Black Glue and Salt Watercolor Rainbow - Salt Painting for Preschool

The frequent appearance of rainbows over this past month prompted us to make a Black Glue and Salt Watercolor Rainbow, a fitting addition to our spring activities for kids.

It felt natural to combine rainbows’ unique array of colors with an equally unique art method. We’ve used salt for our Dripping Salt Painting and Black Glue and Salt Leaves, and this craft was just as fun!

Salt Painting! Love the vibrancy of this Black Glue and Salt Watercolor Rainbow. One of our Favorite Rainbow Activities. Perfect for St. Patrick's Day or Spring.

You will need:

Salt
White glue
Black paint
Watercolors
Pencil
White paper

Salt Painting

To make black glue, empty your glue bottle so it's only half full. Then add some squirts of black paint. Use enough black paint to fill up an additional quarter of the glue bottle. Shake the mixture until it is totally combined.

Draw a rainbow on a sheet of white paper and outline it with the black glue. Let this dry for a few hours until the glue has hardened to the touch.

Now it's time to start painting. If you have younger kids who have trouble remembering the colors of the rainbow, you can paint a dot of the correct color into each section so they can follow along.

My kids were careful to stay within the lines of black glue, but I think having the colors blend would look great too.

Make sure your painting is fairly wet before adding salt. If parts of it have dried already, have your child go over it again with a wet brush.

Next, add your salt. A shaker works great here so that kids can shake the salt on themselves.

Leave the salt on until the painting dries and then you can shake off the excess.

You will be left with a vibrant rainbow painting which has a sandy texture. If you are looking for rainbow activities, this is one that will brighten up any rainy day.

Some of my favorite bloggers have fun salt painting activities as well. Check out Salt Painting at Powerful Mothering and The Magic of Salt Painting at Artsy Momma.