Painting activities for toddler

Tiny fingers dipped into paints, tapping on the paper, and making unique prints! Nothing is more joyous than watching a toddler’s cheerful smile while playing with colors. Painting activities are a fun way for them to do self-exploration of colors and improve their motor skills. Painting activities for toddlers also helps to enhance visual perception and let them do creative things that help in development of the brain and fine motor skills.

What is the Importance of Painting Activities For Toddler?

Painting activities are beneficial for the brain development of toddlers. These activities help to develop motor skills and subconsciously pick up information from surroundings to learn about things. Studies state, Painting activities also enhance the creative process and keep toddlers busy for hours. Apart from these some other benefits of painting activities for toddler are-

1. Boosts Self-Esteem in Toddler

Painting activities are an excellent way for toddlers to express their creativity. Allow your little one to exhibit their imagination through colors on canvas and paper. Doing such activities help to boost their self-esteem and express themselves.

2. Improves Motor Skills

Painting skills undoubtedly improve motor skills in toddler. They use motor skills when they hold a brush and engage their muscles to create a stroke on paper. Creative activities like painting improve control and coordination between the brain and muscles. When motor skills improve, toddlers have better control over mobility.

3. Enhance Spatial Intelligence

Spatial intelligence refers to the ability to reason and learn from visual data. It involves visual-spatial skills to know what an object’s shape looks like. With activities like painting, toddlers understand the shape and color of objects.

[Read : Spatial Awareness in Toddlers]

4. Sensory Skills Development

Painting activities for toddler are very useful in improving sensory skills. Some experts believe toddlers are playful with colors. They smell colors, feel paint texture, and love to tap into the paints with their tiny hands. The activities together can help in the development of their sensory skills.

5. Helps to Improve Concentration

Painting is helpful for a toddler’s brain development. Constantly engaging and engrossing your toddler in painting activities can help to increase their concentration and patience.

Types of Paint to Use in Painting Activities For Toddler

Before you begin with painting activities, let’s quickly look over the types of paints you can use in doing these painting activities with toddler. There are a variety of paints available in the market these days. Here is a guide on the different paints that you can use in painting activities for toddler-

1. Tempera Paint

It is easily available at stationery stores and general stores. But be sure to pick up toddler-friendly washable tempera paint. This paint doesn’t cause any allergic reaction to your little one.

2. Watercolor Paints

Watercolor paint is a cheaper alternative to tempera paint. These colors are mixed in water and are easily washable. You can use watercolor in painting activities for a toddler.

3. Classic Finger Paints

This paint is very useful and easy to use. You can purchase fingerpaint to indulge in some finger painting activities with your toddler.

4. Homemade Paints For Toddler

If you are worried about your tiny tot’s skin safety, you can prepare homemade paint. For this you will need flour, salt, food color, and cold water. Mix all these ingredients well to make the paint which is slightly watery in texture. Use it as paint to do fun activities with your little one.

Top 8 Painting Activities For Toddlers

Painting activities for toddler are a fun way to keep them engaged while working on developing their motor and other skills. If you’re struggling to find some suitable painting activities for your toddler, look no further. Here we have compiled some simple activities which your toddler will love. The activities are very easy, and you don’t need to spend much time doing them. Some top painting activities for toddler are-

1. Marble Painting

Toddlers love to play with marbles and are quite fascinated by them. You can make use of these marbles to engage your little one in a fun painting activity. Coat the marbles in some paint of different colors. Now, ask your toddler to throw them on paper, and make some random prints from these color-coated marbles.

Also, try a unique technique to make spider webs by rolling the color-coated marbles on paper. This will leave spider web-like patterns on the paper. Trust us when we tell you that this is going to be a lot of fun for your toddler. You can also try color recognition games with your toddler through marble painting.

Just be sure to stay around your toddler when they are doing this activity because some toddlers might put marbles into their mouths. It can cause trouble and invite serious injuries.

2. Splatter Painting

Everybody knows toddlers love to splatter and make a mess. So, why not try splatter painting with your toddler? This is an action-oriented paint art process best suited to play outdoors. You can use water-soluble acrylic paint for splatter painting.

Use a big canvas so your little one can easily splatter the paint over it. Just go ahead and let your toddler splatter paint as they want. Alternatively, give them brushes dipped into the paint and let them splatter paint with it. This splatter painting is very useful for improving hand-eye coordination and motor skills in toddler.

3. Flower Pot Painting

Flower pot painting is another one of fun painting activities for toddler. And the end result from this can be used as décor around your house as well! Stock up on some terra cotta or plastic-based flower pots for a fun painting activity. Use permanent markers to create some unique patterns over it.

