Tire Swing Pendulum Painting

It is Paint and Play time again!  I am really enjoying this fun series that I am doing with Crystal from Growing A Jeweled Rose.  The focus for our series is all about the process, having fun and getting kids excited to create art!  This week we challenged each other to create Pendulum Art with our kids.  Growing A Jeweled Rose created glow in the dark art, and we headed to our neighborhood park to create our art!

Have you tried creating pendulum art before?  It has been on our summer bucket list for quite a while.  I shared this amazing pendulum art on Housing A Forest’s Facebook Page and I could not wait to give it a try!  We wanted to come up with something different and a little more interactive so when the idea of Tire Swing Pendulum Painting came up I knew it would be perfect!  (Thanks to my sister-in-law, who blogs at My Adventures in Preschool for helping come up with this fun idea!)

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Materials to create your own Tire Swing Pendulum Art:

• A park with a tire swing
• Large roll of white paper
• Squeeze bottles full of watered down paint
• Kids that are excited to create art!

Since we would be using the tire swing as our pendulum, the set up for this activity was really simple.  We rolled out a large sheet of paper under the swing and the kids all squished in to the tire swing, armed with a bottle of paint.  That’s it.  No need to build anything, and no need to fancy supplies.  Love that!

The kids could wait to try painting is a whole new way.  We have created lots of art at our house, but painting while swinging on a tire swing was a first for us:)  The hardest part was getting the kids on and off the swing with the paper under neath them.  Next time I would have the kiddos get on the swing and then roll the paper out under their feet.

I had the kids hold their bottle of paint so that is was touching the swing.  That was a bit of a challenge at times since it was just too fun to squirt paint everywhere.  However, since we were after the concept of pendulum art, I was not to worried about the extra little dribbles and squirts of paint.

My favorite projects are the ones that my kids are learning, they are so busy having fun that they don’t realize it.  Love that!

If you are wanting a more “true” pendulum painting you could simply tape open ended containers to the tire swing.  That would remove the extra movement of the kids swinging paint.  Personally, I think this way is way more fun and the kids are able to really be a part of the art.

The kids had a blast with this fun and interactive painting.  It was not a busy day at the park, or I’m sure we would have had a huge line up of kiddos wanting to have a turn.  There was one sweet little girl that joined in on the fun.  It was so cute to see her eyes light up when it was her turn.

Tips:

• Tempera Paint comes in all different consistencies, so you may have to play a little with how much water you add to get it to flow properly.
• Bring a bucket of water and a few rags for easy clean-up.
• Washable, biodegradable paint is the best to use.
• My kids were a little sad to see their creation rolled up and placed in the garbage, but it would have been too hard to carry their masterpiece all the way home.  You may want to think through bring the artwork home if that is something that will be very important to your child.  Maybe stay a little longer at the park and let everything dry so it can be rolled up and carried easily.
• Be prepared to have kiddos from the park want to join in on the fun:)

Have you tried pendulum painting before.  I would love to hear your experience and any tips that you have.

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Make sure to stop by  Growing A Jeweled Rose and check out all the amazing fun they had creating pendulum painting in the dark.  My kids love anything that glows in the dark, so I am sure they will want to try their hand at creating Glowing Pendulum Painting soon.

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Make sure you stop back in next week for more Play and Paint!

Don’t miss out on any of our Paint and Play series:

Balloon Painting 5 Ways

Super Creative Balloon Painting

Homemade Spin Art Machine

A Spin on Spin Art

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If you love process art like us, then check out my Painting Without Brushes Pinterest board.  It is packed full of fun ideas.  I would love to hear how you have used balloons to create or play with your kids.