Painting with Corn Sensory Art Activity
In this fun fall sensory art activity, kids can make their own paint using cornmeal and get creative with different corn-themed painting tools.

Corn Painting Activity for Kids
One of my favorite ways to engage my kids with learning is to give them hands-on sensory activities.
Sensory activities allow children to deeply explore different topics and engage parts of the brain that aren’t usually engaged when we just read about or talk about certain concepts. Plus, it’s a lot more fun to learn about things while getting to play and explore!
For today’s activity, we explored the concept that an item can exist in different forms. Corn can be on a cob, dried, popped or ground – and in every state, it has different properties and characteristics.

Not only is this a great scientific concept to explore, while exploring the corn, encourage children to describe the different types of corn for a great language-building activity.
For example, the dried harvest corn has a crunchy, delicate husk that is rough to the touch, while the corn is hard, “bubbly” (it has ridges) and not delicate.
The cornmeal is gritty, small and powdery. The popcorn is crunchy, has a unique texture (lots of nooks and crannies) and while not as delicate as the corn husks is more delicate than the dried corn.

Then, when we move onto painting, we get to explore the corn in a whole new way – again, engaging in scientific observation and experimentation skills.
Notice that the dried corn makes a different pattern or design on the paper than the corn kernals, despite being very similar – why is that?
The popcorn makes a whole new print on the paper – it can be used to stamp on the paper or used as a make-shift paintbrush.
And the cornmeal is interesting, too. It can be sprinkled on top of a painted design, or mixed with glue to make it’s own “paint.” (It can also be mixed with water, but we found that it didn’t stick as well to the paper – you can experiment with this too and have the children put their observation skills to work.)

Supply List
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- Harvest Corn (sometimes referred to as “Indian corn”)
- Popcorn Kernels
- Popped Popcorn
- Cornmeal
- Water – for washing paintbrushes
- School Glue – for mixing with the cornmeal and also gluing corn or popcorn to the art
- Construction paper or cardstock
- Containers to hold the corn and paint
- Tempura Paint or Kids Craft Paint – if you’d like more colors than just the yellow cornmeal paint
- Paintbrushes

Instructions
First, make your cornmeal paint:
Prepare your cornmeal paint by mixing cornmeal with some clear or white school glue. Experiment with the ratios to find a texture that isn’t too thick to stick to the paintbrushes, about 2 parts cornmeal to 1 part glue is what we settled on.
Place the different types of corn in small bowls or a divided tray. Place the paint in it’s own container as well.
Start out just exploring the corn, do not put out the paint or paper yet. Once the kids have explored the corn a bit and are ready to move on, then bring out the paint and paper.

Now, experiment with different types of painting methods:
Set out all of your materials on a protected, clean surface and let the kids explore!
They can paint with paintbrushes or using the different types of corn.
They can sprinkle cornmeal onto their designs or paint it directly onto the paper.
They can glue popcorn or corn kernals to their art.
As long as they are being safe, allow them to experiment with the materials to their hearts’ content! Allow them to use up a few sheets of paper as long as they are enjoying exploring and experimenting.

Tips for this Corn Sensory Activity for Kids
- Tip #1: I often use kitchen trays or baking sheets as a tray for our more messy craft projects. It helps contain the mess and then the art can be left to dry on the tray.
- Tip #2: Prepare some extra popcorn for the kids so that they aren’t tempted to taste the popcorn that you are painting with – you may need to take a snack break in between exploring the different materials and starting to paint.
- Tip #3: Put out the craft supplies a little at a time. For example, if you have 2 cups of popcorn for this craft, put out half a cup at a time so that the kids go through the supplies a bit slower. I find if I put out too much at once, there is a lot of waste whereas if we slowly dole out the supplies, the activity lasts longer and the kids are more intentional with their supplies.

I hope your kids love getting to paint with corn as much as mine did!
Grab your free printable instructions for how to paint with corn:
Paint with Corn

A fun fall sensory activity or fall process art activity, allowing kids to explore how to paint with various types of corn!
Materials
- Harvest Corn (sometimes referred to as "Indian corn")
- Popcorn Kernals
- Popped Popcorn
- Cornmeal
- Water, for washing paintbrushes
- Glue, for mixing with the cornmeal and also gluing corn or popcorn to the art
- Thick paper
- Paint (you can use one color or more)
Tools
- Containers, for paint and corn
- Paintbrushes
Instructions
- Prepare your cornmeal paint by mixing cornmeal with some clear or white school glue. Experiment with the ratios to find a texture that isn't too thick to stick to the paintbrushes, about 2 parts cornmeal to 1 part glue is what we settled on.
- Place the different types of corn in small bowls or a divided tray. Place the paint in it's own container as well.
- Start out just exploring the corn, do not put out the paint or paper yet. Encourage the kids to touch the corn, describing the textures, shapes, or anything else they observe.
- Once the kids have explored the corn a bit and are ready to move on, then bring out the paint and paper.
- Set out all of your materials on a protected, clean surface and let the kids explore!
- They can paint with paintbrushes or using the different types of corn.
- They can sprinkle cornmeal onto their designs or paint it directly onto the paper.
- They can glue popcorn or corn kernals to their art.
- As long as they are being safe, allow them to experiment with the materials to their hearts' content! Allow them to use up a few sheets of paper as long as they are enjoying exploring and experimenting.
Pin this Fall Sensory Activity for Kids for your next rainy fall day:

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