Topic: Animals and nature – Art & Craft for Babies

Painted ladybird stones

My youngest made these at school (he’s aged 5). They used acrylic paints and then were varnished. They can then go outside to decorate your garden. Younger children can just …

Potato print ladybird

A great way to use up old potatoes from the back of the cupboard!

Paper plate jelly fish

Lots of jelly fish around at the moment. Try making this jelly fish from half a paper plate, some brightly coloured strips of paper and plenty of paint!

Spring blossom collage

Made simply with brown wool, scrunched up pink tissue paper and lots of glue!

Spring flower hand print picture

These hand print paintings look lovely on display. We added a little glitter to the paint to give that extra sparkle.

Spring and summer nature collages

Use leaves, petals, twigs, grass, what ever you can find, to make a beautiful nature collage. Dandelion seeds give a lovely effect when glued onto black paper. When we did …

Feather animal collage- create spring animals

This is Sam’s feather animal collage. Very young children will enjoy just sticking the feathers down with PVA glue, and an adult can add details to turn them into little animals. …

Paper plate sheep

I was going to do this with cotton wool, but I found some old wool and polystyrene bits that I thought would work well. The first picture is the example …

Blossom printing picture

I painted the branches and the children printed the pink blossom. Simply created by the underneath of a plastic drinks bottle dipped in pink paint

Fish collage

Just photocopied a picture of a fish (kindly drawn by my husband) and decorated with fish scales and green tissue paper seaweed.

Paper plate dinosaur- model making with young children

One for slightly older toddlers as it is a little fiddly, but the painting and decorating of the body could be done by anyone. ROAR!!!!

Dinosaur handprint painting- with baby or toddler

Handprint dinosaur painting

I just prepared a dinosaur template made out of thick card. The children drew round using felt pen, then used handprints to make stegosaurus dinosaur (Rowan decided he wanted handprints on …

Caterpillar paper circle collage picture

Caterpillar paper collage

Just paper circles used to make a spring caterpillar picture. If you look closely, you can just about see the caterpillar’s face drawn on.

Easter bunny ears

Just a strip of card, bunny ears stapled on, then decorated. I like the pinky coloured tissue paper in the middle. Very cute, and well modelled Rowan x.

Elmer the elephant collage art idea for toddlers

Elmer the Elephant plastic milk carton collage

Another lovely idea brought home from nursery. They used coloured squares of tissue paper and googly eyes, all stuck on an old milk carton.

Paper plate snake- easy animal collage

What you need: paper plate paper triangles glue google eye Preparation: draw a spiral on the paper plates cut out the bits to stick on- we used triangle shapes to …

handprint animal bug painting with babies

Handprint flying bug calendars

I like calendars that use handprints, they are so lovely to keep as a precious memory of your little ones. We made the handprints first, then glued the bug’s body …

Finger print sheep

These were so easy to do and the children loved getting the paint all over their hands! What you need: coloured A3 paper black paper white paint googly eyes Preparation: …

Handprint caterpillars- painting with babies

Children did this in lots of different ways. Some had adult help and used their hands, like my example- kindly provided by my 2 year old. The youngest child to …

Easy to make high energy bird feeder

Warning- may contain nuts! I didn’t do this at our baby group, because I was worried about nut allergies, but my 2 year old enjoyed making this one at home. …