Dropper Painting for Kids

If you’re looking for an activity for your little one that is simple to set up, will have them engaged in learning about colours and developing fine motor skills then I present this fun and creative approach to painting. It’s dropper painting for kids. 

Possum (almost 3 years old) absolutely loved, loved, loved this painting activity. She really didn’t want it to end and that only happened because I ran out of paper towelling. Doh! As you can imagine, paper towelling was added to the shopping list for us to play this again. 

Recommended age : 2.5 years +
(Active supervision is required on all my activities shared)

Dropper Painting for Kids

You will need – 

• Dropper or pipettes 
• Absorbent paper towel sheets
• Water
• Food colouring
• Activity tray
• Cups

Simply add 10 drops of food colouring to a cup and mix in 4 tablespoons of water. This will make your ‘paint’ that your child can draw up into a plastic dropper and drip onto the paper towelling. I recommend placing some kind of tray under the paper towelling to ensure the colouring doesn’t seep and stain any surfaces. 

Learning about Colours

As you can just imagine, this activity is wonderful for helping support children and their understanding of colours. I decided to only offer Possum basic primary colour ‘paints’, as I knew the activity for later lend itself to us talking about mixing colours together and making new colours. 

What colours can you see? 

Can you see how colours mixed together are creating new colours?

Fine Motor Skill Development 

Possum had never used droppers (or pipettes) prior to doing this activity and so I did need to give her some instructions on how it worked. I suggested the pincer grip. She grasped the idea, but struggled to coordinate the action that allowed her to draw up the liquid independently.

This simple challenge was resolved by me drawing up the liquid into the droppers for her and then just allowing her to pinch the ends to cause the drips. 

This dropper painting activity is a wonderful way for children to paint!
So creative and something a little different from using your typical paints. 

Art that you can display

You’ll quickly fall in love with the vibrant colours that mix and cover the paper towel. Your child is a master artist! Once the dropper painting dries, you’ll be able to peg it up on display as a beautiful piece of artwork made by your child.

Outdoor and Indoor Activity

I love that this activity can be easily done outdoors and simple enough to set up when stuck indoors. Having a towels on the floor when inside, to catch any accidental spills is certainly recommended.  

I strongly recommend this activity for children. It was so much fun and I know that it will be done at our place many times in the future. Although it isn’t my own idea, there are many others who have done it before me, it will certainly be one we will repeat in the future. 

Do you think your children would enjoy this creative painting approach?