Colie Haahr Fullsizeoutput 43Ca

By Colie Haahr, CMNH Educator

Thank you for checking out our Pete the Cat Party video! If you followed along with the storytime, you know that Pete the Cat LOVES his white shoes, and his red shoes, and his blue shoes! He is even okay with his wet shoes! This blog post will walk you through setting up an art project guessing game, where kids can guess what Pete stepped in to change the color of his shoes.

Materials:

  • Paper- cardstock, construction paper, sketch paper
  • Watercolor paints
  • Paint brush
  • Water cup
  • White crayon
  • Drawings prepped ahead

Directions:

Prep Ahead: For this project, you will need to draw some pictures with a white crayon ahead of time. Each drawing should be an item that is mostly one color, and that we can imagine might change the color of Pete’s shoes. Here are some ideas:

  • Green: Spinach, Peas, Avocado
  • Blue: Blueberries
  • Purple: blackberries, grapes 
  • Red: Strawberries, Raspberries, Cherries 
  • Orange: Oranges, Carrots 
  • Yellow: Buttercups or Dandelions 
  • Brown: Coffee, Chocolate Cake
  • Black: Olives 
  1. Draw a picture of each item on a piece of paper using a white crayon
  2. Set up the water colors, paintbrush, and water cup for painting
  3. Play the game! Ask, “what do you think Pete the Cat could step in to change his shoes a different color?” Take a few guesses. 
  4. Now, choose one color and paint one of the pieces of paper, and see what happens! The picture you made with the crayon should magically appear
  5. The white crayon creates a wax resist, so the watercolors will not soak into the paper, and you can see the drawing in white.
  6. You can give away what color to paint each item, for example, “try painting this one red, and guess what is in the picture,” or let kids choose a color, and then ask “Is that what color strawberries are, or are they a different color?” 
  7. Play the game for each picture you made ahead of time.

Optional: kids can try coloring with white crayons to create a wax resist, then painting over it. 

Optional: you can also do this activity using tape to create an outline of Pete the Cat, and paint over it, then take the tape off when the painting is dry to see the design.