This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy. Adult supervision is required for all activities found on HappyToddlerPlaytime.com.
Blow painting with straws is a fun and super easy to set up painting activity for kids. A fun way to paint using straws!
What is Process Art & Blow Painting?
Have you ever tried blow painting with the kids? It’s this wildly fun form of process art that really lets them unleash their creativity in the most dynamic way. Essentially, kids drop blobs of watered down paint or liquid water colors on paper and then use straws to blow the paint across the page, creating sprawling, abstract designs. It’s incredibly engaging and a bit unpredictable, which is perfect because there’s no pressure to make something specific.
What’s fantastic about blow painting is how it turns the conventional idea of painting on its head. Instead of using brushes, children explore how their breath can manipulate paint into flowing shapes and vivid lines. Each breath alters the direction and blends colors in ways that can’t easily be replicated by hand. This kind of free-form art is excellent for teaching kids about the fluidity of materials and the effect of force and motion on art, making it a brilliant blend of science and creativity.
Tips for Successful Blow Painting
To help keep the mess down in this activity, I recommend either covering your entire table in a plastic table cloth or shower curtain or placing your child’s paper inside a tray. This will catch any spray off that occurs as they blow.
Blowing painting for toddlers and preschoolers may be a challenge at first, so practice with them before using the coloured water. Practice blowing out using a straw in a bowl of water. After they get the hang of that, practice blowing clear water droplets on a page. Have then get down on the same level as the page so that they end up blowing the water out across the page and not down into the page.
There are a few ways you can dispense the coloured water onto the page. Older kids can use straws. First place the straw into the coloured water, then place their fingers over the top of straw and then pick it up and release their finger once the straw is over their page.
Blow Painting With Small Children
For younger children, or for an easier method, I recommend using small pipettes. You could also use eye droppers or a syringe. Just advise your child not to place too much water at once. It is easier to blow the water when there is less water on the page. The bigger the blob the harder it is to blow and make a cool shape. Smaller droplets are better.
If you end up using watered down paint, remember again less paint or the smaller the blob the easier it is to blow.
If you little one continues to have issues try cutting the straw in half. Acknowledge, that this is a challenging painting method and if they get too frustrated to continue revisit the activity another day or after a walk or lunch.
Materials Needed for Blow Painting
- Landscape printable (download below)
- Cardstock paper
- Paint- liquid watercolor paint or tempura (watered down)
- Syringe or eye dropper or pipettes
- Straws
- Small cups or bowls
- Construction paper
- Glue
- Tray
How to Set Up Blow Painting
- Fill small bowls with liquid watercolours and a small amount of water. Alternatively, you can use food colouring and water or washable paint and a small amount of water.
- Use pipettes (easier) or straws (harder) to draw up the coloured water and dispense it on the paper.
- Use a straw to blow the paint.
What to Make
This is a great process art activity and you actually don’t need to make anything at all. Simply make colourful blow blobs (yes, I just made that up). But if you want you can also use this technique to make a interactive volcano craft.
To make the volcano, cut out the volcano shape from construction paper and glue it to a sheet of water colour paper. Add red, yellow and orange coloured water drops just above the volcano and blow them upwards. It will create a pattern similar to an erupting volcano!
To make rainbow hair, draw the bottom of a face on a sheet of watercolor paper. Add drops of coloured water just above the head and blow upwards to make colourful hair.
You can cut out your blow painting to make fireworks, butterfly wings or a snail shell or turtle shell or whatever you like.
Skill Developed in Blow Painting
Plus, the skills they develop are impressive! Blow painting helps enhance oral motor skills and breath control, which are crucial for speech development. It also encourages kids to think critically as they decide where to place colors and how forcefully to blow to spread the paint. Watching the colors swirl and mix creates a sense of wonder and excitement that you don’t always get with more structured art activities. So, grab some straws, paper, and watered-down paint, and see what masterpieces you can create together!
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlersincludes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschoolwhich includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years.That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
Thesetoddler and preschool lesson plans and activitieswill definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book:Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more informationExciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy atAmazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book:Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copyhere.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book:Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast?The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 yearsold and up.
TV Show:Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV showCurious Craftingwhich launched in July 2022 onTVOkidsandTVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
WILL YOU TRY BLOW PAINTING WITH YOUR KIDS? PIN IT FOR LATER!
