Salt and Water Color Painting Activity

Painting activities for kids are not as messy and scary as they may seem. With a few quick set-up tips, your children can tackle even this salt and water color painting activity with an easy clean up.

Gather your supplies, set up the work area, and let your kiddos get creative. These paintings are great for decorating the fridge with some heart themed art.

My kids had fun with this one. You can do this with children as young as preschool and as old as high school! For younger kiddos, these Valentine dot marker printables are great too.

Supplies for salt and watercolor painting activity.

Supplies: (Amazon links for your convenience)

White glue
Water color palette and paintbrush
Salt
Construction paper or cardstock
Cookie sheet (with sides)

Valentines Salt and Watercolor Painting Activity

I set up a work station for each child that would be painting. To take this a step further, place each piece of paper into a cookie sheet or foil pan for easier clean up.

I did not use the cookie sheet, but I should have! It will help keep the salt from going all over the table.

Table set up with supplies for the Valentines salt and watercolor painting activity.

I placed a piece of paper and bottle of glue at each child’s spot. They could draw hearts or other designs on their paper. Since we were using this as a Valentine’s art activity, I suggested they draw hearts.

***Whatever your child draws with the glue, keep the design thin. Thick glue designs cause the paper to wrinkle. To avoid this you could use cardstock instead.***

Glue bottle and construction paper ready for child to create.

Child drawing hearts on their paper with glue bottle.

After the glue drawings are done, your child can sprinkle them with salt. Sprinkle the salt onto the glued drawings before the glue dries. This is very important so the salt sticks.

While you wait for the glue to dry, try these fun free printable Valentines Would You Rather Cards for a fun themed chat to pass the time.

We set the papers aside to fully dry for a day. You could do the glue in the morning and the painting in the afternoon. It is important to let the glue dry so the salt adheres to the painting. Have your kids work on a few of these Valentine’s Day math activities while they wait for the glue to dry.

Child sprinkling salt onto glue hearts he drew on a piece of construction paper.

After the glue is dry, painting the white lines with watercolor creates a fun effect. The watercolor paint soaks into the grains of salt and creates a tie dye effect.

Salt and glue hearts on green construction paper. Child dipping paintbrush into watercolor paints.

Child painting glue and salt hearts on green construction paper to make a salt and watercolor Valentines art activity.

Painting Activity Finished Products

This salt and watercolor painting activity is a creative way to work on preschool fine motor skills, art exploration and patience. Waiting for that glue to dry can take some patience. 🙂

<<Here are the finished products>>

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Salt and watercolor painting activity for art. Works for Valentines Day, learning letters, pr numbers.

>>>This activity is very similar to the salt and watercolor painting activity. It is a fun way to paint with qtips for fine motor letter learning.<<<

Check out more of our Valentines ideas and activities here.

For more preschool art activities, click this page.

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