Have you tried making homemade watercolor paint? Here is a fun and easy how-to!
Yesterday, I shared a little glimpse of the Teach Preschool workshop for teachers. While presenting to the teachers, I demonstrated how to make M&M Paint. One teacher then asked me if you can use Skittles candy instead. Well, I didn’t know so today, I gave it a try and wanted to share the results of Skittle Paint with you…
Gather your Materials
You will need skittles, water, cups, paint brushes, and paper.
The amount of Skittles varies depending on the amount of paint you want to make. In this tutorial, I used two regular sized bags of Skittles. For my class, I would probably use at least one, maybe two, large bags of skittles.
I also used two different flavors of Skittles. The flavor didn’t seem to matter – they all worked the same.
The How-To
Step 1: Sort the Skittles
I sorted the skittles by color. In my classroom, I would invite my students to sort the skittles – great activity for color sorting, comparing, grouping, counting, estimating, and color recognition.
Place each of your sorted colors in a dish you can use for painting.
Step 2: Add Water
Add enough water to cover the top of the skittles. Remember, the more water you add, the paler your color will be. For stronger color, add less water…
Step 3: Mix
Now stir or swish the Skittles around in the water. The color will immediately start to come off of the Skittles and change your water to the color of the Skittles…
Step 4: Paint!
Now you are ready to paint with the Skittle Paint. The paint will be like painting with watercolor paint. It is a very thin paint but slightly sticky to the touch…
The smell of the Skittles starts to fade a bit once the water is added. But – FYI – if you taste the water, it tastes like very sweet Koolaid. However, once the Skittles start to dissolve in the water, they are not all that tempting to want to drink or eat but the good news is that Skittle Paint is non-toxic…
Because the Skittle Paint is a fairly thin consistency – I decided it would be fun to try dripping the paint on a paper towel and it worked fabulously…
My niece joined in with me and made her own Skittle Paint designs…
The colors are vibrant and there are lots of fun possibilities with Skittle Paint! Now it is your turn to give it a try…
Comparing Candies
To compare the difference, M&M paint does seem to be a little thicker, works very well with paint brushes, and M&M’s do not dissolve completely – only the shell dissolves.
Skittles keep on dissolving as long as you are stirring them or they sit in the water. I only let my Skittles sit for a few minutes before painting with them.
Both candies are non-toxic, but you need to be considerate of any food allergies your students may have before trying either type of paint.
A super simple and super fun process that your kids are sure to enjoy!
Available on Amazon
Brilliant!
I hope you don’t mind I shared this on Pinterest! 😀
Of course I don’t mind:)
Thank you because i wanted to know how to make my own paint. Thank you so much Deborah. I appreciate it.
Another use for Skittles. I think I’ll take the bag out of the bottom of my purse that’s there in case and give this a try today. We are painting rocks and this should give an extra fun punch to the activity. Thanks for the idea.
Come visit me at toddlersthroughpreschool.com.
Cathie J
I really like the idea that the children can make the paint as well as paint with it. I’ll bet this would work great on coffee filters too. I also saw some fall leaf shapes made of absorbent tissue paper at Lakeshore recently. Dripping the Skittle paint on those would make some beautiful, fall leaves to hang in the classroom. I’m planning to add this to my fall program! Thanks for passing this along.
Hi! I love this idea…I was just curious, once it dries (on paper), is it still very sticky? Thanks for sharing!
Hi Leighann,
I don’t know the answer to that question. I didn’t save my paper so tonight, I painted another paper with my leftover Skittles to see what happens. I will come back here and update this comment tomorrow after the paper dries:)
Where can I find droppers like you used for the skittles paint?
You can purchase a bunch for pretty cheap here: https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Transfer-Pipettes-Gradulated-Pack/dp/B005IQTSE0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345600713&sr=8-1&keywords=pipettes
Love this idea and what a great use for all that Halloween candy we will soon have lying around. Thanks, I just stumbled this! Vicky from https://www.messforless.net
Thanks for the Stumble!
Once again, you amaze with your awesomeness. 🙂
I am going to try this with my preschoolers 🙂
Thanks for this adorable Idea…I will let you know how it goes 🙂
Thank you for sharing this idea! I tried it with my preschoolers in the afternoon and they loved it! At a certain point as numbers go down we combine the four year olds with the twos and threes and all the kids had a blast! The parents seemed to like the project as well. We discussed how the paint was made, the different colors, guessed the scents, painted (they really enjoyed stirring and feeling the candies move at the bottom of the cups), and the kids explained to their parents why they would need to toss out their art. “Daddy,… Read more »
Yay! – what a smart group of kids you have. I am so glad you gave this a try and really extended the activity into so many types of learning! Well done!
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