Inside: This germ blow painting art is perfect for preschoolers when learning about sickness, the human body, and the immune system.
Today marks the first day of our new week-long series all about the human body.
To start out this new series, we’re going straight to germs and making them a little more kid friendly with this cute and fun art activity.
This art project is so much fun for kids because they’re making the germ art by painting with straws!
Read on below or watch the video to see how to make this art with your kids or students.
Germ Straw Painting Art
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This art activity is great on its own, but if you want to make it educational, you can teach your child a little about germs before the project.
For very young kids who don’t know what germs are, we recommend the book, Germs Aren’t For Sharing. It doesn’t go into great detail about germs, but it helps teach kids the basics and how to have good personal hygiene.
Older kids who want to learn more about microbes will love The Bacteria Book. It’s loaded with tons of facts and goes into detail on topics such as bacteria, fungi, algae, viruses and more.
After you discuss what germs are with your kids and why we want to get rid of them, it’s time for them to create their own pretend germs from paint!
Blow Paint Art Supplies:
- Liquid watercolor paint
- Paintbrush
- Straws
- Thick White Paper
- Construction Paper
- Black Marker
- Glue Stick
Germ Art Directions:
- Pour your liquid watercolors into an art palette or paint cups.
- Use a paintbrush to add a small puddle of paint onto the paper.
- Place the straw about an inch away form the puddle. Use the straw to blow the paint blobs around in all directions. Try blowing down directly onto the puddle, blowing from the left and blowing from the right. See how many different shapes you can make with the watercolors.
- Repeat this step with each of the colors.
- Let the paint dry completely (ours took about 15 minutes; if you need these done quick, you can use a blowdryer as well).
- Cut circles from the white paper and glue them onto the blow paint germs.
- Use a black marker to draw the eyes onto the germs.
- With the black marker, draw lines coming out from the center of each germ. Paint small circles at the ends of these lines with a coordinating paint color.
- Glue the white paper onto a piece of colored construction paper to finish it off.
That’s all there is to it!
Now you can have fun at home making all sorts of germy artwork and best of all, there’s no need to worry about getting sick from these little germs!
Blow Art Painting Tips
We recommend you try this activity out yourself before you do it with your children or students.
It sounds a bit silly, but depending on the paper you use, the paint can be hard to spread around. If you use paper that is too light, it will become wrinkled. If you use paper that has too much of a tooth (it’s thicker and has more texture to it) the paint gets really hard to blow around with the straws.
We ended up using this art paper for kids but we just recommend trying what you have on hand first.
Another thing you want to be consider is your liquid watercolor choice. Please, please be sure you buy a washable watercolor paint, like this one.
This art project can get messy if kids use too much paint!
Once they start blowing the paint around you can be pretty sure some of it will fall off the side of the paper and onto whatever surface you’re working on. To keep it clean, you can use a drop cloth on the table, do it outside or just make sure it’s a hard surface that you can clean up afterwards.
We’ve had zero problems with the liquid watercolors coming off of hands, tables and clothes but it’s something to consider.
Share With Us
Did you make this straw painting with your kids or students? We love seeing how your projects turn out, so don’t forget to stop by our Facebook page and post them to our wall.
We can’t wait to check out your masterpieces!
More Fun Art Activities
Enhance Your Human Body Studies
Germ Blow Painting Art With Straws
Kids will love to create this fun blow painting art with straws!
Materials
- Liquid watercolor paint
- Thick White Paper
- Construction Paper
- Black Marker
- Glue Stick
Tools
- Paintbrush
- Straws
Instructions
1. Pour your liquid watercolors into an art palette or paint cups.
2. Use a paintbrush to add small blobs of paint onto the paper.
3. Use the straw to blow the paint blobs around in all directions.
4. Repeat this step with each of the colors.
5. Let the paint dry completely.
6. With the black marker, draw lines coming out from the center of each germ. Paint small circles at the ends of these lines with a coordinating paint color.
7. Cut circles from the white paper and glue them onto the blow paint germs.
8. Use a black marker to draw the eyes onto the germs.
9. Glue the white paper onto a piece of colored construction paper to finish it off.
What a fun project! My seven year old son is going to love this. Thanks for sharing! 😀
You’re so welcome! Hope you guys have fun.
This looks like fun! And so easy for the kids.
Thanks! Yes, my kids loved it!