Painting with Skittles!

My 2 year old preschool class loved this project!  It's one I plan to repeat and one I'll have my own children do at home.  So here it is, painting with Skittles! 

Needed:

Skittles (8-12 of each color)

baby food jars or cups, bowls, etc.

clear corn syrup

paintbrush and paper

We had been talking about the 5 Senses this week and boy did this project go right along with that theme!  

Skills used: 

Math: sorting and counting

Fine Motor: using pincher fingers to sort

Art/Manipulative: freedom to create art at will

5 Senses used: (for Skittles)

Touch - smooth 

Taste - sweet

Sight - colors, round, small

Smell - sweet

Hearing - we listened to them jiggle in the glass jars

First, during circle time I had each child help me sort the Skittles by color into the baby jars.  This is excellent practice for their pincher fingers!  We were able to talk about the colors as we went, as well as counting.  We used 8-10 of the darker colors (red, blue, purple) and 10-12 of the lighter colors (green and orange).  

Next, we listened to the skittles jiggle around in the jars as I swirled them around. They then watched as I poured the corn syrup into each jar.  We talked about it being thick and looking sticky but we didn't touch it yet.  ;)  Set them to the side.  It takes at least overnight for the colors to work!

You can show your class throughout the day that the colors from the skittles are starting to be "pulled" by the corn syrup.  Stir the syrup and skittles then leave them overnight until the next school day.  I simply covered ours with a paper towel and left them.  

The next day we stirred again. We smelled inside each jar.  It smells sweet like each of the Skittle flavors!  Our project wasn't going to be until the end of the day, so we left them on our counter for a few more hours.  The longer they sat, the more vibrant the colors became! 

Here comes the fun part!  Remember, my class is only 2 years old (and a few young 3's)!  They did excellent with this!  

Here is my own daughter (almost 4) enjoying the left over "paints" after my class was over.  

The colors swirled together as they painted.  I'll be excited to come back and blog about the results once their projects are dry.  I'll post a few of theirs in my next blog post!