Paint a Rainbow

Take the kids outside on a misty morning, when the grass is wet and the sun is just peeking through the clouds.  You might be lucky enough to see a rainbow arching high through the sky.  They say there’s a pot of gold where the rainbow touches the ground, but no one has ever found this treasure.

But young artists can create a rainbow treasure with paints and white paper.  This is a great project for learning how to mix colors too.  Use just the red, yellow and blue paints in a watercolor set.  Show young kids how these primary colors mix together on a mixing tray or plate to make green, orange and violet.

Paint a picture with a rainbow in it, then paint the sky blue and the rainbow colors in the right order: violet at the bottom of the arch, then blue, green, yellow, orange and red at the top.  Look at photos of rainbows from books or on the Internet, and learn more about the science of rainbows at Science Kids.

Materials: red, yellow and blue watercolor paints, heavy white paper, paintbrushes, a jar of water, a plate or tray for mixing colors, a pencil and a couple paper towels.

Time: 30 minutes

KidsArt Resource: A plastic Palette has small and large wells for squeezing out watercolors that come in tubes, as well as larger areas for mixing different colors and washes of color. Handy tool for young artists!

Watercolor Sparkle

Watercolor paints are easy and fun for kids to use in art classes, at school and at home. Watercolors clean up easily, need just a bit of water and paper, and can be used by kids by themselves, with a minimum of adult supervision.  The kitchen table is a great place for watercolors.

This shining painting was created with watercolors.  The picture began with a black crayon sketch, then the areas were painted with rainbow tones, letting one color flow gently into another.

After the painting dried, we placed the painting in a flat cardboard box with the sides cut down.  Our young artist squeezed a thin line of white glue along some of the crayon ines, then sprinkled silver glitter on top.  The cardboard box kept the glitter contained and helped with clean-up.

Wow - what a fantastic result!

Materials: watercolor paints, a paintbrush, a black crayon, white glue in a squeeze bottle, glitter in a shaker bottle, a cardboard box with the sides cut down.

Time: 20-30 minutes.

KidsArt Resource: The best Watercolor Paints for kids are made by Crayola….great bright colors, and a paintbrush that actually works!