Tempera for Toddlers

by Kelsey Norwood

in Making Fun

Art Projects for Toddlers

To stave off boredom this week we’ve been painting with tempera, which is my favorite toddler paint. I picked up red, yellow, and blue (just a few simple colors are best for toddlers, primary colors are even better because then they can experiment with mixing and making new colors) tempera paint at Michael’s and we’ve been creating together using a combination of these supplies:

  • wax paper for finger painting
  • scratch paper
  • rocks
  • tooth picks
  • old tooth brushes
  • foam paint brushes
  • sponge shapes
  • comb
  • plastic gift card
  • stamps

Arts Crafts for Toddlers

We collected rocks so Elliot could have something 3 dimensional to paint.

Art and Craft Activities for Toddlers

Lay out a table cloth (I used a vinyl remnant I picked up at JoAnn) and put an old t-shirt or art smock on, spread out the supplies, and get busy. Elliot loved painting the rocks!

Toddler Art And Craft

And his hands…but only until the paint dried and felt tight on his hand.

I realize how much more we should be doing simple toddler art projects – Elliot painted for at least an hour and wanted to continue. I could see his little brain thinking and being creative and figuring out how to make the paint do what he wanted, and I just felt like it was the healthiest thing we’ve done all month.

Tomorrow we’ll experiment with some different textures and colors and see what happens!

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