COLOUR PLAY - DIY CHALK PAINT

One of the easiest ways to teach young children about colour is to make some with them. This DIY chalk paint recipe is perfect for teaching children how different colours are created. I love colour. I love playing with colour, making new colours and using colour for learning. I've posted about colour exploration before and you can see those here and here. This homemade paint recipe is cheap and easy to make and lots of fun for everyone - from preschoolers through to adults!

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Making chalk paint is so simple but kids love it and it combines lots of useful skills such as hand-eye co-ordination, colour recognition, encourages creativity, expression and experimentation both with blending of colours and as an early science (changing a solid to a powder then to a suspended state in a liquid).

To start you need-

- a hammer (or more depending on how many kids there are)
- some different colour chalks (we used Crayola sidewalk chalk which crushed evenly)
- ziplock bags
- a hard surface to hammer on
- a container to transfer the powder to
- water 
- brushes suitable for outside use.

All you need to do is decide on which colours to crush!  You can just crush the chalks as they are or you can experiment. By adding two primary colours (blue/yellow/red) together, you can watch the secondary colour appear as you're hammering like magic! It's a great visual for younger children still working out how colours are made.

You want to keep crushing the chalk until it is mostly powder so your paint will be nice and smooth.

Carefully tip your chalk powder into a paint palette or a muffin tin like us.

To turn it into chalk paint, slowly add some water while mixing until your paint is smooth but not too runny.



For more colours, just repeat with different combinations and then you're ready to paint. 

The paint appears quite pale when it first goes but dries to a much brighter, more intense colour. The best bit? It's still just chalk so you can paint on pretty much anything and, over time, it will either wash off or wear away.

The kids also experimented with some different painting techniques. This splat one belongs to my mess-loving eldest child.

Alternatively, and more quickly, you can make paint from water, corn flour and food colours. Add a heaped tablespoon of corn flour to each well, top up with water then add your colour and mix together. It's basically runny, coloured goop but with brushes added.

If you liked this post and want more simple play ideas using colour, take a look at my Colour Play board over on Pinterest.