Sponge Painting Process Art

Try sponge painting for a simple art activity

You literally have to try this super simple art activity! It’s so nice to change up the painting pace every now and then and ditch the brushes for something else. Sponge painting is our new favorite way to create art and a perfect activity if you have a play date coming up!

Painting with random objects is always a hit at our house. We’ve tried painting with kitchen utensils and painting with cookie cutters – both were big hits with the toddler crowd (kind of like sponge painting).

Here’s how to set up sponge painting.

Materials:
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• Washable tempera paint
• Sponges
• Clothes pins
• Kraft paper

This is so easy to prep: Cover the table with Kraft paper to give the kids a full canvas to paint on (and to keep things clean). I cut the sponges into quarters and attached a clothes pin to each. A few squirts of paint into the middle of the table and hello sponge painting!

Attaching the clothes pins helps kids from getting crazy messy and gives them an easy way to hold onto the sponges.

Introduce your toddler to the fun of sponge painting!

Since this was a totally new activity / concept for the toddlers at my table (three 3 year olds and a 1.5 year old), I showed them each how to navigate the clothes pin-sponge system. They loved the idea of dabbing the sponges onto the paper and seeing the texture of the sponges.

I ended up with enough sponges that each kid had their own hoard and didn’t need to mix paint colors UNLESS they wanted to. Sometimes they kept the sponge a single color brush, and sometimes they had it loaded in multi-colored paint.

What are they working on with sponge painting?

There’s a lot of toddler work going on in an activity like this.

• Fine motor skills
• Hand eye coordination
• Color mixing

Try sponge painting with your toddler!

When we finished, the sponges were easily washed. They’re a little stained but who cares? I left the sponges attached to the clothes pins for easy use next time. Oh and there will be a next time with sponge painting – can you just image all the seasonal possibilities with this kind of art?!

Here’s hoping sponge painting is a hit at your house!