Easy Toddler Painting with Cones

Inside: We love simple, especially at the start of the school year, so this easy toddler painting with cones was perfect!

One thing I have learned in the past twenty seven years is that the first days of school must be simple.

Often we are dealing with separation anxiety, so we teachers are focusing on helping the children adjust.

We cannot be hovering over the art table!

We’ve done circle painting in the past, but this year I decided to use cones that we already owned.

However, you do not need cones. Cups or anything that creates a circle will work!

This toddler art painting activity is simple to set up, simple to do, and simple to clean up.

Easy Toddler Painting with Cones

Watch the Video

I’ve already mentioned that I love activities like this because they are simple, especially at the start of the school year. However, there’s another reason I chose it: it’s a group activity.

The Importance of Group Activities

I love group activities throughout the school year, but they are especially important those first weeks as the children are getting to know each other.

When we start the school year in September, all of my students are still two years old. In my experience, two year olds love to be together. Especially when things are new.

The majority of the children will follow each other around the classroom during centers time.

This includes the art table.

So often I will cover the entire table with paper and invite the children to work together, sharing the same large sheet of paper.

Working as a group encourages children to learn how to share space and materials. As the year progresses and their verbal skills strengthen, I hear wonderful little conversations between the children as they work.

I also love group art at the beginning of the year because there is no need to have separate seating, separate trays, and separate sheets of paper. This makes setting up and cleaning up much easier.

Managing Group Activities

For my classroom, our art table has six chairs. If the chairs are at the table, six children can be at the art table at once. Sometimes they are all full, sometimes not.

Sometimes I will remove the chairs so that the children can walk right up and start painting. Energetic children who normally don’t care to sit might feel more comfortable in this set up because they can move as they paint. I just stack the chairs against the wall before I open the art center.

But what about not being able to take their artwork home, since it’s a group activity? I am asked this often. Not all of our work goes home and I explain this to our families at open house. This is one of the reasons why I send home a photo show at the end of each week, so that the children’s families can see what they did.

Another question has been how do you display group art? Sometimes I don’t. Not everything has to be displayed. Most of our artwork is all about the process, not the product. However, I will hang the entire piece on the wall now and then.

Easy Toddler Painting with Cones

Supplies

• Washable Tempera Paint
• Trays (These are our favorites!)
• Roll of White Paper (To Cover the Table)
• Cones or Cups (Note: We used these plastic cones, which were gifted to us by Open Play Toys.)

Set Up

We have rolls of art paper in our storage room in a few different colors. These rolls are great for covering the table for group art!

Cover the entire table with paper. I like to tape down the edges so the paper doesn’t slide around.

Pour paint on to trays and add cones or cups.

I matched the cones to the same colored paint, but this is optional, especially if you are using cups that are all the same color.

Easy Toddler Painting with Cones: The Activity

Show the children how to stamp the cone or cup into the paint and then on to the paper.

Ask them what shape they are making?