Today we are repurposing some toddler toys to make interesting marks with paint. This activity is nice to do together with wee ones as it lets them make art in a playful way, you can roll cars back and forward to see what happens and make loud stomping sounds as you both make footprints. You might have to model having a shot yourself first so wee ones see what to do and that putting the toys in paint is allowed today!
You need:
- Water-based paint in trays or on a plate or baking tray
- Paper – big bits if you have them or join some together
- Toys with wheels; cars, trucks, tractors
- Toys that would like to stomp around; elephants, dinosaurs etc
- cover the floor with a mat or newspaper
You need to set your paint out in trays which you can fit the feet of your animals in and the wheels of the cars in. Lay out paper over the floor. Show little ones how they can dip in the toy animals feet and then stamp them about on the paper. If you are using dinosaurs like us you will need to make some raaar sounds too! It’s fun to use different colours for each animal so you can see where there prints went and crossed.
For the car prints you can help wee ones roll the cars back and forth in the paint to cover the wheels and then show them how to roll them across the page to leave a tyre pattern. You can play a game of rolling them back and forth to each other. With slightly older toddlers you could extend this activity by using the tyre prints to make a road pattern together that they can use to play with their cars on later once it’s dry.
Once you are finished using the paint and making patterns your wee ones might also have fun giving the dinosaurs and bath or taking the cars through the carwash!
Here are some wee ones at one of our public messy play sessions enjoying this activity
