Do your kids enjoy making a mess? I know that mine do! We got a really fun book in the mail from Penguin books, Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes, by Keri Smith. This is such a fun book filled with activities and ideas of ways to make art from messes, or rather to appreciate mess as a form of art (I am starting to wonder if by her standards I have some budding Rembrandt’s). The “manual” encourages us as the reader to destroy the book with our mess art. The part of me who married a librarian cringes at that thought. Our copy is pristine, but we had fun making a mess on a canvas we had lying about. How have your kids made a mess today? Let me know in the comments.
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One of the entries suggested that we make a mess by rolling and smearing. This reminded me of the activity I read about on Let the Children Play a few months ago. He had the kids experience physics and gravity by rolling marbles on a canvas. We don’t have marbles, but we did have a giant canvas and a variety of different types of balls! This was a blast!
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All you need is Canvas, Acrylic paint, an old box to make a tray to set your canvas in, a variety of balls (or marbles) and paint shirts – this was messy, no kid can resist squeezing or smooshing the paint.
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Learning opportunities:
Race between two similar balls. Dip one in plain paint and dip the other in paint mixed with either flour or cornstarch. Guess which ball would roll faster. Why did you make that guess?
Does a ball roll faster if the canvas is tilted slightly or at a steep slant?
What happens when a ball dipped in red paint rolls over a ball path of yellow or blue paint? What happens when all the colors smear together?
Which ball spreads the most paint? Which one spreads the least? We found that the tennis ball had the most coverage, while the dryer ball just left speckles.
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Have your kids made a mess lately? Are you scared of messes? Thanks Manual of Accidents and Mistakes for inspiring a fun project! Thanks Jenny, of Let the Children Play, for giving us guidelines and a great example! Anyone want the Quirky Kids finished work of art? We had fun making it, but lets just say it’s not our style 
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About Quirky Momma
We would love this at my house.
Looks like a blast! Only what I want to know is who cleaned up the mess?
This looks like GREAT fun!
Yes, we make mess pretty much every day and we love it.
Right now the lawn is smothered in sequins and glitter from my daughter’s butterfly birthday party activities over a week ago! Guests said “Oh no, what a nightmare for you” and I said “It’s absolutely FABULOUS!!”
Anna
http://theimaginationtree.blogspot.com/
How much fun is that! You are such an awesome mom! The kids must have had a ball! ….literally! LOL.
So fun! I will have to get that book! I had my son paint with golf balls and he loved it. Once he is older we can expand more with your questioning. LOVE it!
Hey! Love it! Looks great! That’s our style. =)
This looks like so much fun! You have a great selection of fun shaped balls – nice idea adding the dryer ball. I would put that art on my wall, for sure. I am definitely working on my aversion to mess; letting the kids really get their hands dirty is so important!
We’ll be trying this someday, after we dry out from all this rain!
Totally fun idea! I now have to go out and get me some balls like this! My kids are going to love this! Have a great day, Quirky!
This makes for wonderfully creative play time. I like that there is very little structure and yet high yield. The kids get to make something with having to stay within the lines or follow very specific rules. Free play rocks!
You are one brave Mommy- kudos! Kids + Making Mess = Happy. I happen to love the finished piece. I used to hang my son’s all over the house in frames. Kid art is great!
I tried something like this last year! But instead of a box, we just used a really large cardboard paper! The kids wore smocks that day and the balls just kept rolling around the classroom! haha It was a lot to clean up afterward, but it was still a lot of fun to do!