You will need paper plates, paper towels, paint, assorted plastic cookie cutters and white construction paper. Fold a paper towel and place it on the paper plate, then pour paint onto the paper towel. The paper towel will serve as a blotter to help keep the paint from dripping. Have your students dip the cookie cutter onto the paint blotter, then press it onto their paper one or more times. Your student can then choose another cookie cutter and dip it into different color paint and press it onto the paper. Let the toddler continue until the paper is filled with cookie cutter prints.
For this activity you'll need construction paper, plastic bowls, assorted paints, yarn and paintbrushes. Fold the construction paper in half, then let your student choose a paint color. Dip a 2-foot piece of yarn into a bowl of paint, leaving the end out about 2 inches. Press the yarn into the paint with your paintbrush. Then pull the yarn out of the bowl, pressing it against the edge of the bowl with your paintbrush to get rid of extra paint.
Open the folded paper and have your student take the dry end of the yarn and use it to make a yarn design on one side of the paper. Fold the paper again, leaving the dry end of the yarn showing outside of the paper. Press the paper down with your hands and let your student pull the yarn out slowly. When you open the paper you will have an amazing design. You can also do this using two pieces of yarn instead of one and use two primary colors of paint to make a secondary color. For example, use red and yellow paint to make an orange design.
To make crayon rubbings, you will need crayons with the paper wrappings pulled off and thin paper. You will also need feathers or other textured items to put underneath the paper. Have your students choose one or two of the textured items for their art project. Place an item beneath the paper and help your student locate it. Help your student begin rubbing over the paper (and the item) with crayon. Then encourage them to continue until the crayon rubbing shows clearly on their paper.
Cut assorted colors of construction paper into different 1- to 2-inch shapes, such as squares, triangles and circles. You will also need glue sticks and white construction paper. Model gluing the colored paper shapes to the paper to make a mosaic. Show the students that you can put different shapes together to make new shapes or designs. Then give your students the materials and let them make their own mosaic design.