Try it out!

Let’s get our hands onto some 3D art! What can children mold, manipulate, glue, tape, stack, arrange, pattern, color, or imagine as they explore 3D art in your program? Encourage children to explore their senses, stretch their fine motor skills, and be creative using materials of different colors, textures, sizes, and more. Sculptures, clay or play-dough structures, collages, and open-ended materials can all offer children ways to express creativity and explore their world.

Be intentional in your exploration.

• Encourage infants and toddlers to explore the textures of 3D art materials and help them describe what they discover. Use comparison words like smooth or rough, soft or hard, big or small, and scratchy or sticky.
• Model descriptive language about the sounds and smells of the materials infants and toddlers are exploring. Encourage older children to describe their art. Educators can write descriptions on tags near where art is displayed.
• Show value for children’s designs by allowing extra time for creation, offering chances to return to art projects if needed, and displaying 3D art on shelves or walls.
• Respond to children’s work in a way that doesn’t judge it (e.g., “Nice work!”), but is objective instead and encourages children to describe what they’ve done:
  • Tell me what you are working on.
  • You made some interesting shapes with your modeling clay.
  • Tell me about your collage.
  • I notice you used four different types of pom poms and string and covered the entire page.
• Talk about the process of creating art: shaping clay or wires, cutting pieces, exploring and choosing colors and materials, and discovering how creating makes you feel.
• Encourage children to explore art that comes from their imagination or, as they get older, that represents something in their lives.
• Connect arts to other areas of play and learning by:
  • Creating materials and sets for dramatic play.
  • Using books as inspiration before beginning art projects.
  • Talking about spatial reasoning and math concepts when describing art.
  • Using problem solving and planning strategies when helping children plan art experiences.

Gather materials to support your messy play.

• Provide children with materials for sculpting such as modeling clay, play dough, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, and rubber-insulated or aluminum scrap wire (verify their safety and make sure to use eye protection like goggles).
• Offer a variety of objects for collage art, like foam pieces, scraps of fabric, pom poms, buttons, and cotton balls, as well as items for binding like glue, tape, or rubber cement.
• Build up collections of open-ended loose parts, including wood, plastic caps, packaging or cardboard, and natural materials. Home visitors can help families collect loose parts and plan for their storage and use in ways that fit in families’ homes.
• Painting can be 3D, too! Use equal parts shaving cream and white glue, then add food coloring or paint to create cloud paint that becomes fluffy as it dries.
• Prepare your art space over tiled flooring, on tarps/shower curtains, near sinks, or even outdoors.

Consider adaptations that help everyone engage.

• Stabilize materials using tape and nonskid backing, making things easier for all children to grasp.
• For children and adults with sensory sensitivity, use sealable bags when making cloud paint so that they can experience the magic of mixing the shaving cream, glue, and food coloring together.
• Ensure that materials are accessible by having enough space and surfaces at appropriate levels for every child.
• Offer materials of different sizes so that children can grasp them. Watch for choking hazards with younger children.
• When using scissors, provide various types, including standard, easy grip loop, dual control teaching, and left-handed scissors.
• Engage families by inviting them to provide ideas and share examples of 3D art from their culture.
• Use a mix of simple and complex language to help children express what they are feeling, seeing, hearing, or smelling. Words like fluffy, crackling, sweet-smelling, smooth, and rough help children describe sensory experiences and can bring joy to the activity! Encourage children to play with language and make up their own words, too! Include home or indigenous languages.

Look for connections to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) goals shown below, though this activity can be adapted with any domain.

• Infant-Toddler Approaches to Learning 8: Child uses creativity to increase understanding and learning.
• Infant-Toddler Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development 1: Child uses perceptual information to understand objects, experiences, and interactions.
• Preschool Perceptual, Motor, and Physical Development 3: Child demonstrates increasing control, strength, and coordination of small muscles.
• Preschool Approaches to Learning 12: Child expresses creativity in thinking and communication.

Connect and Extend

Create a culture of inquiry with great questions.

One strategy for extending conversations with children involves asking meaningful questions such as, "What do you think will happen next?" Asking open-ended questions with many possible answers lets children express their ideas. They can offer explanations and make predictions. For some children, especially infants and toddlers, this may mean providing time to think and watching for nonverbal responses and then giving prompts or labeling their gestures.

