Toddler Craft for a wet day

It was rather wet and windy this morning, so plans to take a walk to the park were scuppered slightly. Emma took an early nap so I set up a little craft exercise for Daniel.



It's my sister in laws birthday tomorrow so I thought we would attempt to make  a card. Daniel hasn't done much arts and crafts being just 18 months old, but over the past five or so weeks he is showing much more interest and has enjoyed painting and mark making on paper.



I have been buying bits and pieces as I see them and we have a little craft selection now. I got out some pom poms, crepe paper (which I tore and screwed up into tiny balls) and  I also had some holgraphic sticker paper which I cut into strips.



I drew around some biscuit/pastry cutters to make flower shapes on the card and put the different things into small tubs for Daniel to use.



Daniel had great fun playing with the different textures - he quite liked the pom poms. After a bit of persuasion he started to stick the bits onto the card. He really liked the sticky holgraphic paper I had cut up for him... it was really interesting to watch him work out how to stick it down; which side was the sticky side etc.

It did get stuck on his fingers a few times so he was working out how to unstick it.



He wasn't as keen on using the scrunched up crepe paper, much prefering the pom poms.



This was a lovely laid back way for us to spend an hour, and I was surprised with how long it kept him occupied for.



It was also a good opportunity to introduce colour, so we talked about the blue balls (pom poms) and using orange paper. Daniel doesn't yet demonstrate an understanding of colours, but I try to introduce them where I can, be it at nappy changes, I tell him the colour of the nappy I am putting on him or out and about (green grass, blue sky etc). I am hoping that with a few more activities like these he will begin to recognise and demonstrate his understanding.



Do you do any arts and crafts with your toddlers?