Don’t you just love finding new ways to utilize everyday household items for various arts and crafts projects, or learning activities? We certainly do! We love turning empty toilet paper tubes into a variety of different animals (not to mention confetti poppers)! We always make sure to add cotton balls to any cloud or snow craft that we create. And we recently discovered a new love for one of the most inexpensive household items there is…cotton swabs! We think you’re going to love these Cotton Swab Activities for Toddlers too!
I mean, how can you go wrong with cotton swabs? They typically come in bulk packages, and you can usually find a box of 500 for under $2! They are also small and lightweight, making them incredibly easy for little hands to hold and manipulate!
Cotton Swab Letter Painting
Our little nugget has been practicing writing her letters lately, both uppercase and lowercase. To make the learning process a bit more fun for her, I try to provide a multitude of ways for her to practice. I’ve drawn dotted outlines of letters for her to trace over and connect-the-dots (which has proven very effective), we’ve formed letters in sand with our fingertips, and we’ve done this Cotton Swab Letter Painting activity!
I came across this brilliant idea over on The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide. All you need for this simple activity is some paint (we used a few different colors of washable paint), cotton swabs, and a piece of paper with letters already written.
Our daughter loved this writing activity! As I mentioned before, the cotton swabs fit so perfectly in her hand, allowing her to write with more ease.
Tracing over each letter, with a bit of paint, is a wonderful way for toddlers to learn the shape of each letter, and the specific movement required to form each letter. We will definitely be doing this cotton swab letter painting activity again!
Cotton Swab Watercolor Painting
If you caught our recentΒ Watercolor Salt Painting and Hidden Letters – Watercolor Paint Resist Activity posts, then you already know that we’ve been a bit obsessed with watercolor painting lately. Since our watercolors just happened to be sitting out on the kitchen counter, we decided to break them out for a little Cotton Swab Watercolor Painting!
All you need is some watercolor paints, watercolor paper, water, and some cotton swabs! It’s that simple. For this art activity, I just let our little nugget go wild…painting whatever her heart and imagination brought forward. It’s a wonderful thing to give a child a blank piece of paper, and then stand back and watch them create!
My favorite thing about this painting activity happened to be all of the beautifully-colored cotton swabs that we were left with, when all was said and done. I loved the pile of pretty colors…so much so, that I let them dry, and then I utilized them for the next activity!
Cotton Swab Color & Pattern Match
What better way to reuse the beautifully-colored cotton swabs from the previous activity, than to turn them into a fun Cotton Swab Color & Pattern Match activity? Our little nugget loves matching games, and this educational activity requires her to not only match the pattern (or shape) on each card, but also the colors of each cotton swab.
To prep for this engaging activity, you will need the following: small squares of white paper (you could even use note cards), a pen, markers/crayons/colored pencils, and cotton swabs with a variety of colors on each end. To color your cotton swabs, feel free to have your kiddos do some Cotton Swab Watercolor Painting (see above) and then dry the colored swabs when they are finished. Alternately, you can wet the ends of each cotton swab and quickly spin them through the watercolor of your choosing. Once the ends of your cotton swabs are colored, set them aside to dry completely.
Using a pen, draw various shapes and patterns of cotton swabs onto the squares of white paper. Using markers/crayons/colored pencils…color the ends of each cotton swab that you outlined on the paper. Make sure to coordinate with the colors of your actual cotton swabs, to insure that your kiddos canΒ match them all up correctly. π
I’ve found that this activity is perfect for keeping toddlers occupied while you prepare a meal, tidy up, or just sit down and enjoy a glass of wine!
Who knew that playing with cotton swabs could be so much fun? I’m looking forward to discovering more exciting ways to put these inexpensive tools to good use. In fact, I just came across an idea (similar to our cotton swab letter painting activity) where you use a cotton swab to erase letters on a dry erase board…(again) helping to commit those letter movements to memory!
Do you use cotton swabs for anything other than cleaning your ears? Feel free to share your favorite uses in the comments below!
