Toddlers love to stamp objects. You might recall our toddler ocean art painting, and our color mixing with paper tubes. This is the same concept. Instead this time we used empty sewing spools. It turned out to be such an easy snowman art activity for toddlers! They got to do what they love most: moving objects up and down. Having fun at the art table! Over the years we’ve found that our toddlers prefer process art as well. They love hands-on exploration as they use different materials for their creations. Since there is no desired end result, the children are focusing on the method itself. Our experience is that toddlers are more engaged with these types of activities, too!
We have used them for counting activities at our math table, for stamping with play dough, and as loose parts in our block corner. After cutting snowman shapes out of paper, I realized the spools would resemble snowflakes when stamped in paint. We’ve done white paint on blue paper, but for this particular activity I decided to go with the color scheme we were using that week, a blue tone. We had lots of white “snow” at our play dough table and sensory bin so we knew that snow is not blue unless it is tinted.
What you will need:
Empty sewing spools Blue or white tempera paint White or blue paper
Pour a shallow amount of paint into a tray and place the empty sewing spool in it.
The process:
Show your toddlers how take the spool with paint and stamp it onto the paper. It’s as simple as that. (Yet again why we love process art!)
They also love the noise as the spool hits the paper. (Fair warning that this is not a quiet activity!) Some toddlers will find out what happens if they slide their spool across the paper instead of stamping. Oh, and they might stop and focus on a spot of paint that gets on their finger. Because that’s what toddlers do!
Some toddlers might recognize that the spool is the shape of a circle.
As your toddlers finish their snowmen, place them on trays or a drying rack. How to display: It’s up to you how to display these process art snowmen, but I will share what we did. I used a hole punch at the top of each one and then used an opened paperclip as a hanger. Our snowmen were then hung from a curtain rod in our window. You all know how I love to display the children’s artwork any way that I can! Dancing snowmen in the window!
The Itsy Bitsy Snowman Sneezy the Snowman The Biggest Snowman Ever Frosty The Snowman
More Snowman Ideas
Color Matching: Colors in the Cold Snowman Activity Color Matching: Snowman Color Puzzle Circle Time: Snowman Props Circle Time: Five Little Snowmen Playdough: Build-A-Snowman
More activities for toddlers:
Toddler Painting Using Legos 10 Fun Toddler Science Activities 20 Easy Toddler Activities for Home
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