My favorite watercolor trick

If you're like me, you hate those little trays of watercolor cakes. They're the worst. Yes, I use them from time to time and every time I feel like it's just so wasteful. They're so easy to ruin.

I much prefer liquid water colors. But they require so much more prep. You have to squirt however much paint of each color in a palette for each kid.

But this week, I found a better way to do it. On Monday, I made the palettes, two wells of five colors because my first graders would be sharing them among two kids. They painted their clay pots and then returned the palettes to the counter. Instead of rinsing them out, I left them over night. They dried up for the most part. Some of the wells had more paint left than others so some had a little bit left in the morning.

I simply added water to each one and voilà, ready to use again. 

Tuesday's group used them, put them back, I added water, and so on an so forth. It's the best part of watercolor trays and liquid watercolors all rolled into one! 

For comparison, today I had to make a few new palettes today. On the right is all new paint and the left is paint from three days ago with water added. It really doesn't get overly watered down. 

What do you think? Would this work for you? Am I the last art teacher in the world to figure this out?