Creating Salt Paintings!

Jojoebi, creator of the blog A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That, shares a great painting activity that your preschoolers are sure to enjoy - salt painting! It's quite simple to do, but the results are magnificent!

Supplies You'll Need
- Black construction paper
- Kids paint brush
- School glue
- Shallow container
- Table salt
- Food coloring or liquid watercolor paint

Begin by filling several shallow containers with school glue. Invite your students to use their paint brush to "paint" the glue onto the black construction paper, creating fun designs and "trails". Help them sprinkle salt onto the glue, move their paper around so that the wet glue is completely covered by salt, and then shake off the excess. Have the children set their paper aside and clean their brushes. At this time, swap out the shallow containers of glue for shallow containers filled with food coloring or different shades of liquid watercolor. Invite your students to "fill" their freshly washed and dried brushes with color and lightly touch them to the salt. They'll be thrilled to see the color soak in to the salt and expand along their design. Because the color "runs" along the salt paths, this can be a great time to introduce color mixing (i.e. invite them to place a dab of red next to a dab of blue and see what happens).

Unfortunately, these beautiful designs will not store so they can't be used as a classroom display or bulletin board. They will, however, be fun to complete, offer a valuable teaching tool for color theory, and make a splash when taken home to show parents and family members!

A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That: Salt Painting