Early Primary School. This is a quick way to make fun and colourful artworks.   Children love spreading the colours around the page and making designs and shapes.   You will need: : A scraper set (see photo). Old credit cards are also ideal. The scraper sets are normally made of plastic and in a set of 4 different shapes.   They will need to be cleaned between colours. A scraper set : A good thick Tempera Poster paint in bold colours. : Sheets of paper. : Water and a dishcloth to clean between colours. : Apron and sheets of newspapers – plus paper towels – for clean-up. Let’s get started: Prepare a flat surface work area with a newspaper and put on the aprons.   There are two main ways to do Scraper Painting. One way is to put a blob of paint on a page and move it around in one solid sweeping move with a scraper. All the time trying not to lift the scraper off the page until you have run out of paint to ...

Artist tip on preparing to paint on location By Ron Gribble. We have been concentrating on basic house keeping tips lately, cleanliness and organization. This becomes doubly important when you go ‘Plein Aire’, that is painting on location. The wind will find any disorganisation and create havoc. You will need Bull Dog Clips to keep your rag from flapping paint all over the general landscape. If you clean your brushes firstly on a piece of paper to remove the excess paint. I use a portion of telephone directory, as this is very absorbent and remain bound down the spine even if after I have removed ten or twenty pages for my days painting. Then secondly wash it in your brush cleaner and use the rag to remove the turpentine. Don’t put paint on the rag! The pages of the book can be folded over and clipped down with a bulldog clip to secure it from the effects of the wind. If the rag does flap about, it’s only turpentine on it anyway. I am off to paint my way around the South...

Artist Tip by Ron Gribble;  This theory is a very sound one for painting in Oils. But that is on its own will not be enough.  As well as putting on darks first, start with thin paint and no detail, and work towards ‘Fatter’ and fatter paint and more and more detail. I will explain over my next three months.  DARKS ON FIRST: Remember, you are painting the deepest darks first, were very little light is penetrating. Especially if you are painting a scene outside, much of this deep shadow could be some distance from you. Conclusion: Nobody, unless their father is an eagle can see detail in deep shade at a distance. So don’t put any detail in at this stage.  Try to lather paint on with as little brush strokes visible as possible, just like painting the house – ‘Lay off’ the paint by gentle horizontal and vertical brush strokes, with a beard flat brush. This prepares the way to contrast some detail against the “quiet” area, when you lay on high lights. This wor...

Artist Tips by Ron Gribble Last post we discussed brush-cleaning devise that I use, This post I want to stay with brushes. Generally speaking, good oil painting brushes are not expensive, but it takes only a minute to prolong their useful life. I try to remember after each painting session (not so easy when I am on location) to clean my brushes with clean soapy warm water, as follows. Wipe the brush across a wet piece of soap until a good quantity of the soap is worked into the bristles. Grip the ends of the bristles with one hand and with the other hand move the brush so that the bristles are splayed out and the soap can work right up to the ferrule. Now Place the brush into a sink, and squeeze the soap back out by pressing the ferrule end of the bristle against the hard surface until you squeeze out the dirty soapy water. Rinse with warm water Repeat this until the soapy water that you squeeze out is no longer dirty. Lastly repeat step one o...

LEVEL: Pre-school and Early Primary. String painting is a simple art experience that encourages children to explore and create with a different kind of media and to experiment with line, colours, shapes and designs. Here is another way to do string painting. You will need: : Tempera poster paint. : String cut into 30cm to 50cm length (12 to 20inches). : Sheets of paper – pre folded them in half. : A shallow paint tray or dish : Apron and a cover sheet or newspapers – plus paper towels – for clean-up. String Painting Let’s get started: Prepare the work area with a plastic sheet and put on the aprons.   A flat surface is better that an easel for string painting. Open the folded paper on the table close to the paint trays. Place one end of the string into the paint tray while making sure you are keeping hold of the dry end.   Lift the string out of the paint by the dry end.   Lay the string on the paper to be painted...