Integrate early geometry and holiday spirit with this adorable craft!

Sponge painting is a tactile and fun activity! By combining our R55009 Shape Sponges with tempera paint and some old-fashioned Christmas Spirit, we have come up with a great way to integrate early geometry and holiday art!

Age: 3+

Duration: 15-20 minutes (plus drying time)

Learning Outcomes:

You’ll Need:

• R55009 Shape Sponges
• Tempera Paint

The sponges are cut from a thick blue sponge with bubbles in the material to add texture to your prints. Dip the sponge into a bowl of thick tempera paint or fingerpaint! Make sure you keep the sponge flat down against the paint so that it completely covers the bottom surface of the sponge. Bristol paper, poster board or fingerpaint paper are great mediums for stamping the various shapes as they will absorb the paint without warping too much. Encourage your students to stamp repeatedly on the same sheet of paper.

For this activity, make sure you take the time to talk about shapes with your students. Ask them to name each shape, and describe its attributes. For example, a square has four sides, one face and four angles, while a triangle only has three sides and three angles! We used the square and rectangle sponges to paint the tree itself, and then let the paint dry for a few minutes before adding the shape ornaments!

Let kids experiment with some of these ideas and their own creativity:

• Squares work to make the shape of your tree, but what other shapes can you use? Try the circle, oval, or even the triangle sponge to craft the body of your tree
• Add backgrounds to your picture! Make the tree a small part of a bigger mural by painting a scene on a large sheet of butcher paper. Make the activity a whole-class art project.
• Add presents below the tree! Use sponges to stamp the images of presents underneath the tree, and consider gluing real yarn or narrow ribbon to the presents after the paint has dried.

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