Paint by Number in the Shower

Math Activity in the Shower

I cannot tell you how much my boys, J-Bug (3) and JZ (5) are loving the shower activities I've been planning for them.  They love water play, and they love hands on learning.  What a wonderful way to combine the two!  This time I wanted to focus on simple math concepts.  I set up an invitation to paint by number in the shower with a spring theme.  It took me no more than 15 minutes to paint black outlines of flowers, grass, the sun, a butterfly and a ladybug.  I numbered the inside of each outline.

How to Paint by Number in the Shower

This post contains affiliate links. Here is my full disclosure policy.

Supplies:

• washable paint
• paint brushes (we went through a lot for this activity)
• muffin tins for paint (or a container of your choice)

Next to the spring mural I painted the numbers 1 through 7 in the color that corresponded with each drawing.

Then I invited the boys to paint by number.

The black paint mixed with the colors a bit.  Maybe if I had allowed the black to dry before bringing the boys in to start it would have mixed less.  Either way it didn't seem to bother them.

JZ worked slowly and carefully to keep the paint inside the black lines.

Painting or coloring by number is such a simple way to reinforce numbers and colors.

The extra challenge was finding all of each number.  They had to really focus and be observant.

I may have made a few of the paintings too high.  JZ had to really stretch to reach them.

Of course the paint wars started before too long.

What I love about learning activities in the shower is that the boys can get as messy and paint covered as they like since soap and water are within easy reach.  Please note that most of the paint came off immediately, but it usually takes 2-3 showers for all of the color to fade.

The results were quite lovely, and they got me even more excited for spring!

When they were done painting they had every bit as much fun spraying the walls (and each other) down with the shower head as they did painting.

For more learning activities in the shower follow me on Pinterest.

More hands on math activities for kids:

Math Games with Candy ~ Gross Motor Addition Game ~ Water Balloon Equations