School holiday activity ideas: mess free painting

Each school holidays, I try to do just one 'activity' each day. Might not seem like much but it gets my two (Master 6 and Miss 4) focused on just one thing and not expecting an endless range of entertainment.

I thought I would share some of our activities with you each week. By no means are they original ideas and more than likely easily found elsewhere online (I'm not claiming credit!) but still it might spark some interest and give you inspiration to try them out too!

First - clean and mess free painting!

I have to warn you - this took more time to set up than it did for them to play with but they loved it! I laid a big piece of white paper on the table and taped four zip lock bags down with packing tape (no way was paint escaping!).

 

Place two colours into ziplock bags and tape down securely

I then encouraged them to tell me me what colours they thought the two paints in each bag would make. Master 6 already knew but I was pleasantly surprised that Miss 4 knew exactly what the colours would become.

Squish, mash and moosh (new word!)

Next came the fun part - mixing all the colours together. They loved this bit. It is textural but not messy. They each had two bags to play with.

Writing and drawing time

Once the colours were mixed, they wrote letters and drew pictures. I think this would have worked better if the bags were bigger but they still enjoyed 'writing'. 
 

Pink and purple - Miss 4's favourite colours

I kept the bags (they are still taped to my kitchen window) as I thought I would snip off the corners and have them do some dribbling artwork at a later time - we have a long weekend coming up and with our horrible cold (and likely wet!) weather, this might be a good time.

Couldn't help but share one crazy photo!

Do you plan special activities with your children for school holidays? Most of mine are easy (and cost free!). Would love to hear more ideas as our next school holidays aren't that far away!