Painting is a traditional activity in early childhood education. Babies can enjoy the experience of finger painting while preschool children can experiment with different techniques.
Painting is an empowering and flexible form of visual art for young children, allowing them to express their feelings and communicate big ideas.
Paint is a tactile substance that supports children's sensory development. It dates back thousands of years and connects children to people, place and culture.
EYLF learning outcomes
Painting aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework learning outcomes.
When children paint, they use a range of media (5.3) and materials (4.4). When they make marks they begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work (5.4).
Painting is experimental and involves problem solving, inquiry, hypothesising, researching and investigating (4.2), commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, curiosity, imagination, creativity and confidence (4.1).
What tools can children paint with?
Paintbrushes vary in shape and size, but they aren't the only painting tools. Children can use almost any tool that can be used to transfer colour onto a surface:
Bobby pins, cardboard, cotton buds, cutlery, feathers, feather dusters, fly swats, foam rollers, rolling pins, scapers, spatulas, sponges and sticks.
Blow, roll and spray paint
Children can blow paint through straws to make a splatter painting. They can apply paint to tennis balls and toy cars and roll them across paper. Liquid paint can be applied with a spray bottle and powdered paint can be applied with a kitchen shaker.
Use unconventional brushes
Try using unconventional paintbrushes, like old dish brushes, hair brushes, and toothbrushes.
Children can make their own brushes by taping leaves, grass, string or wool to the ends of sticks. But, they don't even need brushes. They have fingers, hands and feet!
Stamp and print
There are also many ways to make prints using paint and tools, which is called printmaking.
What can be used as paint?
Try new store-bought paints
Children can paint with commercial paints including watercolour, acrylic, and tempera paints. To create a paint that sticks well to all surfaces, mix acrylic paint with wood glue.
Use homemade paints
Homemade paints can be made by mixing food colouring with water, cornflour, flour, soap, shaving cream, shampoo or conditioner. Experiment with ingredients and ratios with your children - this is science!
Children can even paint with clay and mud. Babies who are likely to eat their finger paint can use mashed fruits and vegetables.
What can children paint on?
Try new paper and boards
There are many types of paper and cardboard, in endless colours, shapes and sizes. While they are a little expensive, childcare centres can purchase canvases for group artworks and special occasions.
Paint on fabric, leaves and glass
Fabric scraps are amazing to paint on, and so is bubble wrap. Natural materials like rocks and leaves are always beautiful when painted (use a fine paintbrush or cotton bud if they are very small).
Paint directly onto perspex screens, windows, light boxes and children's own bodies (but choose your paint type carefully).
Learning experiences
- Learn about colour theory by mixing paint.
- Make a paper mache sculpture and paint it.
- Make your own watercolor paints from food dye and water. Use them to paint over crayon drawings.
- Scratch lines into thick paint.
- Create your own 3D paint by mixing in other substances, like chalk dust or sand.
- Discuss why house paint is used. Go for a walk in your neighbourhood to find painted houses. Invite a house painter to talk to your children.
Learning environments
Stretch your body
Put your paper on tables, the floor, on easels, and hang it on fences and walls. Cover your entire slide with paper and pour paint down it.
Set up environments that encourage children to move freely and use their entire bodies as they paint. Let them, reach high, jump, and even roll around with paint.
Paint on anything outdoors
Give children paintbrushes and pots of plain water and they can paint almost anywhere outdoors!
Connecting painting to culture
When educators teach culture they should avoid perpetuating cultural stereotypes and taking the tourist approach. Painting is an opportunity to avoid these traps and explore diverse cultures with authenticity and complexity. Paint as a medium transcends time and culture, and highlights human similarities rather than differences.
Instead of choosing a single culture to explore, consider investigating how various cultures have used paint to tell stories about their ways of living, being and knowing.
Chinese ink painting
Li Wen writes about Chinese ink painting: “Practice is often a communal activity, with other family members joining: first an ink stick is ground against a rough ink stone, a few spoons of water are added to form a liquid, paper is prepared, and practice begins. Results are shared, assessed, and discussed.”
Aboriginal dot painting
Deborah Hoger writes about teaching children dot painting: “When we talk of Aboriginal art in the educational setting, many people do not realise that dot painting is only one form of Aboriginal art.”
While it is a “significant part of culture to be shared, learnt about and celebrated”, she recommends educators learn about the artistic expressions relevant to their local community, through research and engaging with local mob. In addition to dot painting, explore diverse forms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
Mural painting
Painted murals are connected with a wide number of cultures. They have been painted on temples, tombs, and inner-city brick walls. Murals are an excellent way to teach children about collective social expression.
Murals are large and may involve the collaboration of a social group. Their visual prominence allows them to communicate important social messages. If your children paint a mural, where will it be located? What issues are most important to them? How can they convey their message through pictures?
Gain visual inspiration from Melbourne's laneway paintings (Victorian Government).
Observations and learning stories
When writing observations about painting, consider why the child is choosing to paint. Understanding their motivation can help you identify their interests and potential EYLF learning outcomes.
- Do they like the cool sensation of liquid paint gliding through their fingers and the way their painted hands stick slightly to the paper?
- Have they been inspired to represent something they have seen, like a magnificent green tree?
Observations and learning stories can also describe painting techniques, like long, slow brush strokes. Write how the child moves their hand to apply the paint and or video their actions. Take a photo of their finished artwork as a sample.
Resources
Picture books
The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson and Joel Stewart