“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
– Vincent Van Gogh
We love to paint! It’s a great way for everyone to experience a form of creative expression…and there is no right way or wrong way to do it. Painting stimulates body movement, cognitive and emotional thought, and awakens our visual senses. Of the five ways that our bodies process sensory information, the art of painting will always spark our sense of sight. But did you know that there are exceptionally fun ways to introduce your kiddos to the other four senses through painting? Yep! Today, we wanted to share our favorite ways of Painting with the Five Senses!
Our senses are what allow us to observe and understand the world around us. There are five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Our eyes help us see, our ears help us hear, our nose helps us smell, our tongue helps us taste, and our fingers and hands help us touch. Some of us might have one or more senses that work differently than the rest of us – you might meet someone who cannot see with their eyes like you do, or hear with their ears like you do. That being said, our bodies do something really cool when one (or more) of our five senses is not working properly…the other senses will take over and become stronger to make up for the missing sense. We are all truly wonders!
As I mentioned above, when we talk about painting and our five senses, the most commonly associated sense is sight…because we are so accustomed to creating and appreciating art through our eyes. Since the sense of sight can be explored through every painting activity, we are going to focus on stimulating our remaining four senses.
Sound – Painting with Pop Rocks
The second of our five senses is sound, and one might think that this particular sense would be a little difficult to incorporate into the painting process. But have you ever seen the Blue Man Group? They add loads of colorful paint to the tops of drums, lids, and other contraptions. And then they bang on them…creating thunderous sound…all while splattering paint in every direction!
While I love their amazingly fun and artistic performances, I don’t have a space in my house that can accommodate that much paint splatter. π That being said, there is still an incredibly simple way to pair painting with the sense of sound…and it’s one that I can guarantee your kiddos will love…Pop Rocks!
Yes! That colorful little candy that bursts with noise when it’s combined with the moisture in your mouth, will also create a sizzling symphony when it touches wet paint! All you need is a sheet of craft paper, some paint, and a packet (or two) of Pop Rocks candy.
We applied various blobs of paint all over our large sheet of craft paper, and then sprinkled our Pop Rocks on top of each paint blob. Our little nugget was super surprised when the paint began to pop and sizzle, and she just couldn’t wait to get her hands into the noisy paint and let her creative juices run wild!
Once our Pop Rocks painting was complete, I informed our daughter that these magical little noise crystals were actually candy, and that if she put some in her mouth they would pop and sizzle too! She stared at me in awe and wonder…her mind completely blown. And she did not hesitate to take a little handful and treat herself to a brand new culinary experience. π
Smell – Painting with Kool-Aid Paint
The sense of smell is another tricky one to combine with paint (unless you count the strong chemical odors that can be found in various types of commercial paint). I DO NOT recommend exposing your kiddos to toxic paint fumes in order to provide them with an olfactory painting experience. A much safer way to create a smell-good sensory painting activity for your kiddos, is to utilize a colorful and flavorful drink mix, that you most likely associate with your own childhood…Kool-Aid!
I discovered this gem of an idea over on theΒ @createlaughlearn Instagram feed. I’m pretty obsessed with all of Michelle and Little C’s amazing artistic ideas (to say the least), so I couldn’t wait to mix up some Kool-Aid paint with my own little nugget!
The smells that emanated from our dining room, the day we conducted our Kool-Aid painting, were fruity and delightful! The aroma made painting that much more exciting and enjoyable.
For our Kool-Aid flavors, we chose the following: cherry, lemonade, pink lemonade, blue raspberry lemonade, and grape. All of the colors (when mixed with white paint) were vibrant. The only thing I will note is that the grape flavor turns more of a blackish hue, than a bright purple (which Michelle actually warned about, but somehow I missed prior to purchasing our Kool-Aid packets).
Michelle and Little C also used white Tempera paint and when they added their Kool-Aid, the paint actually bubbled. We were sadly unable to create this fun reaction between the paint and Kool-Aid…I’m guessing because we ended up using a washable white paint, instead of Tempera. Oh well, there’s always next time! π
Regardless of the fact that our paint did not bubble, our little nugget absolutely loved this scented painting activity! She happily smelled each color as we were mixing them together, and she couldn’t stop commenting on how wonderful her paint smelled throughout the entire art session. I’d call that a win!
Taste – Painting with Marshmallow Paint
Our fourth sense is one of my favorites…taste! And I know what you’re probably thinking right now…you want me to let my child eat paint?!? Yes, but only a taste-safe paint. When our little girl was still an infant, I wanted to introduce her to the art of painting, but was incredibly afraid that she would try to eat the paint. So, I made an edible paint by mixing a couple of drops of various hues of food coloring with some plain yogurt. You can read all about our adventure in temporary bathtub art, in our Fun Activities for 7-12(+) Months post.
When our little nugget reached the toddler years, I happened upon this awesome (and completely taste-safe) Marshmallow Paint idea, over on Little Hands Big Imagination (another one of my favorite blogs to follow). Did you know that it was possible to make edible paint using marshmallows?Β All you need is some mini marshmallows, light corn syrup, water, and food coloring. Feel free to follow the above link, over to Kristie’s blog, for the ingredient measurements and full instructions.
Mixing up a batch of marshmallow paint was so quick and easy, and our little nugget loved the neon colors.Β I gave her the option to finger paint or use brushes…she chose brushes, but that didnβt stop her from tasting the paint! She thought the green and purple tasted the best (which was interesting, since they were all made from the exact same recipe). πΒ Her marshmallow masterpiece featured some beautiful colored effects, where the colors all mixed together. And we made sure to display the stunning (albeit sticky) artwork on the refrigerator!
One thing to note…while this marshmallow paint is completely safe to ingest, it has an incredibly high sugar content. That being said, while you want your child to try a few drops of this sugary paint (to engage their sense of taste), you probably don’t want to let them the entire batch. If that happened, you might have a kiddo who’s bouncing off the walls for a few days. π
Touch – Painting with Rice
Touch is the last of our five senses, and one that can very easily be incorporated into the painting process. It’s really as simple as painting with our hands…letting the paint ooze in-between our fingers. And I have yet to meet a child who is not ecstatic over the opportunity to cover their hands (and bodies) with paint.
Our little nugget loves finger-painting, but I wanted to add an additional sensory element to heighten her sense of touch even more. When I saw how much Kristian (the incredibly fun and talented teacher behind the AMAZING @friendsartlab Instagram feed) loves conducting sensory finger-painting with rice, I knew I had found the extra special ingredient that would bring our finger-painting game to a whole new level.
I taped a giant sheet of craft paper to our dining room table, squirted globs of red, green, and blue paint (the colors that our daughter chose) in the middle, and then added a heaping scoop of our Rainbow Rice.
I left the creativity to our little nugget. She absolutely loved swirling the paint and rice around on the paper, and she was fascinated by the scratch-like effect that the rice had when it moved through the paint. There were also quite a few times throughout the painting process that she proudly showed off her completely purple, rice-covered hands. π As I said before, kids love to get covered in paint!
The opportunities are truly endless when it comes to painting with the five senses…there are just so many different sensory materials that can be combined with paint! Another one of our favorites (that stimulates our sense of sight, sound, and touch) is Bubble Wrap Stomp Painting!
What are some of your favorite sensory painting techniques?
