Art Activities for One Year Olds

Developing Skills

• Understand that 1-year-olds are not nearly as independent as they would like to think, and will need adult guidance to understand the ideas of making something or creating art. Try very basic activities that help them recognize colors and shapes of basic objects. They can recognize familiar pictures, but aren't strong on words and vocabulary, so use things they already know to help them enter the world of artistic expression. For instance, have them mimic an adult with fingerpaints. The adult draws a red line on the paper, and shows the child the red paint. Soon, they'll be fingerpainting too.

Materials

• One-year-olds are enthralled by touching new things, and for that reason, paint and clay are great for very young children to experiment with. Nontoxic or even edible substances like food coloring, salt dough and pudding also make good art mediums at this age. Remember that 1-year-olds will often put things in their mouth, so be sure the paints are safe for them. They have poor hand dexterity at this age, so when doing playdough, paint or other art projects, be prepared for a big mess. They can be given large crayons, large chalk and other large art material, and will enjoy making scribbles and swirls on paper with them. However, they cannot yet grasp small objects like markers or pencils. One-year-olds are sometimes able to stick stickers onto paper, and this can be the basis for sticker art they will be proud of.

Sensory Art

• Combine young children's love of textures and basic movements for some specific art activities that both children and parents can enjoy. For instance, let them make splatter art (possibly outside) on a large piece of butcher paper. It takes a little adult preparation; tie small amounts of small objects such as beans, rice or small rocks into old socks, light enough for your 1-year-old to throw. Have several pie tins or buckets of tempera or water-based paint ready, and show them how to dip the sock in the paint, then throw it or roll it on the paper to create colorful splatters. This is probably best for older 1-year-olds who can walk back and forth to the paper, but you can help nonwalking 1-year-olds make it work.