Mark Making

There are lots of different ways that children can make marks without having to hold a pencil. The more fun ways children can become involved with to encourage them to explore mark making the more the muscle strength develops in their hands, enabling them to have better control over a pencil as they move onto school.

We have tried out some new mark making techniques, one was thanks to the lovely snow that fell, so our children could try some snow painting and the other was from a parent donation of lots of cotton buds, we used these with food colourings to create our own pieces of art.

10 Easy Mark Making Ideas

1. Sand
Sand is such a fun medium for making marks in and adds a great sensory experience for little ones. It can be as simple as using fingers to make different types of marks and patterns or even sticks.
To make the marks stand out more you could use damp sand. Bold sand colours are great for some colour recognition.

2. Painting with string
Set out paints and cut several different lengths of string and leave children to create. They will soon start dipping the string in the paint and making marks on the paper.


3. Making marks in playdough 
Using rolling pins, cutters, fingers, buttons and a whole variety of items to make their own creations. Children can then just squish it back together and start again.

4. Nature print painting 
We bring back so many treasures from our walks that we can paint with. Nature print painting is a fun way to explore making marks with different textures and children love to see if they can guess which item made the different marks.

5. Water Painting
If you’re looking for something a little less messy then water painting is your answer. Our children love to spend ages with a paint brush and some water making marks in the playground. On a really hot day, the water disappears almost straight away so they get a mini science experiment thrown in at the same time.


6. Chalking outside
Chalking outside offers the chance to make marks on a really large scale which is a hit with any child. Being outside also means less chalk dust on your floor inside!  There’s something about being allowed to draw on the floor that always excites and holds their attention for a long period of time.
Sometimes you could combine chalk with water and have fun painting over the chalk with water as another fun way to get those early marks in.

7. Potato print painting 
Potato print painting is such a classic mark making idea. As well as potatoes you can also use cookie cutters and even Duplo to dip into paint and make a mark.

8. Painting with Cotton Reels 
Grab a roll of paper and head outside. Use paint and add some cotton reels.
Or roll trucks through paint and watch the patterns appear on the page.


9. Salt Trays
Salt trays offer a fun way to make marks. Place the salt in a baking tray and provide brushes. Children will spend ages moving the brush around the salt, giving the tray a shake and starting again.


10.Painting with different types of brush
You could also use a dish brush or even an old hair brush. Anything that would make a different type of mark to a regular paint brush and capture the attention of little ones.