This produces a massive amount of art very quickly! I love how it encourages children to think about creative ways to make art.
16 Easy Art Activities For Your 4-Year-Old
A 4-year-old toddler’s mind is super creative! Harness that gift with any colorful and fun art activity for kids! Your child will love these 16 easy art activities for your 4 year olds!
These fun, colorful craft activities and ideas will make for an afternoon of creative fun!
Colorful Ideas for Art Activity for Kids
1. Make DIY Creative Foam Mosaic Activity for Kids
Got extra foam pieces? Your 4-year-old will enjoy cutting them up and making a foam mosaic! This art activity from The Craft Train reminds every mom to supervise your 4-year-old with scissors usage, of course!
2. The Perfect 4-year-old Painting Art Activity Using a Basket!
Painting is so creative that your 4-year-old can use anything to paint with aside from paintbrushes! Use a basket as a stamp with this fun art project from Kids Activities Blog!
3. A Fun Art Activity Using Watercolor on Canvas!
We’re always thrilled to see an artist, right? Why not help your 4-year-old develop that creative talent and fine motor skills at an early age? Create an easy masterpiece with watercolor painting on canvas activity from Learn With Play At Home!
4. Cookie Cutter Stencil Paintings Activity for 4-year-olds
Everybody loves cookies! Now, you can use these cookie cutters for an easy and creative art activity! Your 4-year-old can use cookie cutter stencils and paint brush to make a beautiful fall-inspired tree art activity from Kids Activities Blog!
5. Create an Art Masterpiece Using Broken Crayons with Kids!
Most 4-year-olds just love breaking crayons. But don’t throw them just yet! These craft ideas from Kids Activities blog make use of broken crayon pieces, turning them into a raised painting!
6. A Beautiful and Fun String Art Activity for 4-year-olds
This string art lesson by Preschool Powol packets makes for such interesting, swirly designs! Your 4-year-old and kids of all ages will fall in love with paint, strings, and pulling off this easy preschool art activity!
7. Teach your 4-year-old This Paper Weaving Art Activity!
You might remember these craft projects from your own childhood! What fun to introduce your 4-year-old to paper weaving activity from Kids Activities Blog too!
8. A Creative Bubble Painting Art Activity for 4-year-olds
Art activities with your 4-year-old are so fun! Your kids will be delighted with these cool designs and color mixture created by bubble painting activity by Housing a Forest!
9. Color the Fun with Glue and Paint Art Activity
Get your 4-year-old’s creative wheels turned by combining glue and paint into a single piece of art activity with this idea from Learn With Play At Home!
10. Make an Art Masterpiece with Salt Paints for 4-year-olds!
Your 4-year-old will surely love to explore texture with these beautiful salt paints art activities from Kids Play Box!
11. An Epic and Creative Glowing Ice Paint Activity!
Add some summer fun with your 4-year-old! This glowing ice paint art idea from Housing a Forest would make a great summer cool-down activity!
12. Make this Creative Stapler Art Activity with Your 4-year-old
Got a 4-year-old who loves stapling? Why not let them turn staples into art with this easy art activity from Tiny Rotten Peanuts?
13. Leave Colorful Paint Marks on the Tiles with this Art Activity
Did you know you could paint on tile? This easy and fun art activity from Preschool Powol Packets lets you preserve your 4-year-old’s art by making a print onto a piece of paper afterward! You and the kids will love the final product!
14. Bake Those Creative Arts Dough by Your 4-year-old!
Baking can be introduced as early as 4 years old! Create a puffy paint design by “baking” your artwork in the microwave with this creative art activity by Housing a Forest!
15. Make Circle Arts and Abstract Art Activities with 4-year-olds
Your 4-year-old should know that you can create art out of anything. Teach them that by turning simple objects from home into creative circle art with this activity from Fun-A-Day!
16. Watch the Clouds with Kids and Paint them!
Take your 4-year-old out for a stroll! An afternoon of cloud watching provides inspiration for these cloud paintings from Coffee Cups and Crayons!
More Fun Art Activities for Kids from Play Ideas!
- Make some creative Thanksgiving crafts with your 4-year-old!
- Have fun lighting your swimming pools with floating candles from pool noodles!
- Create some colorful crafts inspired with your kids from Brazil!
- Your kids will enjoy these creative and easy 4th of July arts and crafts!
- Rock the boredom with these fun rock art crafts!
- These simple but colorful rainbow crafts will awaken the artist in your kid!
- Your toddlers will have real fun with these awesome pompoms arts!
- Tissue Paper Crafts for Kids turns sheets of colored paper into useful items like cranes and flowers that you can tear and share.
- Handprint crafts for toddlers are fun and unique ways to capture special moments with your little artist.
Ready to pick one idea for todays’ activity? Which one does your 4-year-old choose?
Top Tips for Art with Preschoolers
- Embrace the mess. The best way to be able to embrace messes is to plan for it. Cover work surfaces in butcher paper or take really messy ideas outside. No one will enjoy a project if you are stressed about the mess which at this age is inevitable and should be a welcome part of the exploration.
- Step Back. Adults should set up the projects and facilitate them as needed but please take step back and let the children explore on their own. Let them take chances and play with the materials at hand. In fact doing this often yields off-shoot projects that are just as fun!
