For the longest time, teachers of early childhood students have been told, “toddlers can’t learn art.” And based on that misinformation, as well as out-of-date art teaching practices, you might be thinking that’s true too. I’m here to tell you that’s not the case! Toddlers CAN start to learn art! It all comes down to how you teach them. After years of observing art, I’ve developed my very own teaching method that engages and excites young children; it introduces them to art in a way that makes sense to their little developing brains. I want to share some quick ideas on teaching art to toddlers.
Process-Based
Montessori toddler art activities should be process-based only. Discovery and experimentation are key to process art activities for toddlers. Their learning and development of problem solving skills come from spending time making process art. Want to learn more about what Montessori toddler process-based art means? Visit Teaching Process-Based Art in the Montessori Classroom
Montessori toddler art is tactile
Art for toddlers is a very sensorial experience. Visual art learning can happen from direct sensory touching by hands. Tactile art making stimulates learning in different ways than visual or audio learning. For a developing child, tactile exploring can also lead to better fine-motor function and control.
Art Develops Early Motor Movement
In recent years science researchers have established that early motor movement develops better cognitive academic performance in the later grades. Children that practice motor movement early even starting in infancy can directly effect cognitive development and their readiness for learning.
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography | aquarium.ucsd.edu
Toddler Safe Art Mediums
Start with safe non-toxic paints, homemade play dough, and safe doodling supplies like crayons and tempera paint sticks. Use only safe non-toxic art supplies for toddlers.
Create spill proof environments children can play and spill if needed. I recommend outdoors or rooms with no carpets.
Start with 15 minute art activities toddlers can explore, move to 20 minute segments. Be sure tables are short and children can move around easily. Only introduce 1-to-2 movements, like making a brushstroke, or rolling out clay.
Use colorful story books to make connections to art elements. Start with teaching very basic art elements like colors, shape and line.
It can feel a little overwhelming—maybe even silly—to try and introduce your toddler to montessori art concepts.
Some toddlers might still be learning how to talk and hold a spoon, so how are you supposed to have a full on art conversation?
Here’s the good news: How-to talk to toddlers about art making is not something you need to worry about.
You don’t have to use “art language,” proper terminology, or fancy words in order for your toddler to start appreciating and experiencing art making.
Art does have its own type of language, it’s called the ‘Elements and Principles of Design” but that’s way too advanced for toddlers to understand!
If you start using this strange art terminology, you’re going to lose your child’s attention, and likely get frustrated yourself.
When you talk to your toddler about montessori art—”Art Talk”—it’s really just describing what you see in artworks, like color, shape, and form, etc.
Before I get into how-to talk to Toddlers about montessori Art let me break that down an easy way your toddler will understand, I want you to have some basic knowledge.
The Basics: How-to Talk To Toddlers About Montessori Art
For a young child, exploring through art play is something natural.
Children gain a sense of their physical world by using each and all of their senses—seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing. This is how knowlege is first learned.
The enthusiasm a child feels while dipping a paintbrush into a paint palette, or creating brushstrokes across a blank paper is exciting!
It’s a curious mix of senses.
Learning montessori art is about discovery and exploration.
By allowing toddlers to explore art (without any expectations), is a natural way for you to introduce toddlers to art concepts.
Playing and experimenting can help them build confidence to start expressing art terms.
This type of art exploration can come in many art activities like: doodling, painting, color mixing, and clay modeling.
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography | aquarium.ucsd.edu
How-to Start talking To Toddlers About Montessori Art Images
OK, lets get started on how easy it is to talk to toddlers about art!
When you’re first introducing art talk to your toddler, keep things basic and simple. Start by describing what you see or what’s going on as you make art.
As your toddler starts exploring, art talk will become easier and easier.
More than likely, their inquisitive little brains will start making cognitive connections (like, “if I use this purple paint, with this paintbrush, it’ll come out like this”), and they’ll probably start asking questions (such as, “what color is this?” or “why did this do this?”).
You don’t necessarily need to use these exact terms, but let me share how simple this talk can be with toddlers.
Describe basic aspects of art:
Color
Shape
Texture
Line
Keep these concepts in mind as you talk to your toddler about art:
Examples of how-to talk sounds:
Here are some examples of how to start talking and describing what you see in montessori art activties: While reading story books you can point out colors like this:
“The bear is all brown, do you want to color something brown today?”
“Let’s cut out some shapes, like circles and squares, with scissors.”
“Hey, what about making some fun textures in our clay, watch me!”
“Let’s make squiggly and straight lines with crayons.”
“How many different colored lines can we draw together?”
“Let’s mix yellow and blue, what color did you make?”
Why Is It Important Toddlers Do Art Activities?
Toddler Art talk supports confience
Toddler art talk supports experimental curiosity
Toddler art talk can boost brainpower
Art talk—especially when it’s positive and encouraging—can be the foundation for building up your toddler’s creative confidence.
Remember that most artworks made by toddlers are just simply led by their own curiosity and art play.
For them, the point of art is just to have fun, and their finished pieces of art won’t look like anything realsitic.
If you encourage them and answer their questions, they’ll grow bolder in their exploration and will ultimately have the self-confidence to continue learning— even beyond art.
Art talk will stimulate your child’s imagination.
Art talk can boosts brainpower!
There’s a lot of neural wiring happening in the brain when children make art. Other branches of scientists like neuroscientists, science researchers, and art therapists, have also made connections to how early childhood art contributes to brainpower. Over my twenty years in process, studio-based observations, I have observed these same connections to how children get to improve their brains by creating artwork!
My proprietary art teaching method