Painting With Marshmallows, A Fun Project For Your Toddler

Recently we had a camping theme at my in-home childcare. There was a tent, a play fire, a boat with fishing, you get the idea. The dramatic play area was a blast!

I knew dessert would have to be smores one day.

What were we going to do for art though?

Having a younger group during art time, there are some limitations. We are beginning to work on new skills like cutting or gluing so coming up with projects for them has to be simple yet engaging!

I also want this to be their project, so the less I have to do on their paper the better.

Painting with marshmallow seemed like the perfect idea!

How To Prep for Painting with Marshmallows

I am pretty lucky in that I have a whole group of stick collectors. When we go on walks they take their handful and stick in the bush in the front yard.

Why? I have no idea.

That’s just become the norm.

When deciding to paint with marshmallows that bush was my first stop.

What Do You Need to Paint with Marshmallows

I always feel that with this age, simple is best. You never really know what’s going to happen so why make things complicated with too much going on?

• Paint
• Marshmallow
• Stick from outside

What We Did

Like I said, for our painting with marshmallows project we kept this all super simple. We used campfire colors, red, orange and yellow. First I added a blob of each color to a paper plate, then stuck the marshmallow on the stick and placed it in front of my 1- and 2-year-olds.

It’s nice to give each child their own plate of colors as they are quite young and mixing happens, hands in paint happens. I also feel this is a very helpful way for me to be able to allow a group of toddlers this opportunity to paint together. We are fans of controlled mess around here.

I don’t give the kids any instruction.

It’s amazing to me how much fun they can have with such simple projects.

How they know what to do when that plate of color is set in front of them.

Having the stick also helped turn this not only into a fun project visually for the photos I send to their parents, but made handling the marshmallow easier.

Ways To Learn

As easy as it is to hand over the tools and let your kiddos go, make sure to talk with them during their exploration.

• This is yellow.
• What color is this?
• What shape does the marshmallow make?
• Do you see the circle?

Even if your littles can’t talk much yet, they are listening. It is never to early to start including them in learning activities.

The End Results

While the finished product may not look like much after the children are done, there is a lot of learning and fun happening in the process.  

I love these finished projects from our painting with marshmallows adventure. It’s fun to see the progression in ages. The first is from a young 1 year old, he did a pretty good job I think. They tend to use the space in front of them.

The center picture is from a new 3-year-old, you can see how he is trying more techniques, stamp and brush. He also uses more of the white space.

Need More Out Of The Box Ideas?

Who says painting needs to be with a paint brush?

Have you ever tried painting with flowers? I have a great article on that, don’t forget to check it out!

How about painting with cookie cutters?

I’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite art supplies to get you started!

Takeaway Tips

• Marshmallows are yummy! How do we make sure our littles don’t take a bite between painting strokes? Depending on the age of those in your care consider giving them a marshmallow to try before or after the project. Because I have mixed ages I chose to wait until we cleaned up or my one-year-old would be sure to eat a paint covered marshmallow.
• Be sure to write that you ‘painted with marshmallows’ on the back of the paper.