Drip Paint - Toddlers

Inspired by the artist Holton Rower’s “pour painting” and desiring to extend the children’s collaborative experiences with paint, teachers prepared multiple cups of red, black, white, blue and yellow acrylic paint. The toddlers were offered a foam board on which to pour the paint. After identifying the color they wanted to use and choosing their pouring vessel (a plastic cup, measuring cup, paint cup), the children emptied their paint-filled containers onto the white board in small groups. With eyes full of wonder, the children watched the paint “move” across the surface of the board. To enhance the experience, the orientation and incline of the board were changed, altering the children’s perspective and eliciting exciting new discoveries. As the teacher re-positioned the board, the children placed their bodies at various angles (above, behind and across) around the board’s surface. As the paint dripped, observations about its movement were verbalized: “It’s drippin’ down ’cause it’s falling down”; “It stopped moving”; “The colors mixed together”; or “Mine’s (paint) all the way down”.