This month, the Infant educators planned a day for the Infants to get super messy and paint the whole classroom! Educator Michelle had covered the entire floor with paper, including our shelves! After we finished getting all of the infants into paint shirts, Michelle started to get some bowls of paint ready. She placed a paint brush for each child all around the room and then started to add the bowls of paint as the infants went and grabbed a paint brush. “Who’s ready to get messy?” she asked while the infants began babbling and smiling as they made their way to the different bowls of paint around the room! It was a free for all, the infants walked around painting the floor, shelf and themselves!
During this activity, Michelle also introduced a new way to explore with the paint. She had cut out little pieces of bubble wrap and had asked some of the infants if they’d like to wear it on their feet. Ellie and Esme were the first two children interested, so one by one Michelle helped Ellie and then Esme into some bubble wrapped shoes. With some help, because it was a little slippery at first, Michelle held their hands as they walked around the room. They looked down at their feet and stopped to point at the bubble marks it was making on the paper. “That’s so cool, look at those bubbles” Michelle said smiling as she pointed to them as well.
Next, the infants used some of the big cars and dipped their wheels in the paint and drove them around the room. The infants looked at the painted tire marks they were making. Some of the infants even flipped the cars over and painted the tires directly before flipping them back over and driving them!
We also used some of the balls in our messy painting. We pulled them into the paint bowls and then threw them on the floor and watched as the paint splattered everywhere!
A lot of the infants also enjoyed painting their arms, hands, feet and legs! “How does that feel?” The educators would ask as they watched the infant paint either their own body, or even an educator’s feet or legs!
After we finished painting it was time to clean up! The infants were so helpful as they used cloths, just like they see their educators using! The children went around the classroom and cleaned areas that didn’t have paper. They were also very helpful when it came to picking up the paper off the floor. They had so much fun pulling at the tape and paper and listing to the sound it made as the tape pulled off the floor and the paper ripped! We definitely plan on doing this again, it was a lot of prep but the infants have so much fun as well as the educators!
