Watercolor Fireworks

What You Need:

• Watercolor paints
• Paintbrushes, small to medium sizes
• Small cup or bowl for water
• Light-colored paper (either drawing paper or watercolor paper)
• Straws

What You Do:

1. Begin by gathering your materials and preparing the workspace. When working with paint, it's always a good idea to cover the work table with newspaper or a plastic tablecloth.
2. Have your child wet her paintbrush thoroughly, and swirl it in the color of her choice, making sure to create a pool of paint.
3. Encourage her to liberally spread the paint in a pool on her paper in any shape she likes.
4. Now for the fun! Have her place the straw in her mouth and hold it just a few millimeters above the paper.
5. Ask her to begin blowing through the straw gently while holding it over a pool of paint. The paint should begin to move around the page, creating streaks that look like fireworks.
6. Have her continue blowing through the straw, following each trail of paint until there is no more liquid to work with.
7. She can add more paint pools if she likes, or set the painting aside to dry.

Once you get the hang of the blowing technique, you can experiment with blowing harder to get a different effect. Try to recreate the grand finale, using as many colors as you can to fill the page.