recipe: Sidewalk paint

We were first introduced to commercial sidewalk paint when it was given to us as a gift. Toddlers and pre-schoolers love this stuff, so I was delighted to find this easy recipe for making sidewalk paint in Andrea's post "How to play hopscotch."

Materials:

• cornstartch
• water
• food colouring (for white paint, don't use any food colouring)

Instructions:

• mix equal parts cornstartch and water
• add a few drops of food colouring
• paint!

Notes to self:

• the images shown were made with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup cornstartch and 3 drops food colouring
• I had better luck with adding 7-8 drops food colouring for that volume of paint
• red/pink paint needs more food colouring than green
• the paint can be pretty watery to apply, but dries opaque and easily sweeps / washes off (it's not as thick, bright or wear-resistant as the commercial product)
• if you don't add enough water, you get Oobleck
  
  

  "If you quickly smack oobleck with your hand it immediately turns into a solid, instead of splashing or moving. If you slowly move oobleck it reacts like a liquid."

• Oobleck can be particularly frustrating to paint with. Although you can pour it out of its container, the minute you apply any force with a brush, it solidifies!