Looks Like Rain!

On a recent rainy day, the girls and I made this Looks Like Rain! Fine Motor Craft. I love the look of drops of liquid watercolor, and Lena and Maggie love getting to use eyedroppers. Using the eyedroppers is also great fine motor work for your kids (but you don't have to tell them that)! We made this craft as part of our Weather Theme Weekly Preschool, but it would also work well for a spring themed unit.

This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you use these links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Click here for my full privacy and disclosure policies.

Materials Needed:

watercolor paper
construction paper cut in umbrella shapes
glue stick
eye-dropper or pipettte
liquid watercolor

Some notes about your materials:

You can buy your liquid watercolors pre-made, or you can pop a cake of Crayola watercolor out of its little plastic package, crush it a bit and let it dissolve in water. I mixed one standard sized cake with with about 6 tablespoons of water and then divided it into two separate cups for each of my girls. This was more than enough liquid for this project, and the color was rich and deep.

Watercolor paper is really a necessity for this project. Regular copy paper or construction paper won't absorb the watercolor properly, and the colors may be muddled. It's worth the extra expense!

Directions

Start by letting your child glue the umbrella pieces onto the watercolor paper.

Then, show them how to use an eye-dropper or pipette. Show them to squeeze the empty eye-dropper, dip it into the liquid watercolor, and release the squeeze to draw the liquid into the dropper.

Then show them how to gently squeeze the dropper to release one drop at a time. Let them make rain drops all over the page!

The watercolor may bead up at first, but it will soak into the paper as it dries and give it a really neat look.

The watercolor that dropped on to the umbrella and handle ended up looking a little bit muddled after it dried. You may want to 'rain' on a blank sheet of paper and add the umbrella afterwards to keep it looking nice and bright.