Painting With Pudding

This is an activity I've been wanting to try for a few years now.  But the idea of all that pudding and food coloring was just too daunting!  So when a friend called to invite us over for a crafty play date, I thought it was the perfect time to try making pudding paint.  I loved the way it turned out, especially for some of the more tactile kids (Xander!).  It's a great way to teach colors, color combinations (what do yellow and blue make?), and writing (practice forming letters and numbers in the pudding).

Lesson:  Painting with Pudding

Objective:  Child will creatively investigate how colors mix together.

Materials:  Vanilla instant pudding.  Food coloring.  Plastic drop cloth.

Process: 
1.  Mix up the pudding according to package directions, and pour into individual serving bowls.  Here I accidentally bought the kind of pudding you have to cook, so that added an extra step.  If you buy the instant kind, just blend with milk, and pour directly into the bowls.

2.  Add drops of food coloring, and mix.  The colors will be a bit muddy, since the pudding already has a yellowish tint to it.

3.  Repeat, until you have colored all your bowls.  With older kids, you might want to let them do the food coloring, to experiment with shades and tints.

4.  Spread the plastic drop cloth over your table and lay out the pudding bowls.  Make sure everybody has on clothing that you don't mind getting stained!  (or, in Xander's case, non-clothing.  Don't worry, he had pants on.)

5.  Let the fun begin!

Don't forget to taste the pudding!

Messy little man.

What's this foreign stuff??

And clean up is a cinch!