Coloring is one of the best activities for early childhood development. Having your toddler or preschooler color will help them develop the needed motor skills that will help prepare them for the writing skills that they will need once they reach school. And while the tried and true crayons and coloring book are always fun, there are a multitude of other coloring activities that can be done to achieve the same goal. Here is a brief description of different kinds of coloring activities to promote motor skills development-
Alternative Finger Painting-
This will give your child a lesson in texture and design while still promoting the development of motor skills.
What you will need:
- Flour
- Plastic gloves (avoid latex gloves to prevent allergic reactions).
- Tempera paint
- Heavy paper or oak tag
Instructions for the project:
Fill the gloves with flour until they are full. Knot the opening of the gloves and be sure to seal the contents tight. Have the child feel the glove and discuss the texture. Have the kids dip each “hand” into the paint. The kids will use the “hand” as a brush and print on the paper. For a variation try filling the gloves with different items (beans, rice) for different textures.
Baggie Paints-
This activity allows kids to have a unique coloring experience while still working on developing motor skills by manipulating their bag of color.
What you will need:
- Sealing storage bag, large
- Finger or tempera paint
- Shaving cream
- Smock or old shirt
- Covered area
Instructions for the project:
Fill each of the bags one third full of shave cream. Have each child choose a paint color. Add a small amount of the paint to the bag and seal. Have the child knead the bag while observing the textures and color changes.
Ice Cube Painting-
This is a great activity that is fun to do and will help kids develop their pincer grip (a vital motor skill for writing and cutting).
What you will need:
- Water
- Food coloring
- Ice cube trays
- A freezer
- Toothpicks (or craft sticks)
- Paper
Instructions for the project:
Put water in an ice cube tray. Add the food coloring and a toothpick (as a variation you can add a Popsicle/craft stick which is often easier for small hands to handle) to each container. Freeze completely. Remove when totally frozen and have the children paint with the different colored ice. Variation-For deeper colors mix in powdered tempura paints instead of food coloring.
Crayon Cupcakes-
This is a great thing to do for very young children who are still developing the large motor skills. This works great for small hands and on the floor masterpieces.
What you will need:
- Muffin tins
- Oven
- Lots and lots of broken crayons
Instructions for the project:
Peel all the broken crayons, little kids can be a great help with this. Sort all the crayons by color and fill the muffin tins loosely. Keep in mind that mixing colors is fine too! For example: white and red for pink, experiment! Put your filled muffin tins into a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes. Let the recycled crayons cool completely after baking. You can also place them in the fridge, outside if it’s cool or even in the freezer. When completely cool pop them out and they are ready to go.
Shiny Paintings-
This activity will promote creativity and have kids on working on a variety of motor skills while having fun.
What you will need:
- Light corn syrup
- Tag board
- Two mixable colors of food coloring such as red and blue
- Q-tips
- Paint brush
- Tag board or large poster board
Instructions for the project:
Allow the child to spread a generous amount of corn syrup onto the tag board using a paint brush. Then have the child squeeze a few drops of two different colors of food coloring onto the paper. Encourage using two colors that will mix to make another like red and blue or yellow and blue, etc. Give each child a few Q-tips and let him/her mix the colors around with the corn syrup. The result will be a very glossy and shiny picture. Allow three to four days for these pictures to dry completely.
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