How to Encourage Toddler Friendship with Art (Printable)

Inside: How to Encourage Toddler Friendship with Art – This fun roll-the-jar art activity encourages two friends to work together!

At the beginning of our school year, our toddlers are usually playing side-by-side rather than together.

While this is normal development for that age group, I like to find ways to encourage them to connect and play together.

This easy toddler friendship art gets two toddlers working together as they roll their art activity in a jar back and forth to each other. This type of activity is especially fun for busy toddlers, because they can shake the jar and roll it all around the room. And, since the art is contained in a jar, it is mess free!

New! I’ve created a leaf printable that you can download and print to use with this activity. Scroll down towards end of this post to find it!

For more ideas, make sure to check out our collection of friendship activities!

How to Encourage Toddler Friendship with Art

What you will need:

A plastic jar with a lid

Something small that can move the paint around (marbles, etc.)

Leaf printable (provided at the end of this post)

Paint (We love using plastic squirt bottles for these types of activities)

The process:

Cut the leaves from the printable that is provided at the end of this post.

Place the paper leaves and marbles or other small items into the jar.

Squirt paint into jar.

Place lid on jar and have two friends roll it back and forth to each other.

Note: This can be done with one child, too. Instead of rolling it to a friend, the child can shake the jar.

Remove the lid and pull out the paper.

And there you have it!

I now have a leaf printable for you to use with this friendship art activity! It’s not identical to the leaf shown in these photos, but will work just fine. I have created 2 different sizes, depending on how large the container is that you are using.

Small leaf (there are 2 on a sheet to save paper)

Large leaf