Written by Debbie Brown | September 20, 2022
Art is more than just fun. As preschoolers use tools to paint with, it helps them develop fine motor skills – hand-eye coordination, which in turn, will help in other areas like handwriting.
Let them express their creativity. Show them how to use the tools (cup, feather, marble) but let them decide how they want their picture to look without ‘fixing it.’ If they are only painting one section of their paper, or dabbing instead of brushing or vice versa, that’s ok. Let them have fun and create!
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Below you’ll find 10 fun painting activities for preschoolers that use a tool other than a paintbrush. These art projects can be used as jumpstart ideas that encourage your toddler or preschooler to come up with their own ideas to use as painting tools.
These can be done with any color or you can choose colors of paint to go with a holiday or season. For instance:
- green for St. Patrick’s Day
- yellow, pink, purple, light blue, or light green for spring or Easter
- red and blue for patriotic holidays (USA)
- brown, yellow, and orange for a Fall Theme or Thanksgiving
- red and green for Christmas
10 Painting Activities for Preschoolers
1. Circle Art Painting with Cups
This is a fun, easy circle activity for toddlers and preschoolers. Dip a cup into paint and create your design.
2. Feather Painting
3. Paint with Plastic Bugs
A cool activity to use with a bug theme. Other ideas you could try:
- plastic dinosaur, farm, ocean, or zoo animals
- some of Daddy’s old plastic fishing worms (with his permission, of course)
- younger preschools may like bigger items like rubber ducks
4. Bottle Cap Painting
5. Lego Painting
You could also use this as a color matching activity – matching the Lego with the color of the paint
6. Marble Painting
This is always a favorite painting activity with preschoolers!
7. Painting with Cars
8 . Q – Tip Painting
9. Painting with Cookie Cutters
10. Fork Painting
Be sure to check out other fun learning activities for preschoolers:
- Sink and Float Activities for Preschoolers
- Simple Measurement Activities for Preschoolers
- Preschool Bird Activities
DEBBIE BROWN | Owner and Curriculum Designer
Hi! I’m Debbie Brown. I created Tothood 101 because I’m passionate about sharing preschool activity ideas, and resources that I’ve gleaned from my 20+ years of experience teaching preschoolers at home and in the classroom. My goal is to encourage, guide, and help inspire you to make learning SUPER FUN for your preschooler at home! Check out the ABOUT page to learn more.
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