Painting With Eye Droppers in Preschool

Looking for a creative way to strengthen your preschoolers' fine motor skills? Allison McDonald, Family Education blogger and mom, suggests eye dropper painting!

Supplies You'll Need
- Heavy card stock
- Craft paint in assorted colors
- Eye dropper

In preparation for the exercise, pour paint into shallow bowls and thin it out using water. Thick, sluggish paint will only make the project more difficult and frustrating for little hands. Armed with eye droppers and heavy card stock "canvases", encourage your students to fill their droppers with paint and squeeze (gently!) onto the paper. Challenge them to make different shapes including small dots, medium dots, large dots, continuous lines, dashed lines etc. as they explore this new painting style. In this way, they'll learn about control (e.g. small dots require less pressure while large dots require them to squeeze a bit harder) and focus.

You could also use this activity as a way to introduce the concepts of color mixing or complimentary colors. Not only will your students have a great time with this unconventional painting activity, they'll strengthen fine motor skills as they work!

Medicine Dropper Painting Mom's Parenting Blog by Allison McDonald - FamilyEducation