Marble Roll Painting
A hand-eye
coordination project with great appeal. You can even rope in the kids who won’t touch a
crayon or puzzle.
Objectives
Children ages 4-5
years can name colors Lang. IB
All children participating will be able to imitate partner’s movement of
marbles, eye-hand coordination practice, and balance marble on spoon.
Materials
Marbles; 3-4 colors of
finger paints (or tempera powder mixed with liquid starch) in cottage cheeses
tubs; cookie sheets with rims; paper cut to fit the bottom of trays; spoons.
Procedures
1. Gather children at
the table. Place a tray lined with paper in front of each child and place other
materials in the center of the table. Ask children for ideas about painting
with marbles. “Is it possible? How could it be done?” Tell the children that there
is one important rule to the game: they are not allowed to touch the marble
with their hands. This condition maximizes the eye-hand coordination.
2. Le the children experiment with picking up the marble with spoons. Children
then put the marbles into paint and roll them around for a good coat of paint.
3. Using spoons, children transfer the marble from paint to trays.
4. Children make pictures by tilting the tray so that the marble rolls around,
leaving a track of paint. Encourage children to aim for increased control of
the marble. Variations 1.
Hold up shapes
for children to try to reproduce. Don’t except success, but see if they can
begin to distinguish the different motions needed for circular vs.
straight-edged shapes. 2.
Let the children
put a spoonful of paint in the middle of the paper. In order to make tracks,
children must aim the marble so that it rolls through the glob of paint. 3.
Use two marbles
at once. 4.
Children choose
partners and sit opposite. One child tries to mirror the tray movements of his
or her partner. See if the resulting pictures are similar. (Not likely.) Take
turns.
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