Theme Days: Wacky Painting Day!

 Theme days are a fun way to break up the regular routine or celebrate the last week of school.  My goal was to create thematic outdoor stations that had novel activities and kept student engaged.  Here is the breakdown of my wacky painting day! (We had to do this one inside because it was raining). This is an exploration of color mixing and texture.  It can get pretty messy (which means you're doing it right!). Be sure you have kids write their names on their papers before giving them painting tools and play for lots of space to put their creating to dry!  I try to keep my stations to a 4 student max so I included a reading station, snack station and hand washing station.

In this picture kids are painting clay rocks they made.  I love using egg cartons and cotton swabs to hold paint because they are compostable and I save water by not having as many things to wash.

I used Crayola brand air dry clay, which I purchased through Amazon.  It has a really nice clay texture but doesn't require a kiln.

Here, kids are exploring textures and stamping techniques by using mashers and other cooking utensils.  I find these at garage sales and thrift stores.

Again, I use compostable paper plates to hold the paint.

This is another favorite!  Car wheel painting!  Kids love creating lines and wheels with different textured car wheels.  

One of these kids is trying to paint his name with car wheels.

Kids were encouraged to dress wacky to celebrate the day!

Here is their wacky teacher!