Little Hands Art: Collage

This summer, I started a bi-monthly art program for toddlers. It alternated with a weekly drop-in open play program. Little Hands Art was advertised for toddlers ages 2-4 with an adult caregiver. Registration was required and our programming blurb requested that toddlers come wearing clothes they could get messy in.

Yes, I opened up big with the first week’s program of bubble wrap painting. We took a small step towards easier clean-up with this week’s paper collage creation. This week’s focus was on fine motor skill development through either ripping or cutting. We also used a variety of paper: cardstock, regular paper, and construction paper. That changed up how the paper felt and ease of the paper (would it tear or not?) — a great chance for texture and sensory touching!

First the kids tore or cut the paper:

(Yay! So proud of mom for letting him use the scissors today!) And then they glued it down:

I don’t think anyone tasted the glue, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it happened. That’s why I buy non-toxic art products!

Take-aways from this session:

1. I braved the folding chairs this week! It still wasn’t perfect though and I’m still working on finding a solution.

2. This was a pretty mess-free clean-up. I recycled anything with glue on it and then put the scraps out in our Makerspace for older kids to create with throughout the week.

And finally a Pinterest friendly image:

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Kelsey from Library Bonanza, Heather from Little Literacy Librarian, and I are presenting a program at Illinois Library Association Conference THIS THURSDAY all about art with small people! You’ll be seeing a lot of art posts this week — enjoy!