One of the best, and probably funnest, ways for a toddler to make art is by shake, shake, shaking it!
I don’t do this nearly enough with the kids. Which is sad because I’m such a fan of big art.
Coming in oh-so-close to being the best, is a little less messy version of toddler crafting: contact paper collages.
However, back to our shake-shake art for toddlers.
This is messy, but a very contained mess. In fact, your fingers don’t even get messy if you’re careful enough.
First of all, cut out shaped from some heavier, cardstock paper (I usually grab it off the shelf at Wal-Mart, but here’s an affiliate link to some cardstock on Amazon). It needs to be heavier than construction paper because the paint makes it so wet, it gets weak and tears.
If you have an older child that wants to get involved, sign him up to do the cutting! George popped right in and took pride in cutting out Easter eggs for our project. (The shapes can really be anything, we’ve done it with hearts for Valentine’s Day too!)
Once George and I cut out a whole bunch of Easter eggs, it was time to get Louis involved in painting!
Err…. I mean shaking.
Put the cut out shapes in a box. You can tape them in place if you’d like. I found that it doesn’t really matter. I taped the first set, but after that it was so full of paint that tape wouldn’t stick anymore and it was just fine.
Add in a couple of hard, small objects. A few plastic Easter eggs worked great for us. We’ve also used hard plastic baby toys in the past. Or marbles would be great!
Then pick three or four paint colors and add small dabs around the paper cutouts (not on the paper).
Then close up the box, and tape it shut to secure it from opening up.
Hand it over to your toddler and shake!
Shake it left, shake it right, up and down, and over your head!
Open it up and see what you got!
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Yes, it looks like an utter mess.
But take out the cutouts and set them somewhere to dry (lay out newspaper).
Put in fresh paper cutouts and repeat!
Shake, shake, shake some more!
Even pass it back and forth, toss it, throw it!
As long as you taped the box closed and its secure, have fun with it!
Again, open and see what you created!
Louis was most excited to see how it looked when we opened the box.
Let your paper creations dry and hang up to proudly display your toddlers art.
This time, we made an Easter egg garland for the window.
Not too bad for a toddler creation, eh?
And pretty easy to do, not to mention super fun with lots of giggles!
Shake, Shake, Shake to Make Art! on handsonaswegrow.com
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