What arts + crafts projects do you do with your toddler?

Kari Merks

We do a lot of coloring, (mostly with crayons, but we also have a chalkboard wall in her playroom and use that, too) fingerpainting, Play-doh activities - you know the simple things. I'm looking for other fun projects we can do with Stasa on the weekends or after work.

Spin313

Mostly we color at the table with crayons, but DS also has an easel that he likes to use.  I bought a pack of "tools" for playdoh and every once in a while I will bring those out (cookie cutters, a plastic cutting wheel, etc).  Occasionally we will paint (finger or brushes).

One fun thing we do is have a craft day with our mom group once a month.  Each mom signs up for a month and has to come up with a craft that all the toddlers can participate in.  It's nice because every mom comes up with something new and different, and it takes the pressure off each individual mom to be "crafty lady" all the time.  We made apple and paper-bag turkeys for Thanksgiving, decorated paper mittens for the holidays, and created paper plate snowmen to celebrate the snowfall.

mandyclaire579

We do gluing, where I'll let him color on paper and then we cut out shapes and he glues them. He can't cut yet, so it usually ends up me cutting everything.

Another thing we did for V-Day was I printed a giant heart on paper. Then I cut loads of red and white squares from tissue paper and he glued them in the heart. We also do lots of play-doh and coloring with markers, map pencils, and crayons.

jellybean529

My daughter loves foam stickers! So I usually pick up a package of the seasonal ones they sell at Target. We've still got a ton left from Christmas to use next year and we're moving on to Valentine's Day!

Angelica also loves fingerpaints, playdoh (beware of Moon Dough though -- that stuff gets everywhere) and dry erase markers (we have a dry erase board). When we're feeling particularly hungry, sometimes we bake and decorate cookies.

montvamj

I found one of those painting books where all you need to use is water on the page for the colors to show up (do you remember doing those when you were a kid?)  The more comfortable DS gets with that, the more I might move towards getting some watercolors.

kelbrian

Coloring - crayons, colored pencils, markers (Crayola's Pip Squeaks line is great for the markers and the colored pencils, sold at Target).

Painting - finger painting and with brushes (I like Melissa and Doug's jumbo brushes, easy for her to hold).

Stickers - She will make cards for grandparents, etc. with them or will put them in her sticker book. Keeps her busy for easily an hour. 

Gluing - I give her a bunch of die cut shapes, googly eyes, puff balls, pipe cleaners, etc. and she gets to glue them on paper. I put a little bit of glue in a container and give her a few q-tips - she dips them in the glue and smears it on whatever she wants to glue.

 

No Time For Flashcards has a lot of age-appropriate art projects, too. I get a lot of ideas from there.  The letter/number of the week is a huge hit with Lili.

 

far_more_than_rubies

We also use these stampers that look like Bingo daubers.  I don't know what they are called, but they stamp washable paint. They are easy for little hands to hold, and less messy than painting with a brush (my DS does not like finger paints...)