Spiky Ball Painting

I mentioned in our "Having a Ball" week introduction post that Kingston has a spiky blue ball that he got in his Easter basket. This ball is so great for sensory play. It has spiky nubs all over it, a sticky texture, it bounces, and it makes a cool noise when baby plays with it. I thought it would be such a fantastic, non-traditional object to paint with. I was curious to see what kind of painting Kingston could make using this unconventional "paint brush".

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You can check your local dollar store for a textured ball like ours or you can look on Amazon which has a few different fun sensory balls. Here are a few similar ones that I have found:

Edushape 4" See-Me Sensory Balls - These are sensory balls marketed toward babies. They come in a set of four.

Yellow Spike Balls - These are actually used in massage. They could work for sensory activities and for some Mama relaxtion time!

Flashing Spiky Ball - This ball is exactly the same color as the one we have and is very similar. However, this one lights up! That would add an entirely new sensory aspect to this activity.

I put Kingston in his high chair and squeezed some red washable finger paint on a paper plate. Then I taped a piece of white cardstock down to his chair and dipped the blue ball in the red paint. I made sure that most of the spikes were covered in red paint before I handed it to Kingston. K plays with this ball often, but was intrigued with the red paint all over it. He grabbed it right away and examined it.

He rubbed the spikes feeling the wet paint. Then he began playing with it and in the process made a design on the paper. He rolled the ball back and forth which made a dot pattern.

He was very focused on what he was doing. While he painted, we worked on color recognition. I pointed at the paint on the paper and said "red" and then I pointed to the ball and said "blue". I then explained the ball to him using words like, "spiky, sticky, pointy, and round".

He also used his hands to do some of the painting. His fingers were covered in red paint from playing with the ball, so he used that to finger paint a portion of the picture.

The outcome was a mixture of both finger painting and a dot pattern made from the ball. I like that Kingston used both mediums to explore the paint. I love process art because you can really let them utilize the materials and express themselves however they want without worrying about achieving a certain outcome!