With Halloween just a couple of weeks away I am looking to do some fun, frugal activities with the children. As we really enjoyed doing a version of the magic paper towel art during the Spring I thought it would be fun to redo with a Halloween theme!
Today I am going to share with you how to amaze the children with a fun Halloween themes science experiment! No matter what age of your children this Magic Paper Towel Art will surely blow them away!
Whilst the children were in bed and all the jobs in the house for that day complete - a time when I should be shutting off and getting ready for bed myself I started to doodle on the paper towels so this activity was ready to go!
If I prep activities when the house is calm it gives me more time to think and plan properly. That way I always have something to go to when the time arises with the children. I can really struggle to get motivated if I leave things till the moment.
It took quite a while to prepare these towels as there is lots of colouring involved on a very fragile surface so I had to take care to not over colour and rip the paper.
The children had a go at making their own after the experiments with my drawings were done but they had had enough after making one design. If you're going to give this super activity a go my advice would be to create a bank aside that is ready to go and the children can add more to them if they wish.
This would be an awesome activity to do with a large group of children as you could all do a design each and then come together for the great reveal!
Lets see this activity in action:
As I mentioned we did a version of this activity in the spring too. We made patterns, a train, a turtle, a car, a bumble bee and a few others. You can see this post here. Let's get cracking on sharing our Halloween version with you too!
You will need some paper towels that you use in the kitchen usually to mop up spills. You will need a permanent marker pen and some water based pens too. I used a Sharpie black marker pen and Crayola washable pens. These worked really well.
You will need a tray. I didn't get any stains in my tray but using colour you need to make sure you use something that you wouldn't mind getting marked with colour just in case. Protect your surfaces if you wish to too with a towel to catch any spills.
For our tray I used the inserts for my Flisat table that I brought from IKEA. The table has been an incredible addition to our home for sensory play and activities. The trays you purchase separately for £1.50-2 depending on size.
I grabbed the glass jug from the kitchen to fill and transport the water over to the activity.
Take your paper towel and fold it in half so it's like a card. On the front draw your picture outline with your Sharpie marker pen. Make sure you use something underneath your towel before you start drawing. Each one I did the design came through onto the surface below.
I always pop a piece of thick recycled card below it so it doesn't go through onto my table.
Make your designs big and bold. Tiny intricate details won't be as effective.
Once your design is done, open up the paper towel. Your picture should have outlined on the inside of the paper towel too. You're going to use this outline on the inside of your towel to colour with your washable markers.
As I mentioned above I did use the Crayola brand and they worked super for this activity. Colour in the picture on the inside of the towel. You want to make sure the colour is vibrant across the towel or it won't bleed the colour through well.
Get your tray and fill it so there is a slight covering of water across the whole tray. Don't overfill. Just a very shallow amount of water for the towel to sink into will be perfect. You want to carefully place the folded towel down into the water so your outline is facing upwards.
When you place it into the water the colours will soak through to the front of your design and 'colour it in'. Is simple and so effective!
Have you ever tried this technique? Would love to hear from you if you try it!
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