This Color Spray science/art experiment was so simple that my preschoolers were able to replicate it at home easily, and so enthralling that it kept my text-addicted high school students away from their phones for a whole hour!
I am super excited, I love my preschooler – but I have a houseful of them – and this year I am taking a break from them once a week and teaching a Art through Science course with our local home-school Co-op. All of my students are potty-trained, they all can read… and they all have phones and most have taken their PSATs.
I love high-school kids!
Anyhoo, this was a science experiment I first did with them. We attempted to replicate Kandinsky’s Circles while we watched the diffusion of color through alcohol.
Supplies you will need:
- Clean white T-Shirt – preshrunk
- Collection of Permanent Markers
- Rubbing Alcohol
- Spray Bottle
How to Create Art – through Science:
Color circles and geometric shapes on your T-shirt with the permanent markers. We tried to use contrasting colors in concentric rings, much like Kandinsky’s art of circles.
We love Kandinsky!
After you have your T-Shirt filled with colorful circles, fill your spray bottle with Rubbing alcohol and lightly mist the entire shirt, then squirt heavily in the middle of each circle. Watch the alcohol spread the color through the fibers of the T-shirt fabric.
Fascinating.
If you are working with preschoolers, you will want to supervise them with the rubbing alcohol spray. They will feel so “big” as they see the product of their doodles explode with color!
We did wash our shirts afterwards and the color faded slightly, so be sure to wash it with dark colored clothes the first time or two that your art shirt is laundered. After the colors have set they will last for awhile!
Our shirt is still loved by my little artist and it has been several weeks since we created it together.
Did you know? We wrote a science book!
Our book, The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments, features tons of awesome activities just like this one that will keep your kids engaged while they learn. How awesome is that?!
