For a variation, students add lines and designs to the fired clay with oil pastels. Students dip the clay into the color wash to get a resist surface design. This is not a food or water-safe finish, so you may want to spray the pieces with a sealant. Don’t underestimate tempera paint! The simple explanation for this is the children’s safety is obviously more important than the longevity of the painting.

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Acrylics are available in transparent and opaque colors while tempera paints are predominantly opaque. As the only liquid tempera option, it has the best weight and consistency for teaching color mixing. Below is a summary of the basic differences between tempera paints and acrylics Acrylics Have More Options Than Tempera PaintsLeftover tempera paint must be returned to the original bottle or another storage container to stop it from drying out. The affordability of tempera paints make them great for schools or educational programs that have limited budgets. Look for the allergen free tempera paints if your school has students with allergies.

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It works best on absorbent surfaces, such as heavy weight drawing paper, but it can also be used on poster board and cardboard. Another factor that influences the drying rate of tempera paints is how absorbent the surface is that you’re painting on. There are allergen free tempera paints that are free from latex, dairy, casein, soy, egg, gluten, peanuts, and tree nuts. The popular brands of tempera paints list all of the allergens that their paints don’t contain. Additionally, tempera paint remains water soluble when dry. So when you paint over previous layers, you run the risk of reactivating the paint beneath it. For teachers or for using with lots of kids I highly recommend the set from Discount School Supply.

Older students love to experiment with tempera cakes as well, in part because of the fast drying time and easy workability for long-term projects. This isn’t true for tempera paints. The names of the colors are more basic and don’t tell you what pigment it contains. They are easy to clean. Just hold the cake under running water, swish a brush over the top, and it’s all clean for the next use.