Inside: This fun and easy snowball art idea fits right in with your toddler winter theme. A great process art activity!
You are looking for an art activity to go with your toddler winter theme.
There’s lots of cutesy crafts out there, but you know they aren’t necessarily realistic.
Plus they take so much time to prepare!
You want simple process art.
You want something your toddlers will enjoy.
Well, I’ve got an activity that is all of that and more.
And you most likely won’t need to purchase anything new. (We love that, right?)
Grab a muffin tin from your kitchen and in seconds you will have a snowball art activity ready to go.
Super Easy Snowball Art that Toddlers Love
I woke up at 4 in the morning with a thought on how we could put together easy winter snowball art for toddlers.
I guess it had been on my mind! Seriously, this was such a simple thought, and yet I knew toddlers would love it. Why? Because it involves painting.
And painting.
And painting.
What I know about toddlers is that they just want to paint. They don’t care what they are painting on, really.
They just love to move their arms and hands and fingers.
So, I knew we could tie this in with our winter theme. And, ahem, I am certain I am not the only one to come up with this idea.
It’s just that it came to me at 4 in the morning. I’m sure others have tried it, too!
What You Will Need for Your Snowball Art
- A muffin tin (I used a mini muffin tin, but you can use a regular sized one)
- White tempera paint
- Blue paper
- Paint brushes
Note: If multiple children will be doing this activity at the same time, you will want more muffin tins. We did ours during centers time, where we had 4 children making snowballs at the same time. So, we had 4 muffin tins, 4 containers of paint, 4 paint brushes, and 4 sheets of paper.
Setting Up the Snowball Art Activity
Pour paint into a container and place at a table along with a paint brush.
Place the muffin tin upside down on the table and have the blue paper nearby.
It’s Time to Paint!
Tell the children they will be painting the tops of the muffin tins.
Because these are toddlers, some might only have the attention spans to paint a few of the circles.
Others might want to paint the other parts of the muffin tin.
And….some might want to paint their fingers.
Because, why not?
(Note: toddlers tend to want to wipe any paint off their hands immediately. Even the smallest amount. We now keep a pack of baby wipes on the table for this reason.)
Let them paint as long as they want. That’s the main part of this process art activity.
And it will vary from child to child.
When they start showing signs of slowing down, hand them a sheet of the blue paper and tell them to rest it on top of the muffin tin.
Make a Print
When the paper is on top of the muffin tin, show the children how to pat or even rub it.
You might want to stop and lift the paper a bit, letting them peek to see what is happening.
That tends to get them excited to pat the paper again.
Lift the Paper
Look at their expressions as they lift the paper from the muffin tin.
They love seeing those white circles on their papers!
A super simple snowball art activity that is all about the process!
You can find more winter activities on my pin board!
More Winter Ideas
Make sure to read one of these books, too!
Planning your toddler winter theme? We’ve done the work for you!
I’m so excited to be one of the 5 co-authors of an entire series of toddler lesson plans.
These winter lesson plans for toddlers focus on hands-on, multi-sensory, low-prep activities. This theme contains 20 activities designed to help you reach the skills for your toddler throughout the year. We’ve done the activity planning so you don’t have to!
Here’s a look at the skills covered in the lesson plans:
- Counting
- Pre-writing
- Literacy
- Social and Emotional Well Being
- Shapes
- Number Sense
- Music
- Gross-Motor
- Fine-Motor
- and much more!
What you will find inside:
Skills: a detailed skills list to help you visualize the development in the activity.
Materials: Items to gather before doing the activity
How to: Best read before the activity is prepared to understand how to present it and have toddler engage in the activity.
Extensions: A place to see all the suggestions the teachers have made to take this activity a little further. Or make it simpler.
Modifications: Things that can be added or switched out in the activity.
CLICK HERE for more information!
