It has been a heart wrenching day... and it is just going to get worse now that it is daylight in Japan. We have been glued to the computer and TV all morning and I have been quite emotional. Some of my most memorable years growing up were spent living in Tokyo. We still have several friends living there and in surrounding areas. I feel very close to the Japanese people and love them, so today's disaster hurts my heart. Doing anything fun seems wrong when so many people are suffering.
We needed a little sweet rainbow this afternoon to try and cheer me up. My son is too small to know much about tsunamis and earthquakes, so he is oblivious and still wants to play!
This rainbow marshmallow painting activity was perfect.
Materials Needed: food coloring, water, large marshmallows, bowls/containers for water and food coloring mixing, paper
Directions:
1. Put a little water in each bowl and then add food coloring to create 3 bowls filled with the 3 primary colors.
2. Dip your marshmallows in and start painting!
3. Talk about color mixing and use your blue to create green (blue + yellow) and purple (red + blue)
4. Do some more painting with your cooler colors!
5. Fill up two bowls with red and yellow again. Combine them to create orange and then paint with your warmer colors!!
6. Put all your color bowls next to one another and point out which ones are primary colors (red + blue + yellow), secondary colors (purple + green + orange), warmer, and cooler colors.
Create some warm color pictures, cool color pictures, and pictures using the entire rainbow!
We used all the different sides of the marshmallows to create different shapes... and we also had fun stamping and rolling the marshmallows around!
I used old marshmallows, so they were less tempting to eat... but my son still ate some of the undipped ones. 🙂
Painting with such happy colors was definitely cathartic.
We are wishing our Japanese friends a weekend of healing and recovery- free from more aftershocks. Our prayers and hearts are definitely in Japan today.
I know what you mean about Japan. I feel very saddened as we have spent time in Tokyo too and have many friends from Japan. Thankfully, everyone that we know is safe, but our hearts go out to all who have been lost.
Your activity is very cute! I have so left over marshmallows (snowmen) that I could use for this activity. Thanks for sharing!
Kerri