We’re learning about bees and butterflies this month. We’ve learned that both use their sense of smell – bees for finding flowers to collect pollen and butterflies for flower nectar. So we used scented Kool-Aid paint to make colorful paintings.
I bought the least expensive drink mix I could find (15 cents). I chose these flavors/colors:
- fruit punch/red
- grape/purple
- orange/orange
- berry/blue
- Lemonade/yellow
I mixed one packet with a small amount of water – about 1/2 cup. The purple didn’t look very purple so I added some liquid watercolors but I’m not sure it needed it. It dried more purple than it looked like it would. We painted on cardstock.
The room smelled yummy! I heard “It smells like sweet strawberries!” before they even knew we were using scented paints.
We used one brush per paint cup. When a child wanted to trade colors, I assisted to minimize spills – yes, we still had a couple little spills. This added the element of taking turns and asking each other for the colors they wanted. Patience and cooperation!
The colors dried soft but very pretty. The solution will temporarily stain hands. May stain clothing too so put paint shirts on your kids if it might be an issue. Painting on trays is recommended.
The scent of the Scented Kool-Aid Paint lessens as the paintings dry but still smell sweet, like sweet tarts.
Jess Bjokne
Monday 25th of March 2013
We did this just the other day! It is fun, and I love how it smells too. I used the leftover jello that we had from making rainbow cookies. :)