Offering children a variety of activities to support painting and drawing can help them learn different skills. If children were just given pencils to draw with they wouldn’t learn new ways of making marks with other implements. Children can make marks with a wide range of resources not just pencils and crayons. Why not investigate using other resources to use such as shaving foam, corn flour, custard; these are all great experiences that enable children to freely make marks. Let’s take a look at some other activities you can offer children to support this area of learning.
Five painting and drawing activities for children.
- Find some large cars in your car box sellotape a felt tip to the front or back of car and let children freely push the car around on the paper. Watch the children’s faces as they begin to see the marks their car has made.
- Place large sheets of paper on the floor, wall paper might be a better option for this. Put some music on and give the children some crayons to draw with. Watch the children as they listen to the music and make marks on their paper.
- Place a large sheet of paper on the floor. Pour some different colours of paint onto some kitchen trays. Put these trays on the floor. Offer the children different items to paint with eg, sponges, brushes, toothbrushes. Sit back and watch what marks the children make.
- Fill your black tuff spot with squirts of shaving foam. Encourage the children to make marks in the shaving foam. Why not add other implements to make marks with such as animals, bricks, washing up brushes etc.
- Vegetable painting- Cook some peas, Swede, and carrots separately, mash them to puree consistency. Place each one of the vegetable mix on a Kitchen tray and place these on a hard floor. Encourage the children to either use their hands or paint brushes to mark marks on the floor using the vegetable paint
These ideas are very simple and there are many many more you can offer the children, however don’t forget to observe the children to see what their interests are as you can tailor this into the activities you offer