- Keep it short! Preschool aged children are like whirlwinds of energy and interests. Don’t expect them to sit still for long so choose projects that can be accomplished quickly.
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20+ Preschool Art Projects
Some of these projects are best suited for older preschoolers because they involve more advanced fine motor skill development; I have noted them Pre-K.
Cosmic Suncatchers
(Pre-K) These suncatchers have a magical outcome for a minimum of effort! All you need are glue, food coloring and a little patience…
A great introduction to process art, gather up an old sheet, paint and rollers plus some textured items and stencils and have fun!
19 art activities for 3, 4 and 5 year olds using paint
1. Let your children experiment with a range of different brushes or tools. You can try different painting tools, including sponge brushes, fan brushes, rollers and scrapers, or let them explore household objects, like feathers, toothpicks or cotton buds.
2. Make your own shape stamps. All you need is some foam, a glue gun and some blocks of wood. Older kids will love helping you make the stamps. Once they’re made, just paint some paint onto the foam with brushes, and your child will create some amazing stamp pictures.
3. Make ‘snail prints‘ using a Pringles or tennis ball tin, or a baby formula can. All you need is the tin and lid, a few marbles, paint and paper. This great art activity is fun and noisy and makes really cool prints.
4. Fabric painting is a great activity for young children. Fabric paint is cheap and easy to use. You don’t need to rush out and buy something special to decorate. Just have a look through your closet, linen cupboard or garage, and see what you can find to upcycle.
5. Make ‘string prints‘. This is one of the simplest painting activities for kids you can do. All you need is string, paper, paint and a saucer. It’s a lot of fun and your child can create some really awesome designs.
6. Painted mason jars, or preserving jars, are such a cool craft right now. They can be used for heaps of different ideas. But one really quirky idea for painted storage jars is to use them for sorting and storing kids’ stationery and craft supplies.
7. This one is a little messy, you’ll definitely want some plastic sheeting down, or set it up outside on a fine day. Bubble printing art makes some really unique prints. You can frame the most interesting parts, or even cut them in strips, cover with clear plastic film, and turn them into bookmarks.
8. Shaving foam art is a little like bubble printing, but even messier! Your kids will love getting their hands covered in foam, and exploring the paint swirls. But the really cool thing is this activity makes really awesome artworks too.
9. Not quite sure about the messiness of shaving foam art? Have you tried the squishy shaving foam in a bag idea? Using a zip lock bag, shaving foam, and a little paint, you can create an awesome tactile art project, without the mess!
10. This is an oldie but a goodie. Make blotter bugs using just a folded piece of paper and a splodge of paint. This is a great painting activity for preschoolers, as you can teach children about mixing different colours.
11. Try painting a fabulous flag. This is a great art activity for boys, they’ll love hanging their flag on their door, or creating a pirate ship out in the garden!
12. Make a stained glass window effect using paint, PVA glue and dishwashing liquid. You can paint this mixture straight onto windows, or tape off clear film to the glass, and have them paint that.
13. This is a great kid’s painting idea that will have your kids coming back for more! Children just love this pour and press paint activity. It’s fairly easy to set up, and the final paintings are real works of art, with heaps of texture and movement.
14. If you can source dry powder paint, this is a really messy, but amazing activity. All you need to do is wet the paper and let your child explore by flicking the powdered paint onto the paper. It creates amazing, Monet-esque paintings!
15. Try mixing together the dry powder paint with wallpaper paste. Let your child explore making patterns through the paint, then give them a range of materials to stick on and make a collage.
16. You’ll love this paint art project for kids, as it’s suitable for all ages. It’s so cool to see how excited kids are to make their own banners. Every banner is unique, and they make a great wall hanging for any child’s room.
17. Painting salt dough ornaments is a fantastic rainy day activity. They’re traditionally used as Christmas tree ornaments, but could easily be turned into Teacher’s, or Mother’s Day gifts. Just use a quirky, or more meaningful cookie cutter.
18. This is a cool activity for warm summer days, and a real hit with toddlers. Give your child a tin can filled with water and a paintbrush, and let them ‘paint’ the fence. The water darkens the timber and looks like real paint going on. They’ll love watching it slowly dry, and painting it all over again!
19. Water paint and glitter art is another great painting effect. All you need is paint, paper, water and salt to make the background effect. Once you have the background you can embellish with glitter and paper cutouts to turn this into a stunning collage.
So, there you have it, 19 art activities for 3, 4 and 5 year olds using paint. Of course there’s 100s more ideas online. A great resource for getting your imagination running is Pinterest, just search for ‘children’s paint activities’. I highly recommend doing this over a cup of tea, as you’ll easily write off a half hour of web surfing
Beyond this though, it really is just up to your own imagination and creativity. Use the ideas on this page to get you started, and together with your child, just play and see what you come up with.
If you’re at all worried about your toddler using paint, try out this edible paint recipe. By the age of 3 your toddler should be able to follow instructions for painting. But, some kids just love to eat things. It’s really good for things like finger painting, making hand or foot prints, or even whole body art!
You might also want to check out more great activities for preschoolers here.
