In a swirl
Dab and drip, splash and swirl,
Push it, squish it, paint a swirl,
Mix it, stir it, flick it out,
That's what painting's all about!
* Provide your young children with a variety of coloured liquids and pastes that they can use to make marks. For example, offer them undiluted juices, water with food colouring and thick pastes made from powders such as hot chocolate, milkshake and coffee.
* Let the children explore and experiment with the variety of liquid and pastes on offer and repeat the rhyme as they play, suggesting they push the paint, squish it once it is on the paper and flick it using some string.
Red and blue
Red paint, blue paint, painting hands,
Green paint, pink paint, in the sand.
Yellow and orange paint, purple or brown,
Paint a smile or paint a frown.
* Place the range of colours in the poem on paper plates.
* Say the rhyme while pointing to each colour.
* Paint small marks with your finger on paper or on a table top - whichever the children are happier to use.
* Encourage the children to join in while you repeat the rhyme and to make lots of little marks.
* Children could also paint their fingers, toes or legs as well as making marks on paper.
Mint and rose
Minty green paint,
Rubbed on my nose,
Dark red paint,
Smelling of rose,
Vanilla blue paint,
Dripped on my toes.
* Mix up some scented paints or drip a little food colouring and essence in thick icing sugar and have fun painting with that.
* Place each colour on a different paper plate.
* Let the children feel, smell and paint as you sing the rhyme.
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* Fill travel toiletries and cosmetics containers with some of the perfumed paints and other pastes, which the children can take home to share with an older sibling or a parent.
* Provide a list of what is in each container and some paper.
* Encourage the families to bring in examples of their 'family art' to display in the nursery.
Alice Sharp is director of training company Experiential Play, Glasgow