Pendulum Painting Made Easy - Handmade Kids Art

Materials

Foam or Paper Cup, Scissors, String, Tape, 2 Chairs, Broom, Large Paper (We used a roll of brown craft paper), Plastic Tablecloth or other drop cloth

Tutorial

Step 1: Prep the workspace by covering the floor with a drop cloth. Prep the pendulum by poking a hole in the bottom of the paper cup and one hole on each side of the cup underneath the rim. Tie a piece of string through the two holes on the side of the cup creating a handle for the cup.

Step 2: Place the broom horizontal across between the two chairs and slide the string tied cup to the middle of the broom.

Step 3: Before adding paint to the cup, test your pendulum with water. This is an easy way to make sure your work space is covered before adding paint. It also allows your artist time to experiment with swinging the cup.

Once your child is ready, place a piece of tape covering the bottom hole of the cup and fill the cup with a mixture of washable paint and water. It may depend on the thickness of your paint but we used a 2:1 ratio, 2 parts paint to 1 part water. Roll out and place your paper underneath the pendulum.

Remove the tape and swing the cup. Observe what patterns the pendulum creates on the paper.

Step 4: Let the painting dry completely.

Experiment with different timing of swinging the cup, different lengths of string, or lowering and raising the cup.

Afraid of the Mess? Try it Outside!

This project can get a bit messy (but with a drop cloth it was very easy to clean up).

If the ideas of painting inside scares you…try taking the pendulum painting outside. We used a DIY washable sidewalk paint to test the pendulum outside.

DIY Washable Sidewalk Paint Recipe

1/3 c. of cornstarch

1/3 c. of water

tablespoon of Washable Paint

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl. Be sure to test the paint in a small spot first to make sure it will wash off. We have found some different brands of paint wash off easier than others.

Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What pattern is the pendulum making with the paint?
• What happens if you swing the pendulum gently or swing it more forcefully?
• What does the painting look like or remind you of?

You may enjoy these other STEAM activities

How to Turn STEM into STEAM with Build a Bug Habitat

Put your engineer and design skills to the test with this STEAM CHALLENGE: Build a Rain Shelter

Science Rocks! Put your observations skills to the test with this open-ended science observation activity.

For additional STEAM activities be sure to check out our ebook, STEAM: Preschool Activities for STEM Enrichment.

This post is part of the A-Z STEM Series. Click over to check out a whole alphabet worth of STEM activities.

","discussion":{"numPages":1,"confidence":0.305,"diffbotUri":"discussion|3|1217312946","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","numPosts":10,"type":"discussion","title":"Pendulum Painting Made Easy","posts":[{"date":"Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:23:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Jill @ Do Try This at Home says","diffbotUri":"post|3|1533901702","html":"

Looks like a FUN project! What type of paint did you use? Just tempra?

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":0,"text":"Looks like a FUN project! What type of paint did you use? Just tempra?","type":"post"},{"date":"Thu, 05 Feb 2015 19:38:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Jamie Hand says","diffbotUri":"post|3|149038697","html":"

Yes, we used a washable tempera paint mixed with a splash of water so that is is a bit runny and easy to pour out. It was fun and surprisingly not all that messy!

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":1,"text":"Yes, we used a washable tempera paint mixed with a splash of water so that is is a bit runny and easy to pour out. It was fun and surprisingly not all that messy!","type":"post","parentId":0},{"date":"Tue, 27 Jan 2015 18:32:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Molly Montgomery","authorUrl":"http://HandMadeKidsArt","diffbotUri":"post|3|-2019830251","html":"

Absolutely fantastic. I currently run a before and after school care privately from my home and find craft for boys quite challenging. THANK YOU

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":2,"text":"Absolutely fantastic. I currently run a before and after school care privately from my home and find craft for boys quite challenging. THANK YOU","type":"post"},{"date":"Thu, 05 Feb 2015 19:36:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Jamie Hand says","diffbotUri":"post|3|-2006492124","html":"

Thank you for commenting! We had a lot of fun with this activity!

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":3,"text":"Thank you for commenting! We had a lot of fun with this activity!","type":"post","parentId":2},{"date":"Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:31:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"heather says","diffbotUri":"post|3|-1929829844","html":"

I really wanted to try pendulum painting and I was thinking of buying pvc pipes to be able to do it. Thanks to your site I save a bunch of money and time, thank you!

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":4,"text":"I really wanted to try pendulum painting and I was thinking of buying pvc pipes to be able to do it. Thanks to your site I save a bunch of money and time, thank you!","type":"post"},{"date":"Fri, 26 Jun 2015 12:58:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Jamie Hand says","diffbotUri":"post|3|799657868","html":"

Oh, yay! Let us know how it goes!

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":5,"text":"Oh, yay! Let us know how it goes!","type":"post","parentId":4},{"date":"Sat, 02 Jan 2016 12:28:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Mother of 3 says","diffbotUri":"post|3|2107566303","html":"

So fun; but I think we’ll wait for summer and try this outside. I can really see my boys getting into this project!

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":6,"text":"So fun; but I think we’ll wait for summer and try this outside. I can really see my boys getting into this project!","type":"post"},{"date":"Mon, 18 Jan 2016 19:26:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Jamie Hand says","diffbotUri":"post|3|-668814964","html":"

It really is a great project to try outside especially in the summer! Thank you for commenting.

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":7,"text":"It really is a great project to try outside especially in the summer! Thank you for commenting.","type":"post","parentId":6},{"date":"Thu, 14 Jan 2016 08:28:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Brandy says","diffbotUri":"post|3|-1156796594","html":"

This would awesome to make t – shirts with dye! I’m thinking a galaxy type design.

","pageUrl":"http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/","id":8,"text":"This would awesome to make t – shirts with dye! I’m thinking a galaxy type design.","type":"post"},{"date":"Mon, 18 Jan 2016 19:21:00 GMT","humanLanguage":"en","author":"Jamie Hand says","diffbotUri":"post|3|-1733121526","html":"

Oh, I love that idea. Let me know if you try it!

Original article and pictures take http://handmadekidsart.com/pendulum-painting/ site