The Explorers: Canvas Marble Painting

Canvas Marble Painting

We had a lot of fun with the marble painting on canvas. Using a canvas instead of the traditional method of using a deep tray and paper has the advantage that the activity requires more cooperation since the box with the canvas needs to be managed by multiple children.

Here is how it works:

Materials  needed: big self-made cardboard box to fit in the canvas, canvas, bowls of paint (different colors), variety of marbles, spoons.

• Build a cardboard box so that the canvas will fit into the box. 
• Split the kids into smaller group (max 4 per box). 
• Drop marbles into bowls of washable tempera paint (one kid at a time). Use the spoons to scoop out the marbles and drop them onto the canvas.  
• Let the kids pick up the box with the canvas Station kids around the sides of the canvas as well as the top and bottom. Encourage them to work together to move the canvas up and down causing the marbles to roll back and forth and around. Stop after a couple of minutes, put the marbles in the paint and back on the canvas, and repeat 

We stayed with the activity for a long time and therefore did not get to our Color Wheel game but we still had time to quickly play to of our favorite movement games, i.e., "Bop 'til You Drop" and "Hip Hop."