Mark making refers to any marks children make during the early years and can be lots of fun. Setting up a simple mark making activity for your child at home gives them the chance to make marks of their choosing. It also allows them to experience lots of different sensory materials to feel and manipulate. These activities will strengthen the child’s motor skills and muscles in their hands, essential for writing later on. The process is more important than the output; it’s all about playing, experimenting and having fun.
I created a simple mark making activity for my 2 year old using cocoa powder and paintbrushes!
Materials/ Resources
All you need for this is:
- A baking tray
- Cocoa powder (or other sensory material e.g. sand/flour)
- Paintbrushes
- Examples of lines and shapes they could copy
Then simply allow your child to create some marks in the cocoa powder! It allows them to explore mark making in other ways than the usual crayon and paper experience. Warning: this is a messy activity! I would recommend doing this activity outside, or if inside adding a floor covering for easy clean up.
I used these wooden slices from The Works to create some pre-writing mark making examples: https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/wooden-crafts/round-wood-slices-250g/5052089352599.html
However, you can use post it notes, add a few examples on a piece of paper or even mini whiteboards work well with this type of activity. At this age, the focus is on different lines and shapes to experiment with.
I’ve put together some other sensory base ideas you could try. Anything that is easy to manipulate and moves about easily works well:
- Flour
- Sand / Kinetic Sand
- Glitter
- Mud
- Snow
- Paint
- Shaving foam
- Cornflour and water mix
A few other simple mark making ideas you could try:
- Using sticks to write in mud or sand
- Using water and paintbrushes to make marks on the wall
- Submerging hands/feet in paint and printing to make patterns
- Writing on the ground with chalk or chalk paint
- Creating marks with natural resources e.g. bark rubbing and flower pressing
How this supports their development
Physical – Using their hands to hold and manipulate tools as well as requiring their hands and fingers to move in a variety of ways, developing important muscles and fine and gross motor skills.
Expressive arts and design – Allows the child to experiment and be creative with different types of sensory materials and the freedom to create their own marks and designs.
Literacy – Mark making is the first step in helping children learn to write. Look out for your child creating their own meanings to their marks and telling you what they’ve created.
Mathematics – Recognition, understanding and practice of numerals and shapes helps support early maths skills.
It’s so fun to experiment with different materials and allowing your child the creativity to create marks in whatever way they wish. I hope this post gives you some ideas to start with, let me know if you’ve tried a mark making activity like this!