Winter Day Activity: Pudding Paints (With Pictures & Details)

Surprise! A snow day! It truly was a surprise for me because I didn't see our school listed and so I got my son ready for his day and took him there. An empty school and a completely full day of nothing to do today. What's a mom to do?

Instead of sitting in front of the television, we worked on making finger paints and enjoyed a day of painting and then a day of bathing because we were so sticky and messy from our painting. The kids really loved these, although I think Emily ended up eating more of the paint then she did actually painting with it.

I spread out a plastic tablecloth that I had gotten with some promotional materials from a company. I would recommend using a plastic shower curtain or tablecloth (both can be purchased from a dollar store) and keeping this with your craft supplies. We also have old shirts from daddy or do the all natural look (as Emily has displayed) for the really messy stuff.

We had little finger sponges that had come with a finger paint set that I had bought from Target last year. The kids started out with these and then just begin slapping their hands in the paint. The sponges were fun for awhile, but bare fingers dipped in pudding taste much better!

Please ignore the horrible colors we made. We found green and red made mud. The yellow of the pudding mix made for some interesting colors, but my little artists didn't care!

This recipe is great because I always have pudding mixes in my cupboard. Next time I make this though, I will probably use 1 1/2 cups of water instead of two cups to help make it a little less drippy.

This is one of those fun activities for a snowy day or a rainy day that will only cost you one pudding mix!

Pudding Paint

1 package of instant pudding (3.4 oz)
2 cups ice-cold water
Food coloring

Whisk water and instant pudding together in a bowl for two minutes. Refrigerate for five minutes. Divide pudding into several small bowls or muffin tins. Add five to seven drops of food coloring to each bowl or tin and mix.