This splat art is a crazy fun way to help kids explore science through art. Add it to your list of process art ideas, as it’s sure to be a favorite with your students.
Related: Easy Art for Kids with Dot Art
My students and I enjoy impromptu “messy play days” during preschool.
When the weather is gorgeous, it’s such fun to spend an entire day outside playing and learning.
We’ve played in the mud, drawn and written with chalk, gotten the goop out, made fairy houses, and splashed around with sand and water.
The favorite activity by far, though, is often this super simple gravity painting project.
Preschool Splat Art
We were inspired by Fantastic Fun and Learning’s Paint with Pom Poms idea, so we decided to do that on a large scale.
The fun we had with that art project is the inspiration behind our messy day splat art.
Related: Fun Art Projects for Kids
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Setting Up the Splat Painting
The set up was pretty easy for this project.
I grabbed a long length of brown butcher paper and set it in the grass. The brown paper was a bit thicker than the other butcher paper we had on hand, so I knew it would stand up to some messy art fun.
I used tin cans to hold down the edges of the paper.
A stepladder was brought out and set up as well.
For the paint, I used liquid watercolors donated to my school by Discount School Supply.
Since I know how paint-happy my students are sometimes, I diluted the watercolors with water. The paints are very vibrant in color, but I wanted them to last longer during this activity.
Once everything else was set up, I placed pompoms on the butcher paper.
Related: Messy Play Ideas at Home
Splat Art with Kids
I then invited the children to come explore.
We had started talking about splat art and gravity painting the other day, so the kids already had some background knowledge.
Some of the children immediately put the pompoms in the watercolors and ran to climb up the stepladder.
After they dropped the painted pompoms onto the paper, I asked them to tell me what happened. “It splatted!” “It made a crazy shape!”
After a few tries on the ladder, I had some of the kiddos stay in the grass and drop the pompoms.
When asked what they observed, most of them pointed out that those splats weren’t as big.
When I wondered why, they said the pompoms had farther to fall when they were on the stepladder.
According to one of the girls, “that pompom fell from higher, so it made a bigger splat!”
Experimenting with Splat Art
This led into a variety of experimentation with the painted pompoms.
The kids dropped the pompoms from child-height level, from the top of the stepladder, from down close to the paper, and they even brought me into play (“since you’re taller, Miss Mary Catherine!”).
They also tried swinging the pompoms side to side, and some pom poms were thrown at the paper too.
Related: Messy Art
I loved watching them try out new techniques, and I especially loved hearing them discuss why and how the different splats were created.
Combining scientific exploration with art led into a great conversation about what gravity is and how it works.
I am always amazed how how children’s brains work!
We pinned our splat art masterpiece to the playground fence to dry.
It’s now hanging in a place of honor in the school hallway, right above where the children’s backpacks are.
After our messy play day, I had the children sign in by answering a question, “What was your favorite part of our messy day?”
Can you guess which activity won that spot? 🙂
Do you have any special preschool art projects that your students/children just loved? Have you tried splat art?
Feel free to share them in the comments below.
More Preschool Art Activities
If you and the kids loved the splat art, be sure to check out more art ideas!
Done-For-You Preschool Resources
Preschool Teacher 101 can make your life SO much easier with already planned resources. Click on the images below for more information, and be sure to check out the membership options.
Originally published on April 16, 2014
This looks like so much fun!!! I want to plan a playdate just so we can do this!
This is truly going on my short list for warm weather fun!!!!
Seriously, thank you!! With each endless order from amazon.ca we receive another mass of brown paper wrinkled, that I have really no idea what to do with! a THANK you for sharing the solution 😀 LOL
Aweesoooommmeeee! I love this so much!
Thank yoooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuu, Stephanie! 🙂 It really was a lot of fun!!
This looks like a fun project and I will do it with my children next week. Thank you. Lisa
Did you use a specific text with the kids to teach splat painting and gravity? Looks like an awesome activity
No, I didn’t use one specific book. We’d talked about it quite a bit over the course of a few weeks (the conversation started based on a conversation the kids had at one of the centers). Thanks! 🙂