Different painting techniques to support babies mark making skills
All ages of children love mark making whether this is by running their fingers through wet sand or mark making with paint. Encouraging mark making will give children the foundations that will help them later on when it comes to early literacy skills. When deciding on mark making activities think about the children’s ages and stage of development and also what their interests are.
Some children are reluctant to get messy, therefore, think of other alternative activities. As children explore the activity use language to accompany the activity and offer support when needed. As young children have a low attention span look out for signs of when they are getting bored and if able to extend the activity or add other resources to engage the child.
Open ended activities are ideal for young children as they can freely explore and develop the skills at their own pace. Having a balance of adult and child led activities will provide practitioners with a varied amount of information as to where the child is at in their development. Adult-led activities enable practitioners to look for a particular learning intention whereas child-led play you may observe varies learning opportunities.
Why not try these two painting activities to support babies mark making skills
Activity 1.Mark making on sandpaper
Resources
- Sandpaper
- Paintbrushes
- Different coloured paint
- Paint pots
- Aprons
This activity opens up children’s experiences instead of painting on paper, children can feel the texture of sandpaper. Encourage the children to use the paint brushes to make marks on the sand paper. Interact and use vocabulary to support the activity and watch for children’s responses.
Activity 2 Painting with cotton wool
Resources
- Paper
- Pegs
- Cotton wool
- Different coloured paint
- Paint pots
- Aprons
Adults will need to peg some cotton wall to the pegs and fill up the painting pots with different coloured paints. Encourage the children to dip the cotton wall into the paint and give praise as they begin mark making. This activity is also helping develop their fine motor skills as they are gripping hold of the peg when dabbing the paint on the paper. For older children adults can start to introduce the colour mixing concept.
Both these activities will provide practitioners with some good observations and some great masterpieces to create a display with. Why not repeat this activity again but instead of using brushes and cotton wool think about what else you could use, discuss with your team other mark making implements you could use.