I work in a creche with children between the age 9-16 months, any new exciting art ideas???

Question

my most recent art work was big pieces of paper and let my roll about the paint in baby-grows they loved it, i'm just sick of the normal scribbling on paper!!!

Answer 1

they are so young - let them fingerpaint with pudding so you dont'have to worry about them eating it.,  Let them smoosh playdoh and watch closely that they don't eat it!   Let them glue collages and put on stickers.  I had my 22 month old putting on stickers and he struggled with putting them on upside down so that might be a bit too hard.  Keep it simple for those babies!

Answer 2

Try some clay or Playdough! Little kids LOVE to touch everything, so they'd love the squishy texture! Plus, some various colors or paint might be fun for them to mix up and stuff. Just be careful that none ends up in a mouth, hair, or anywhere else.

Answer 3

have you tried cornflour mixed with water ? my little one loved this at that age .

just mix cornflour and water on a tray to touch it feels hard but the more you move it  the runnier it will become or prehaps bubble painting ( poster paint mixed with soap and a little water)  get the older ones to blow bubbles with a straw into the paint and lay paper on top it makes great shapes.

Answer 4

There are many who feel this age can not do "art" but you're right!  They can and should be allowed these open-ended explorations.  And that's exactly what it is.  

Today we were outside in the sprinkler and I set sidewalk chalk outside.  The 12 month old got the rest of the crew with this "new" idea.  :-) (I knew it would happen but wanted them to figure it out for themselves).  She was "scribbling" and was wet at the same time.  So it made a beautiful chalky mess.  They ended up making more and more colors and creating handprints and footprints.  Of course, easy wash off with the sprinkler.  A different approach, if you don't have access to a sprinkler is to wet the sidewalk with a hose or bucket of water first and then write with the chalk.  Much bolder.

Spread out bulletin board paper and have them step in paint or on ink pads and run down the strip of paper.

Spread out bulletin board paper and have pans of paint and string.  They make squiggly lines down the paper.  

Large paper hung on walls or laid flat with many different brushes...kitchen tools,old shoes, and paint.

Instead of fingerpaint use pudding so it doesn't matter if they eat it.  To make it "cute" to go home with make a simple pig outline...can even add the rhyme...3 little pigs.

Oatmeal canisters with paper inside and the children can roll it back and forth.

Texture rubbing plates or alphbaet or numbers ...whatever under paper and the children.  Not telling the children that the plates are there makes it more exciting when they figure it out.  Large crayons work well.

Washable markers on coffee filters (cone shaped makes great butterflies) and help them use a spray bottle to make the colors blend.  Or provide water in cups and paint brushes.

Colored sand/salt shakers.  Place a paper inside of a box.  (The edges keep the sand contained with these little guys).  Use the salt/pepper shakers from the dollar store...fill with colored sand.  Help the children drizzle glue all over the paper and then shake the sand on it.  Use as a cooperative project and use a large black posterboard and let the children decorate throughout the day.  Then hang up as a class project.  The black contrasts nicely with the colored sand.

This is definately adult assisted toward the end but it's kind of neat.  Have the kids put masking tape on a piece of construction paper or cardboard (the shiny cardboard out of pantyhose boxes work nice :-)).  Then let them sponge paint or color in any way you want.  Then the adult takes the tape of.  Kids this age love tape so allow for extra to play with :-)

Fingerpaint on bubble wrap and then do a print onto construction paper.  

Contact paper sticky side up is a great classroom collage project for this age.  If you provide foam shapes the kids can put them on or take them off.

This is a project that requires adult supervision.  Balloon painting... I suggest 1:1, which can be usually done in this age's classroom :-).  Partially inflate the balloon and help the child make prints on a paper.  Better to have paper taped to a wall so they can walk along it.  :-)  Inflate the balloons at different sizes and provide different colored paints and you have a display to talk about size and color and the shape circle.

Cups- If you put paint on a plate and mix with a lot of soap an dlet the children dip and print...it usually leaves a bubble on the paper and then it pops into a neat circle.  :-)

Butterfly blots can be done at this age.  A simple butterfly shape folded in half.  Provide paint and q-tips.  Children "design" their butterfly and you help them fold and press...then open back up to see the symmetry.  The eyes on these younger children pop open wide when they see their work!

This doesn't dry but at this age it's the process not the product that matters.  :-)  I let children spread vaseline (yes, vaseline LOL) onto aluminum foil cardboard.  Then I provided foam shapes.  Some kids even stacked the shapes up.  Some just moved them around the cardboard.  They loved this sensory activity.

Fill plastic gloves with sensory material...flour, oatmeal, corn, beans, etc.  Then let the kids paint with them.  IT'S HILARIOUS!

Get permission for this ahead of time if you are in a day care center :-)  Place the children in a wading pool, in diapers only.  This works better outside.  Put fingerpaint right inside of the pool.  Do two primary colors so they will mix nice.  Let them body paint.  Watch those little ones that are still oral.  Then hose them off.

Oh the list goes on.  Just remember...it's the process not the product and much of art at this age is sensory.  :-)  Have fun!

Answer 5

Playdough is a great idea, it's good to have different colours to mix. Here's a Playdough recipe:

4 cups of flour

1 cup of salt

4 teaspoons of cornflour

1/4 - 1/2 cup cooking oil

Food colouring (powder or liquid form)

flavour essence: Vanilla, caramel, etc...

4 cups boiling water

I don't think there's any real order to mix but I chuck it all into a large plastic bowl, add colouring to boiling water before mixing with rest.

This is a great idea because the child can feel the texture, smell flavoring, and it's ok if they try to eat it.

Answer 6

working with clay, put their hand prints into it? let them draw on walls but put paper on the walls, they can run across the wall with crayons or pencils. another idea is face paint, or colouring in their favourite tv characters, let them decorate t-shirts with feathers, sequins etc

hope this will create some ideas