Messy Mondays: Train Painting

 

A few weeks ago my toddler class learned about trains! These kids love almost anything transportation, so a unit organized around things that go seemed to be a good fit.

When I first learned about process art vs product art (new post about this on Thursday!), something that caught my interest very quickly was the easy set-up. Process art is more of the child's work than the teacher's. This means teacher preparation for process art is typically simple: just give the kids the art materials and let them at it.  They'll do the rest all on their own.

For this activity, I modified a painting-with-cars activity from Pinterest. It couldn't be more simple!

Supplies
Art smocks or old t-shirts
Paper
Paint
Toy trains

Process

Squirt some paint on the child's paper (or pour some paint into a bowl) and place it in front of the child. Give the child a toy train.

And that's it!

Toddlers love rolling cars and trucks and trains, and adding paint to the equation makes it even more fun. One of our little boys figured out that of he tilted his tray, he could make his train slowly roll across his paper. I love watching how their little minds see things differently - and you can see those differences in their finished products, too.