Art! Art! Art!

Art is an essential building block of development for toddlers and helps them bridge learning with many other subject areas. For the past few weeks toddlers have been creating and looking at art, which benefits them in many ways. We have been incorporating many different art materials into the toddler room. 

One of the activities done was painting clear plastic water bottles with marbles and paper.  Toddlers shook, rolled and spun the bottles, the end product looked very much like stained glass and each paper was very different.  Toddlers worked hard putting marbles into their bottles while looking inside to see what was happening on the paper.

Painting with golf balls was another fun activity. Toddlers worked together as a team to move the large tubes rolling the golf balls in all directions. They laughed as the balls jumped around in the tub and onto the table and floor.

Toddlers also experienced the properties of heat by using a hot plate to melt crayons.   At first children were hesitant to participate because of the heat but as soon as realized that they would not get hurt they became very interested. They moved the crayon in a circular motion as they watched the crayon melt onto the paper.

Toddler also created clear collages using contact paper with many different materials.  One day children went walking on the path to collect natural materials for the collage back in the classroom they worked together to arrange the materials onto the contact paper. They also created a collage using small pieces of paper. They were using their fine motor skills to pick up the small pieces of paper.   The last collage toddlers did was a mix of materials using papers, fathers, confetti, and plastic lace. When toddlers first worked with the contact paper they were very interested in the feeling of the sticky contact paper, they put their hand on it and laughed as they tried to pull their hand off.  Not only were these activities exposing them to many different art mediums but also helped children understand cause and affect.

Over all these art activities have been an excellent opportunity for children to be creative, nurture friendships and take part in unique experiences.