Wild Idea Wednesday - (Vita)Mixing Up Some Art

Need some new ideas for keeping learning fun? I’ll be sharing our favorites each week on Wednesday. To be honest, the thought of committing myself to having one great idea every week is stress-inducing, so I’m going to put it out there in advance that I will probably borrow heavily from all my wise mama friends.

Somehow, the start of the school year has me ready for new routines and that includes new recipes. I've been in a cooking rut for a while, so I've been re-reading favorite cookbooks for inspiration. Who knew I would find a fun school idea that involved my Vitamix???

While looking for recipes, I discovered two recipes in the kids section - one for play dough and one for finger paint. It was a tough choice, but the kids voted to try finger paint first. I was hoping to get to it today, but the cars lapbook - hot off the press - won out. Hopefully we'll get to try it later this week. 

Finger Paint 

½ cup (120 ml) cornstarch

3 tablespoons sugar

2 cups (480 ml) cold water

Food coloring

Place the first three ingredients into the container. Secure lid. Select VARIABLE speed #1. Turn on machine and quickly increase speed to #10; then to HIGH. Run machine for 4 to 5 minutes or until thickened. Divide into 4 equal portions and mix in food coloring by hand. Store in 4 small jars.

Play Dough 

2 cups (480 ml) all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

½ cup (120ml) salt

2 tbs. oil

2 cups (480 ml) water

Food coloring

Place all ingredients in the container. Secure lid. Select VARIABLE speed #1. Turn on the machine and quickly increase speed to #10; then to HIGH. Run machine for 4 or 5 minutes or until the blades spin free. Remove dough quickly as it thickens fast.

My plan is to let them each do some of the measuring then experiment with mixing different colors to make the paint. When it's all ready, I'll tape up some paper in the shower and turn them loose to create their masterpieces!