Shower Sponge Painting

Painting is fun. Experimenting with different materials to paint with is even more fun. This time, we gave Shower Sponge Painting a go.

I confess that I have never once bought a shower sponge/loofa/shower puff thinggy (what ever you call them!), and yet we seem to have a lot of them! They often come in bath type gift packs so over the years, I've collected quite a few. Today I dug out a spare one, provided some paper and paint and let her at it!

We used a large piece of paper, a shower sponge and some recycled plastic lids with 4 different coloured paints chosen by Madeline

She was very curious to see how the paint was sticking to the shower sponge

The dark purple and the white paint made light purple. She enjoyed the "splotchy" effect created by the sponge.

Mixing and swirling the paint with the sponge was probably her favourite part of the activity

One single print contained blue, red and the colours together which made purple. The bubbles were something new though. We talked about what might have caused there to be bubbles.

She also thought to paint with the cord. I love how kids explore materials to their full potential

She discovered the large surface was perfect for swishing across the paper

And once she'd started, she insisted the paper was turned around so she could cover the entire surface

Handy Tips:

-Simplify this activity by just allowing your child to experiment and explore the sponge and the effects created with the paint on the paper. Let them choose their favourite colours.

- Extend this activity by putting a greater emphasis on colour mixing, patterns and textures. Try using a few different type sponges to see what different effects can be created

- Use new language and descriptive words like, "splotchy," "swirly." This will help with their language development.

-Ask questions to help connect their understanding and use vocabulary to give them words to describe what they're creating, eg. "In one swipe across you can see blue, red and purple. Why do you think that is?" "I wonder why there are little bubbles there?" "Can you make the bubbles appear again?" etc

- Remember that children need to create and explore, they don't need it to be a specific item at the end. Allow this and don't push them to think they must paint something "real." Certainly with an activity such as this, the process is more important then the outcome.

- The finished artwork could be used as gift wrap once dry


Debs :)

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