10 Favorite Painting Activities

Our toddlers and preschoolers love to paint! Thank goodness there is such a variety of paint activities available, and many of them don’t use paintbrushes. Painting is a wonderful way to encourage creativity and learn about colors, plus it also helps develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. I’ve put together 10 favorite painting activities that we did one particular year. Try one and let me know in the comments how it went!

1. Painting on the Easel

2. Painting with Rolling Pins

This is seriously the easiest activity to put together, and young children love pushing and pulling the rolling pin across the paper.

3. Painting with Tea Bags

Have you ever tried painting with tea bags? We found the deep berry tea bags had the richest color. It’s also a pleasantly scented activity!

4. Painting with Tissue Boxes

While learning about the square shape, we stamped squares onto paper using tissue boxes.

5. Painting with Corks 

6. Painting with Recycled Containers

7. Painting on Canvas 

8. Painting with Fingers

We mixed shaving cream and liquid watercolors for a fun color mixing experience using our hands.

9. Painting with Watercolors

Our preschoolers enjoyed this process art activity because it involved several steps. I think squeezing the glue is their favorite part, but pouring salt on top of the glue and then dropping watercolors on the entire thing was fun, too.

10. Painting with Bottles