Paint Dyed Water: Outdoor Sensory Activity

Feast your eyes on paint dyed water aka a total sensory game changer.

Step aside food coloring. There’s a new dye in town. Paint dyed water just may be the most life changing activity component to come my way in years.

Look at the color.

Look how vibrant it is.

Look at that play!

I found out about Paint Dyed Water from my friend Kristian of @FriendsArtLab on Instagram – an absolute must-follow. She taught me, and now I can teach you.

Dyeing water with paint is EVERYTHING

And it’s so easy to do for a major wow factor.

If you don’t own food coloring, or if you’ve been hesitant to try it in a kids activity, this might be your answer.

I know I’ll be using this idea for a lot of my activities going forward – I can’t wait to see what paint does to bubble foam…

RELATED: Looking for more outdoor activities! I have TONS!

Making paint dyed water was so easy – here’s the How-To:

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• Washable tempera paint (because this was my friend’s recipe I went with her favorite tempera)
• 41 qt storage container
• Dish pans (these are from the dollar store)
• Miscellaneous kitchen supplies and utensils

I squirted about 1-2 tablespoons of paint into each of my white containers. I filled it up with hose water and didn’t even need to stir – the color immediately started dispersing.

Once I filled it up, the first thing I did was test to see how much paint residue or color would get on my hands (and my kids’ hands).

Guess how much paint got on my hands?

NONE.

ZERO.

ZILCH.

I submerged my hand in the water, pull it out, and while it was wet from being in water… there wasn’t a blue drop on it.

This was so amazing.

Now all I’m thinking about is the other ways that I want to use paint dyed water… can you image a kiddie pool full of it? I’m excited just thinking of it!

We made our dyed water into a pouring station.

We love a good pouring station moment over here – well, pouring station + color mixing.

For this version, I set my paint water in front of my large storage container. I wanted to use that large bin as the sort of “work bench” or work table for my kids.

I gave them a rule – don’t mix colors in the bin – and by and large, they stuck to it. It was a bit of a miracle.

During this activity, they experimented with colors, hues, pouring techniques, scooping, ways to transfer liquids, properties of liquids… the list goes on and on.

That’s the beauty of a sensory activity. It’s so much learning in one small set-up.

RELATED: Looking for more sensory activities? I have so many to share!

Dyeing water with paint is my new hero…

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to learn a new trick.

Paint dyed water is going to change the game over here – vibrant, colorful activities HERE WE COME.