Another fun “experiment” that we did this summer was Marble Painting. I remember making art like this when I was little and, just as I suspected, Charlotte loved it! There are many ways to do this using whatever you have on hand but following is what we used.
Marble Painting
Immediacy of results: Immediate
Prepwork needed: None other than getting materials
Time required: 15+ minutes
Time required: 15+ minutes
Materials needed:
Marbles (or inexpensive craft/jewelry beads like we used)
Paint
Construction Paper
A box/baking pan — something to do the craft in
Step 1. Put the construction paper in your box with the marbles.
* I used a box that we had on hand that closed easily. I liked that I could close it so that we could shake the marbles around easier (our beads weren’t very heavy and so sometimes got stuck in the paint). But if you want to be able to see all of the painting you’ll need something with a bigger lip. The example at Play Create Explore used a clear plastic bin which I think would be a good idea, especially with younger children who don’t have the hand/eye coordination to keep marbles from bouncing around.
Step 2. Drop paint in blobs around your construction paper.
Step 3. Shake! Shake! Shake!
There are lots of things that you can talk about with your kids in this experiment. You can discuss mixing colors to make other colors. You can discuss gravity and how the marbles roll down the paper against the paint when the box is tilted. You can discuss how the marbles make different paint shapes depending on which way you shake the box. But mostly you can just have fun!
