Painting with Water Guns Water guns are a fun activity in themselves, but add paint and you've got one heck of a fun activity! Our 2.5 year old daughter, Emmy, loves to paint. So being

Are you looking for the best sensory activities for preschoolers or older kids? This ultimate list of sensory activities for kids of all ages will give you tons of ideas! From the easiest homemade playdough recipe to sensory bins and bottles, this list will provide ideas for hour of fun sensory play for the children.

EDIBLE FINGER PAINT RECIPE - An easy homemade sensory finger paint recipe that kids of all ages will adore exploring. This painting idea is so fun!

Painting sugar cubes with watercolors on the light table

This activity is an all time favourite in my class and so I thought I would share it this week. Firstly, I buy the cheapest spaghetti I can ...

This project was for my commercial toddler art studio for small classes of children ages 1.5-5.

Easy string painting for kids | painting with yarn | benefits of string painting | process art for toddlers and preschoolers | painting ideas for toddlers

What's better than creating a unique and exciting painting experience for your kids? How about this Painting with Nature activity?

Make gorgeous Leaf Sensory Bags. A fun and mess free sensory play idea for kids. A great way for kids to connect with nature and explore autumn.

Check out this quick and easy toddler activity! Sticker sorting is a fun indoor activity that toddlers love! Work on sorting skills and fine motor skills.

Taste safe ice painting. An easy and fun painting idea for kids. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers will love this fun process art technique. Great for winter projects, learning colours, exploring freezing and melting or for playing with outside in the summer.

Painting with Spatulas: Have you ever tried painting with spatulas?Painting is one of the simplest & most engaging activities you can provide.

Citrus printing process art is an easy printmaking technique where art prints are made by stamping oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, etc.

Need an easy art activity? Try making some frozen paint! A fun and simple way to do process art with toddlers and preschoolers.

Exploring Paint & Textures: Process Art Activity. Kids have fun with textures and paint with this process art activity. Textured paint is fun sensory play.

My girls LOVE playing in the snow!

Did you play with slinkys as a kid? Me too! In this process art activity kids get to paint with slinkys! So fun for kids of all ages!

Need an easy art activity for toddlers? You have to try sponge painting! A quick and easy toddler process art activity that kids will love.

Have you tried nature painting yet? It's such a fun art and craft activity for kids of all ages! Grab some paint and make some gorgeous prints using flowers, twigs, and more!

Today's activity is part on an ongoing series, Exploring Reggio with The Imagination Tree, An Everyday Story, One Perfect Day and Twodaloo Through observing my children in their play habits and using notes from Maddie's preschool as confirmation, I'm well aware that they both love sensory activities and painting. Using this weeks theme of mirror play, I set up a simple Invitation to Play with very limited materials. This time I wanted to see what they would make of just these materials and whether they would engage with their reflections. I thought perhaps we might work on some oral language development for my toddler, focused around face and body parts, but as it turned out, the kids had different ideas to what this activity would be about. You can see how it panned out (and all the fabulous learning) below. I set up my invitation to play using a large mirror (that usually hangs in our hall) and some easy wash finger-paints (we used these ones). I tried to position the mirror where they would have some lovely natural light and some varied reflections. The children dove right in without any explanation necessary. I loved watching my toddler (22 months) observing what his older sister (4 years) was doing and seeing the peer learning taking place. I thought the children would be more interested in their reflections but it started off all about the sensory experience of the paint and applying it to the cool, smooth surface. The sensory experience was extended to feet as well and even a little toe painting. "Pitter-patter, pitter-patter." There was a lot of language used throughout the activity to describe the motions that the children were experiencing. This was fabulous for oral language development and contextual understanding. When the mirror became to murky they asked for paper towelling and cleaned it themselves. After painting with their hands for quite some time, Maddie asked for a paintbrush (and of course her younger brother insisted upon one as well), which I was more than happy to provide them with. From there came a different painting experience as the brush strokes on the mirror were different. They also became interested in mixing the paints and delighted that the yellow and blue became green. It wasn't long before they were back finger-painting, but this time, because they started with the paint already on the mirror, it meant that removing the paint made a picture or pattern instead of applying the paint. This caused Maddie to remember when we'd had a try monoprinting using cardboard combs and requested some paper that she could print her image on. (And of course, whatever his older sister gets, he wants as well) As we'd never tried it this way, I was delighted that she used the previous knowledge she had learnt, taken it and applied it in this situation. She was so excited seeing the first print work! And they didn't stop at just one print. After that, Maddie declared she was finished so Noah enjoyed some quiet time painting away and using up all the remaining paint on his own. When he'd had enough, we cleaned up. Reflections This time the experience didn't end up including what I thought it might, however that doesn't mean that similar experiences in the future, won't. My children both really enjoyed this activity and got so much out of it. It's one that we will definitely repeat. Perhaps next time I will have the mirror set out the same but without any paints so that engaging with it and their reflections is all they have? From there I could add back in some finger paints or even some face paints. I will definitely continue to provide them with more sensory experiences and chances to be creative. This seems to be an area that they both work well together with and get a lot of enjoyment and learning through. I know that my children both love being outdoors and now that we are in Spring here in Melbourne we will get to be outside a lot more often. Perhaps next time I can combine their interests and take this experience outside. They'd love that! Have your children painted on mirrors before? Join us in a fortnight for another Exploring Reggio post and don't forget to check out all the other great activities from our co-hosts. Happy playing, Debs :) Look where else we are. Do you play with us here? :) New Here? Subscribe to get all activities sent directly to you Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner

Creating art is a wonderful activity for toddlers. It can be a great learning activity as they learn how to create things with their hands, colors, shapes, and so much more.…

Build-a-Face Story Stones for Teaching Emotions to Kids! A fun learning activity that helps preschoolers and toddlers learn about emotions and how to handle those big emotions.

2D shape activities for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. Shape mats (legos, geoboards, etc), play dough mats, posters, sorting mats, worksheets, & MORE.

Citrus printing process art is an easy printmaking technique where art prints are made by stamping oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits, etc.

After reading I'm a Dirty Dinosaur, in which the dinosaur was painting out of mud, we enjoyed our own mud painting fun!

Fall Spices Paints

My Body themed activities and centers (FREEBIES too)! Preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten kiddos will love these centers.

Looking for an easy toddler process art activity? Try painting with sensory balls for a fun painting experience!