Now, give your toddler brushes and let them paint over these patterns. Acrylic colors work best to paint over the pot. Moreover, you can give them markers and colors to make different shapes. Flower pot painting opens creative thinking and helps toddlers express their thoughts on pots.

4. Blow Art

Blow art painting is an amazing activity for toddler with unpredictable results. Some paintings may result in beautiful art pieces, while some may not turn out that well. To do this activity with your toddler, use a straw, paper cups, water-soluble paints, and paper. Pour some paint over the paper and blow air with a straw to move it around.

You can also outline with a marker pen on the paper and let your toddler fill the sketch with this blowing technique. This type of blow art helps in brain development and lets your little one explore creative ideas to draw on paper.

5. Paint With Jelly Beans

Consider adding fun painting activities for toddler to improve their sensory skills. Give your little munchkin some jelly beans and let them paint with them on paper. Colored jelly beans are easily available in the market and won’t cost you a fortune.

You can use different colored jelly beans and put them in different cups according to colors. You can also seek your toddler’s help in sorting the jelly beans. This will also teach them about colors. Now, pour some hot water into it so the color will pop out. Let it cool down and make a sketch over the paper and give your toddler a spoon or a dropper to paint on the paper using that jelly bean color.

6. Paint Filled Eggs

Looking for some more interesting painting activities for toddler? Try paint-filled eggs painting activity. But this is an activity which will create a mess so do it outside or in an empty space. To do this, you need empty eggshells. Break the eggs from the top part and empty the contents. Now wash these empty eggshells with water. Fill them with different colors.

Cover the open end with tape to avoid spilling the paint filled inside the eggshells. Put a canvas on the floor and give those paint-filled eggs to your toddler and ask them to toss these eggs on the canvas. Now watch them go crazy with fun as they plop one egg after the other on the canvas and make art. Your toddler will not get bored and would love to do this painting activity again and again.

[Read : How to Encourage Your Child’s Creative Side]

7. Paint With Balloons

Balloon painting is a wonderful hack to keep your toddler busy for hours. Again, this is a fun and easy activity for toddler and helps them learn about colors. The activity also helps to open up imagination gateways and think creatively. Here are some unique balloon painting activities which you can do to keep your toddler engaged-

Get some balloons and blow air into them. Now take some acrylic colors and dip the back of the balloon into it. Hand the balloon to toddlers and help them press firmly against the paper to create unique shapes and designs. Use different colors to make interesting shapes.
Take some balloons and fill them with water. Tightly tie a knot so water doesn’t spill. Now dip the balloon into colors and let your toddlers roll these balloons on paper to make unique designs.
Fill balloons with some paint and water and blow them up. Stick them or pin them on a big sheet of paper or canvas. Now give your toddler a pointed stick, or pen, or chopstick etc. Basically anything which can burst the balloon easily. Ask them to pop the balloons one by one and watch their amazement as they create unique art on their own! Just be careful and keep watch while they burst balloons.

8. Handprint Keepsakes

Handprint keepsakes are a great way to create beautiful memories with your little one. Salt dough is available in the market that is perfect for making keepsake designs and shapes. This can easily be baked at low oven temperatures.

Prepare the salt dough and put paint over your toddler’s hand to make prints on the dough. Let it dry and frame it to create beautiful art and memories. Moreover, you can also try some handprints with color on paper and decorate them into colorful frames to keep them with you.

Painting activities for toddler help them to enhance spatial intelligence, communication skills, visual expressions, and color recognition. Engaging your toddler in painting activities helps to improve their creative skills. It’s okay if your toddler makes a mess with the paints. But at least they learn something and improve their motor skills. So, pick up any of the above-listed painting activities for your toddler and let them get creative and go wild with fun.

[Read : Top 9 Fun Fine Motor Activities For Toddlers]

FAQ’s

1. What Skills Does Painting Give Toddlers?

Painting gives toddlers fine motor control, gross motor skills, enhances their visual perception, improves hand-eye coordination, sparks creativity, etc. Moreover, painting activities also help them learn about different colors, shapes, and designs.

2. How do You Set up a Painting Activity For Toddlers?

If you are setting the platform indoors, set a large canvas paper on the floor. Put some brush, paint, and colors for the toddler. Play calm music so your toddler can relax and actively participate in the fun painting activity. You can also spread a large plastic sheet under the canvas to prevent getting the floor dirty.

3. How do I Start Art With my Toddler?

Give your toddler pieces of paper, crayons, and drawings to color. Toddlers will easily grasp crayons. Now start showing them different coloring ideas over paper. This activity is useful for improving gripping ability and hand-eye coordination.

Top 8 Easy Painting Activities For Toddlers