Ages: 3 - 6

Materials: Brushes, watercolors, jars, paper, and easels (if handy).

Procedure: Make sure that the kids have bibs or smocks and an area where it is safe to make paint messes. We are going to learn about different ways of painting. You kids are used to painting by just sticking your brush in the water and paint and then moving it across your paper. Today, we'll learn more ways to paint.

Look what happens when you wet your paper first and then paint over it. Look how the paints runs and spreads across the paper. This looks good when you make the sky or water.

Look what happens when you squeeze the water out of your brush and then put it in the paint. You can make skinny lines, can't you? This is good for making small things or things like grass blades, leaves, hair, branches, etc.

It is very important, kids, to clean your brushes with water every time you change colors. Do you know why? So you won't mix all your colors into mud, that's why. Try mixing your colors on the paper by moving your brush through another color. What happens?

Don't let the kids paint too long on one paper or they'll end up with a picture of mud. If they get done early, its better to give them a new sheet of paper to start a new paper.