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Green monster playing with paint

Stretchy Splat

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Your child will have tons of fun creating a splatter painting with elastic bands while exercising important finger and hand muscles.

At OMO, we believe that every stain represents an important experience - mud stains are the stamp of adventure, grass stains are the sign of exploration and fruit stains are the aftermath of discovery. Encourage your kids to get messy with our fun activities for happy, healthy, confident kids. We'll be there to sort out the dirty clothes afterwards.

Stretchy Splat

Your child will have tons of fun creating a splatter painting with elastic bands while exercising important finger and hand muscles.

What you’ll need:

What you will need

What to do:

Give your child a few elastic bands and show them how to stretch the bands around the baking tray. Put a piece of paper onto the baking tray and let your child drip a few colours of paint onto the paper. Now the fun starts. Show your child how to pull back a little on the elastic and then let go so that it flicks the paper and causes the paint to splatter.

This activity is creative and entertaining and is a perfect way to exercise the small finger and hand muscles that are needed for successful writing and drawing.

Alternative Materials:

Alternative materials

Change it up:

Make it easy: 

Put the elastics on the baking tray for your child.

Make it a challenge: 

Have your child use only primary colours and see if they can create new colours by causing the paints to mix on the paper with their elastic splats.

Play with friends: 

You’ll need baking sheets, elastic and paper for each child as this is an individual activity.

Indoor play: 

Lay down an old sheet or newspaper for your child to work on if you’re doing this activity indoors. You could try using elastics held in the hand and bath paints painted onto the bathroom tiles.

Developmental areas:

  • Fine motor skills

  • Gross motor skills (shoulder strength)

  • Visual perception

Values:

Creativity; self-confidence; curiosity.