Unstructured Play Week, Day 4, Part 2: Finger Paint Is Everywhere!

"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2:10 NIV

By my daughter, age 11

Welcome to Day 4, Part 2 of Unstructured Play Week at Christian Teacher, Public School. Earlier I listed my 12 Tips for Adults in the Lives of Kids who are Artists. Now it's time to really make a splash, with finger paints!

Finger painting is a rare treat for preschool kids because the adults in their lives are afraid of the mess. When doing art with my preschool son, I sometimes underestimate the time it will take, the mess it will make, and the fun he will have! Finger painting falls under Unstructured Play because kids get to call the shots. Don't give them patterns. Don't show them examples of finished work. Just get your hands in the paint and have fun. The art will follow.

The Paint
Ordinarily, I steer clear of washable paints for school and home use because the colors tend to be less vibrant. When I taught kindergarten, I recommended Prang watercolors because there's a noticeable difference in brightness. When it comes to finger painting, though, washable, non-toxic paint is the way to go. Right now my kids use Rich Art's Clear Colors Washable Tempera Paints in primary colors that mix well to form other colors. When dry on the paper they're not as bright as I'd expected, but they do the job. Another option? Make your own finger paints.

The Paper
I bought Pacon Finger Paint Art Paper in a big, messy masterpiece-friendly 11" x 16." It's not too pricey, and it's worth the investment to get the best look from the paint and make sure the paper won't deteriorate.

Other Supplies and Prep
Even with washable paint, you need some type of smock (an old tee shirt that's a few sizes too big is perfect) or apron. To protect surfaces, lay down newspaper, and have paper towels handy to help with cleanup. Use paper plates to hold the paint while in use. You'll also need to designate a safe, flat surface for finished artwork to dry.

 After a few unexpected days off, we finally broke out the finger paints at the kitchen table. My daughter, eleven, is more comfortable than the boys are with getting her fingers messy for the sake of art. She focused on abstract paint application techniques and not on a specific theme or subject.

Vampire painting by my middle son

My middle son, nine years old and more reserved, painted a vampire. His inspiration was a favorite video game he's been missing since our family has opted for a "Privilege-Free Summer." We're trying to get the kids outside more and get them reading. It's been good to be able to sit down with the kids for Bible story reading and prayer more regularly.




The youngest, age four, was also hesitant to get his fingers messy. How blessed am I to have kids who wash their hands! But he dipped a finger in the black paint and soon got started. His favorite art subject is super heroes. I'm glad I took a picture of his painting before he decided to slop water on it with a paper towel!

Super Heroes

This picture is of "Super heroes doing the things that they like to do." It's fun to ask kids to tell you about their artwork. Sometimes you get a whole story to go with it.

I hope this post has been fun, and that it encourages you to include unstructured play time in your children's and your students' day. If you haven't read the other posts in the series, here are the links again. Please leave a comment and share! And happy Independence Day.

Unstructured Play Week
Day 1 Paper dolls
Day 2 Kitchen Chemistry and Cooking
Day 3 A Hike Up the Creek
Day 4, Part 1 Every Child an Artist, including 12 Suggestions for Grown-ups in the Lives of Young Artists

Learning Through Writing: Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was a kid, I loved to read books from the Choose Your Own Adventure series. On each page was a choice, something like this. "If you decide to risk the mountain lions and explore the cave, turn to page 23. If you decide to look for a stream to replenish your water supply, turn to page 71." If you were killed by mountain lions on page twenty-three, you could always go back and see where the other choice led. In fact, you often died. No problem. Just go back to page one, or wherever you left a bookmark last.

Similarly, video games often include a story with many choices for the player to make. The decisions you make alter the course of the game. When your character dies, you play again.

I like to assign a choose-your-own story to my high school students. It's digital, with hyperlinks to different documents in a Google Drive folder for the pages. The first page sets up the scenario ("You are Sir Lancelot. The castle at Camelot is under attack") and the viewpoint character. Second person present works best for the point of view. At the bottom of the page is the first set of choices. Instead of using "turn to page 5," use "click here" or "click to page 5." Then, link to the new page. Be sure to put the page number at the top of each page, and save each document as the same number. Keep the story to twelve pages or so for beginners, and keep a running list of how each page turns out if you are concerned about the ratio of positive outcomes to negative outcomes.

There are several Web sites students can use to help them write choose-your-own stories, but I like the challenge of creating my own story, format and links. The students are up for the challenge, too.

What should they write about? This assignment works well for fiction or nonfiction. My daughter wrote one in which the reader is a trout. It required her to research the life cycle of a trout and what the trout's natural predators are. I'm researching Antoine Lavoisier, a chemist who was guillotined during the French Revolution. Turning Lavoisier's life into a choose-your-own story has been challenging, since I am working to understand the science part and then to make the concepts easy for my students or other young readers to understand.

To get a better feel for how it all works, see if your library has the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books, or pick up similar versions by R.L. Stein or other authors. Then, create your own story to share with your students. They'll be raring to write!