We introduced marble painting to the classroom this week. This is a multi-step activity that incorporates fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills. First, kids use a spoon to lift marbles out of small cups filled with paint. Then they transfer the marbles into a box with a piece of paper lining the bottom. After returning the spoons, kids can pick up the box and tip it side-to-side or back-and-forth to help the marble move across the paper making lines of paint as they roll. Similar to watching the balls roll across the sand table during paddle ball painting, kids can see the path the marbles take across the paper as evidenced by the paint trails left behind.
During the activity, some kids left the box on the table and just jiggled it making wiggly lines with the marbles. Some kids liked using a spoon to move the marbles around. If the marbles rolled off all their paint, kids could spoon them back into the paint cups and then return the marbles to the box to do more tilting and jiggling to create new lines of paint across the paper. We will be displaying the paintings in the classroom and eventually sending them home.
