Painting Sugar Cubes | Still Playing School

Painting Sugar Cubes

This fine motor painting activity involved color mixing, absorption, solid dissolution, building construction, and the light table!


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My husband found a box of sugar cubes in our coffee cabinet (Yes, we have an entire cabinet dedicated to our love for caffeine.) and asked me if I wanted to use them for an activity with our preschooler! Of course I was up for that challenge!


When I showed E the sugar cubes and explained what they were she had so many questions! "Are they sticky? Can we eat them? How do people use them?" We spent some time investigating their properties as we built structures with them (and I did let her taste one).


We diluted liquid water colors (one of our favorite art supplies) and got out eye droppers and training chopsticks to add fine motor work. 


We experimented with color mixing, reviewed rainbow color order, and observed the solid sugar cubes dissolving into a liquid as the water was added.




Once we saw how stunning the colorful sugar cubes turned out and how addicting they are to paint we had to try them on the light table!


Before the sugar cubes were colored they were dark on the table but the watercolors made them transparent as the sugar absorbed the liquid. The effect made the cubes glow the instant she dropped the color on them! It was mesmerizing!


Of course we had to add a bit of literacy! Rainbows, literacy, and the light table are our favorite things!



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11 comments :

  1. wow!! what a fun activity! (although I would have eaten them all! I can't resist sugar cubes!!)

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  2. Love this, Devany! They look so cool on the light table too!

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  3. OMG! I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!! The cubes are so pretty too! Brava and pinned :)

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  4. Gorgeous colours! Love the sugar cube rainbow!

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  5. Such a cool activity! Love the way the colors absorbed into the cubes!

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  6. I had several sets of these 'training' chopsticks a few years ago, donated by a parent, but they all 'mysteriously disapeared' one summer. I have been unable to find them ever since, the only ones that I have been able to source are much smaller. Can anyone tell me where to buy them from?

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    1. We love them too, Margaret! I linked in the post above but here is another link for you:
      http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009S5O22/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0009S5O22&linkCode=as2&tag=stilplayscho-20&linkId=CAYTWM7HCEARYA6V

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