Ball Splat Painting

Put some fun into a painting activity. Children toss painted balls onto a vertical paper surface and create a work of art while they get some exercise and develop their throwing skills.

You will need:
balls with various textures and sizes
a large roll of paper
paint
tape
tarp

Gather up some balls of various sizes and textures. Be sure to wipe the ball of any excess dirt.

For results similar to ours, use a different color paint for each ball. This way you can identify which balls make which types of marks.

Tape your paper to a washable surface. Paint tape is a great choice because it can be removed easily from the paper. Placing you paper on a vertical surface will allow children to practice throwing. Paper placed on a horizontal surface or ground will help children with bouncing or dribbling skills.

Lay a tarp in front of your work surface. The balls will bounce and land after throwing, You will want to keep them free of dirt and collect the paint on a cleanable surface.

Begin tossing your balls. This project will take a great deal of physical effort. We painted one side of the ball rather than the entire surface area so multiple tosses were needed to get the painted side of the ball to meet the paper. If you can spare enough paint, and the balls aren't as large as the red one in the photo above, children will see results more quickly.

Splat!

Here is what we came up with after a great deal of fun tossing balls.

Our favorite imprint was the yellow paint from the volleyball.

 Bonus: The finished product makes great gift wrap!