Art activity ideas for infants and toddlers?

Question

I'm currently studying a degree in early childhood and am on placement in my first under 2's centre (from around 8 months-2yrs). I need to come up with one or two creative ideas for some art activities for the children to be involved in. It is for an assignment and I am finding it hard to come up with or find ideas. The centre does paintings with the children, but the teachers end up spending the whole time stopping children from eating the paint so it isn't really all that enjoyable for the children. If there are any ideas that you could suggest I would very much appreciate it!

Answer 1

You can dip their hands and feet in paint, and make adorable hand and foot prints on paper.  This way, you can control the situation, and wash their hands immediately so they don't eat the paint.

Answer 2

After my son made short work of eating most of his crayons I started giving him coloured pencils.

He began drawing with them before he was 10 months old. Beyond working on his hand eye coordination and fine motor skills he gets immense joy from using all of the different colours. I have a large pad of paper for him and although I give him a lot of alone drawing time I use it as a great opportunity to have fun learning time where I draw pictures, shapes, write words and letters, and also numbers while talking to him about what I am doing. I am an artist but I just have fun while drawing and do not place any emphasis on "correctness" of his drawing. He will be two soon and still loves playing with the pencils everyday!

I just thought I would bring this up because I have not really seen toddlers playing with coloured pencils. I was under the impression that they might be too sharp and dangerous so I carefully monitered him while he was very young but have never had a safety problem.

Answer 3

When I teach workshops for Infant teachers I propose that it is not appropriate to give art materials to infants until they understand not to eat them. Introduce materials only after the children are old enough to form the intent of making a mark on the paper after using a crayon and doing it by accident. Avoid the use of "baby as tool"-don't hold the child's hand and use it to draw or paint.That being said, focus on the experience, not the outcome. Give them fat crayons and hang a big piece of paper on the wall. Let them paint outside with big brushes and water. Hang a piece of contac paper on the wall sticky side out and offer a variety of safe materials to stick on it. Toddlers love play dough. There are lots of safe recipes around. Don't expect them to make anything, just let them manipulate the materials. Do ball painting. Put a piece of paper on the bottom of a cardboard gift box with sides. Drop in balls such as ping pong or golf balls that the children have dripped in paint. Then let them tilt the box to make trails. If you find they have trouble keeping the balls in the box put the lid on and let them shake it. Toddlers also love salad spinner art. Put a circle of paper or a coffee filter on the bottom of a salad spinner, use the balls dripped in paint, and let them spin! Let them paint by dipping the wheels of toy trucks in paint and running them across the paper.

     If you do the activities with only two or three kids at a time it is a lot easier to prevent things like eating the paint and provides a richer experience for the kids since they have a chance to work on their language skills with you as they talk about what they are doing.

     Above all. avoid "cookie cutter art", those cute little projects that look all alike. Under no circumstances provide a model or precut pieces tro be put together in a particular way. Take a look at  Mary Ann Kohl's books for age appropriate ideas.

Answer 4

I'm a children's librarian and I do art activities with kids under 3 all the time. My very favorite book to tap for ideas is Razzle Dazzle Doodle Art by Linda Allison and Martha Weston. I believe it's out of print, but I found 27 used copies just now on Amazon, starting at $.07. Another great idea to bypass that paint-eating problem is to let the kids finger paint with pudding. Even cleaner: put the pudding in a ziploc bag and suck out the extra air. Kids can manipulate it or draw on it with their fingers yet never open it.

Answer 5

Kids ages 1-2 are very oral. They really do touch, taste and smell things as they discover them. Allow them that because they are still knowing their world through their senses.

Provide activities which are fun and sensorial.

If u are taeching them about their body parts- ex. hands. You can come up with some ideas like:

1.  Hand printing using  salt dough ( playdough with more salt but edible),

2. Ice floaters ( prepare ice of different shapes and colors and put them in a bin for the children to touch and feel.

3. Feely Box- put several objects with different textures in a box.

4. Fingerpainting or sponge painting a big butcher paper

5. Pasting activities