How to Create a Toddler Rainbow Activity with Toy Cars

Last Updated on February 15, 2024 by Sheryl Cooper

Inside: Looking for a super easy and fun toddler rainbow activity? Grab those toy cars and drive them through puddles of paint, making a rainbow on sheets of paper. A fun action art idea!

Toddlers love to move.

I’m sure that’s no surprise to you all.

I have an especially active group of 2 year olds this year who just want to move. Now that the year is more than half over, they are sitting for longer periods of time, but they still love to be moving.

This is why I love action art activities such as spin art, stamping art, and golf ball art.

They allow toddlers to move while they work.

So when I was thinking of a rainbow art activity for my toddler class, I wanted it to active.

I wanted them to be moving while they painted.

And move they did! Round and round the table while making rainbows with toy cars.

How to Create a Toddler Rainbow Activity with Toy Cars

What we used:

Washable tempera paint in primary colors
Toy cars
White paper

Setting it up:

Because I wanted our toddlers to walk around while driving their cars through the paint puddles, I removed the chairs and pulled our rectangular table away from the wall.

I cut a big piece from our roll of butcher paper and taped it securely on top of the table.

Then, puddles of the red, yellow, and blue paint were placed on the paper.

How to Create a Toddler Rainbow Activity with Toy Cars

Before we started this activity, I read the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. If you haven’t added this to your collection of books, I highly suggest it.

While we watch 3 white mice discover 3 jars of paint – red, blue, and yellow, we get a lesson in color mixing.

Then, it was time to invite our toddlers to start driving cars through those primary colors.

I handed each of them a toy car and we started moving around the table while pushing the cars through the paint.

The children simply followed each other as they dragged their cars through the paint.

The movement alone was fun, but adding cars was a big bonus.

Our toddlers LOVE cars!

Then, they started noticing the tracks they were making.

Slowly our rainbow was created. As the cars kept pulling one color into the other, new colors were made.

I asked the children who saw red. And what about yellow? And is there green somewhere?

Because this is a process art activity, I made sure to take lots of photos to add to our weekly photo album.

This album is sent to each of our families so they can see what their children have done.

Photos of process art are very important so that the parents can see what took place during the activity.

This is when some text can be added, explaining how we worked on color mixing and color recognition while driving our toy cars through paint, around and around and around the table.

I chose not to save this piece of work, since it had been captured in photos. However, if you’d like to send this activity home, you can cut it into separate pieces once it’s dry and place in cubbies.

How to do this at home with one toddler:

This action art activity can easily be done at home with one child.

Rather than use a large piece of butcher paper, you can use a single sheet of paper and squirt smaller puddles of primary colors on it.

Then, invite your child to move a toy car from one puddle to the next! It might not end up like an oval as the photo below shows, and that’s okay.

It’s all about moving the toy car through each puddle in any direction desired.