• How did you make that color?
• How can we create a bird nest for our classroom? What materials would we need?
• Where did you find the different-sized sticks? How do you want to arrange them?
• This leaf looks different than that one; do you think they are from the same tree? Why do you think that?
• Which do you think will dry quicker: the picture with a lot of glue or the one with less?

Develop creative connections and be a “good relative.”

What does it mean to be a good relative? In many American Indian and Alaska Native cultures, being a good relative is a way to describe treating others, the land, and all living creatures with care, kindness, and respect. It is a practice we want to encourage in all children and adults from all cultural backgrounds.

We are all related and connected. How does this connection extend into 3D art? Mother Earth is the clay we use to sculpt. Earth grows the trees whose leaves, branches, and pine needles we explore and use in our 3D art. Have you ever looked closely at the beautiful patterns and shapes of a flower or a butterfly? Our relatives from nature can provide creative inspiration for the art children create. What do you see in your natural environment? Do you have a favorite bird, animal, plant, or bug? How do you provide chances for children to create their favorites using 3D materials? Here are some ways you can make connections:

• Collect and use objects from nature, such as sticks, rocks, leaves.
• On a nature walk, bring a camera so children can take pictures of relatives in their natural environment. Children can use the pictures as inspiration for making 3D art.
• Join the fun with the children in making your own 3D creations!

Take a Look

A Creative Adventure
This 13-minute video encourages Head Start classroom staff, teachers, and parents to use art techniques to support learning and creative expression. The video shows classroom- and home-based activities that allow children to use their imaginations and experience creative adventures.

Partnering with Parents to Support the Development of Creativity
Supporting and nurturing children’s creativity is all about the process! Making something out of nothing — and anything out of everything — sums up the process of creating and exploring the world around us. Learn how home visitors partner with parents to nurture creative minds, support the development of critical thinking, and foster problem-solving skills.

Digging Deeper into Why Sensory Play Matters

What does research say about art?

• Creativity is an important skill that is strengthened through practice. Young children are excellent creative problem solvers. In certain contexts, they are better at creative, flexible thinking than adults. Providing open-ended arts activities helps young children build and maintain their creativity.
• Children (and adults!) learn best in environments that are meaningful to them. Art experiences can be particularly meaningful for children. As children explore and create, they make connections between their own thoughts and the world around them. They can also explore familiar and new cultures through music, dance, and visual art.

What does 3-D art look like?

• Art experiences are developmentally appropriate. Young children benefit from opportunities to engage in art activities that are meaningful to them. While it’s unrealistic to expect infants and toddlers to sit down and create a full sculpture, they can still explore and express themselves through art with appropriate support. Help parents understand what art experiences look like at a young age.
• Creative tools are easy for children to access. Materials don’t need to be fancy. Use simple items like a scrap of fabric as a scarf or pipe cleaners for sculpting. Help families find a convenient place to store creative materials so children can easily access them whenever they want. For children with disabilities or suspected delays, collaborate with the family to adapt activities so the child can fully participate. For example, provide additional tools for cutting or molding clay, or use glue sticks instead of liquid glue to connect materials.
• Creative play is open-ended. To boost creative skills, children need opportunities to explore and create freely. Identify activities that let children express their unique thoughts and ideas. Help families support open-ended play by ensuring children have access to materials that encourage creativity. For example, provide fabric scraps, empty lightweight boxes, or other cardboard recyclables that children can use to explore and invent.
• Art experiences are meaningful. The arts are a powerful way for children to connect with their culture and identity. Support families in adapting important cultural traditions for infants and toddlers. Are there crafts that allow families to safely explore together? For example, if making beaded jewelry is important to the family, can you find large plastic or wooden beads that a toddler can start safely playing with? Or can you make your own beads out of cardboard, homemade clay, or aluminum foil?

Read About It

Understanding STEAM and How Children Use It
Learn how children ages birth to 5 engage with science, technology, engineering, arts, and math concepts and materials. Find out how adults can work with children to support learning and development in these areas.

Creating Playful Learning Environments for Infants and Toddlers
This podcast reviews key research considerations for building environments that support infant and toddler creativity and play. It focuses on how programs can help children foster creative skills by designing environments that are playful, flexible, open-ended, and meaningful.

Joy for the Journey

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. — Pablo Picasso

Art is a place for children to learn to trust their ideas, themselves, and to explore what is possible. — Maryann F. Kohl

Last Updated: May 30, 2025