10 Fun Activities To Support Children's Mark Making

It can be an exciting time when your child starts to describe their own drawing as having a meaning. This is known as 'mark making' some thing that I have found Little Man is reluctant to do. This stage in children's development is all about starting the journey towards being able to write.

Mark making is a wonderful way of giving children an outlet for expressing their ideas, feelings and creative side. By providing your child with a variety of mark-making opportunities you can help them in perfecting these skills. 

   

Here are ten of our favourite play activities which have worked wonders to encourage Little man to give mark making a try.

Starting with larger movement helps children develop their gross motor skills and control, gaining confidence before trying to master fine motor skills. Activities such as using side walk paints can make a good start. Allowing children to make marks on a big scale and tell stories through their art.

Using large washing up brushes and paint brushes children can make large movements and marks through brushing the floor or cleaning toys.

Malleable play is another way you can encourage mark making. Little man loves play dough we usually have a new batch every week for him to play with and this tends to be his way of being creative as his not crazy about drawing or using paints.

If your preschooler is keen on painting or drawing this can be a fantastic way to encourage children to make marks. Simply using a variety to tools can make a range of different marks for them to explore pattern and the affects they can make.

Mono printing is one of my favourite activities for mark making. If you do not want too much mess or would like to leave this out for children to explore for them selves you can put the paint down and cover it with cling film which is tapped down. I prefer the messier version as you can create some beautiful prints together.

Last summer we had fun testing out crazy soap as a play material. The children had an amazing time playing with it and the activity ended with a great opportunity for drawing pictures and words in what was left.

This activity was always one of P's favourite as she was learning to draw and I must admit it's one I really should dig out again for Little Man to try. Making marks in a sand or salt try like this great one from Nurture Store makes an exciting change to pens and paper.










Need to do a spot of shopping? While writing your shopping list encourage your child to write their own for the trip. When you get to the shop have a look at the different labels and words surrounding them. Children will start to recognise words such as the name of the supermarket through your discussions and the patterns and colour's in the shop's branding.

Creating your own treasure maps is a nice way to stretch children's imagination and encouraging them to make their own sketches and observe the environment around them.

Whether they are indoors or outside children love to use clip boards and paper. It's an instant invitation for mark making and a great tool for any role play activity.

So there you go 10 different ways to encourage mark making in your home or setting. I hope you have fun discovering all the little drawings your preschool will be leaving you and feel free to share them with me on Facebook or Instagram.