Painting Toys: Toddler Process Art

A quick and easy toddler process art project painting toys.

My toddler and I came up with the best project idea the other day: painting toys. It was everything I love about an activity: easy, fun, and totally random! We had an absolutely awesome time doing this.

Process art is perfect for my toddler. Process art means that you have no predetermined or predefined outcome for the art project – you just let the art happen and be what it will. Process art is kind of perfect for toddlers, in my opinion.

Setting up for painting toys was so simple.

Materials:
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• Crayola washable tempera paint
• Paint brushes
• Plastic toys – we used our construction vehicles

Painting toys was so easy to set up. I picked three plastic construction vehicles for my toddler to paint. We used washable tempera and it worked perfectly. I keep my paint stored in baby food jars for easy access; makes projects like this a snap to set up. Once this was all over, the trucks came completely clean.

To keep our vehicles from rolling away, I set them in a medium sized storage tub to make sure they’d stay put. This also defined the work space for my toddler and kept the mess relatively contained.

My toddler absolutely loved this art project. He sat and painted his beloved trucks for 20 minutes – so basically an eternity in toddler terms! He was so deliberate as he worked and concentrated so hard. I was one proud Mama.

Once we were done painting, we took all the trucks and dumped them in the kitchen sink. My toddler stood with them splashing in the water and rubbing them with a dish brush. Before I knew it, I had cleaned up the paint mess and he had cleaned up the trucks.

There are so many toy options for this activity – dolls, blocks, animals – anything plastic that can wash. I thought we’d need to use the dishwasher to clean our trucks but a sink of warm water did the trick and made for a 2-in-1 type activity: first, painting toys. Second, sink car wash. All told, my toddler played for nearly 45 minutes. Hallelujah.

I’m so happy with how this toddler process art came out, and so was my toddler! He was very proud of painting toys went and how his trucks looked. Painting toys was a genuine hit for us!

What toys would you use for Painting Toys?