20 Fun Gluing Activities for Toddlers
It’s understandable and relatable when parents avoid letting toddlers use certain craft materials because they could be dangerous or difficult to use. This goes for using glue in making kids’ crafts at home.
Still, gluing is an important part of almost any craft-making activity, and your kids will have to start using glue materials at some point. What’s essential is to guide them whenever your toddlers are doing gluing activities and help them practice the proper way to use different types of glues – glue guns, glue sticks, bottled glues, etc.
Plus, what better way to practice than do some great and fun gluing activities for toddlers together! Check out these 20 creative gluing activities you can do with your toddlers.
Heart Gluing Activity
Learning through creating crafts is always a great way for toddlers to enjoy any activity. Luckily, this craft is a perfect example of that!
This heart-shaped craft activity will be the perfect personalized gift that your kids can give someone. Help them prepare for it by providing basic materials like a heart-shaped cutout, some alphabet cutouts, and of course, glue. Choosing this kind of bottled glue – the one with a pointed tip – is a great way to help your kids learn how to control applying the glue. The flow of the glue is easy to control as you demonstrate to your kids how it is done. But, if you think using this type of glue is too difficult for your toddler, you can always switch to a glue stick.
See more at Happy Toddler Playtime.
Square Collage
Sometimes, creating something does not need to be about anything. If kids are learning something new and having fun, there is no problem with what gluing activity you let your toddlers try.
In this square collage, simply provide them with random colored square cutouts and have them glue the pieces on cardboard. Watch them create a colorful collage and be surprised by how they design their artwork. Plus, they get to learn how to use glue properly and enhance their fine motor skills, sensory skills, and even problem-solving skills.
You can also do it in various shapes, and they can learn about other shapes and colors as well.
Find out more about this craft over at Mess for Less.
DIY Cosmic Suncatcher
With just some glue and food coloring, you can help your toddlers create this colorful cosmic suncatcher. It is so easy to do that they will volunteer to do it because it looks like such colorful fun!
Plus, this project uses recycled materials – another important lesson to teach your kids when doing kids’ crafts.
For the full tutorial, check it out at Babble Dabble Do.
Beans are for Gluing
The beauty of doing gluing activities with toddlers is that you can do it with almost any material and create easy artwork that you and your kids will truly be proud of.
This beans craft is precisely that! Provide your kids with colorful beans that be glued to a piece of paper. Watch them glue the beans randomly and create an abstract masterpiece, or be amazed as they decide to create animals, flowers, and other amazing images using glue and beans. You can also provide a template for them to follow.
For more tips about this craft, check it out on Tinkerlab.
Counting Practice with Seeds
Thinking about teaching your toddlers how to handle glue while also teaching them math? Well, it’s possible with this craft!
You provide them with a number board and have them glue items – buttons, beans, cutouts, etc. – into the board according to the specified number. It’s simple, easy, and fun!
It teaches number recognition and counting, and of course, learning how to glue things exercises their fine motor skills.
Cut & Glue Station
Kids love to tinker and create things from whatever they get their hands on. So, before they decide to tinker with your important things at home, give them something better to play with instead.
Build them a cut and glue station. Carefully teach them and guide them how to cut and glue things together using only recyclable materials you have at home. This way, they satisfy their urge to tinker with stuff while doing it in a safe space. Plus, they enhance their creativity and fine motor skills as they learn how to cut and glue things together.
For more tips on creating a cut and glue station, check it out at Busy Toddler.
Make Your Own Slime
Slime is a material that has properties very similar to glue. Introducing slime to your toddlers gives them an idea of what glue can do. You can take this as a first step to learning about glue activities. Plus, you can easily create DIY slime at home.
It will only take 15-20 minutes to create slime at home using mainly liquid starch and some consistent stirring.
To learn more about creating DIY slime and what activities you can do with it, check it out at Simple Play Ideas.
DIY Glue Paint
Along with creating your own DIY slime, it is also possible to create DIY Glue paint. It will be colorful and it’s a great art material for kids who like to have fun making bright artwork.
Just make sure that the next time you have empty glue bottles, you keep them first so you can use the same bottles as the container for your DIY glues.
All you need is glue and a few drops of liquid watercolors. Shake the bottle to blend the colors with the glue, and there you have it – your very own glue paints. Let your toddlers use them for their next craft activity and watch them enjoy it.
Creative Table: Glue and Sand
This glue and sand activity for toddlers is a classic that is easy to create. Let the kids hurry up and draw their artwork on the page using the glue to start this project. Then, before the glue dries up, sprinkle sand all over the glue. Give it a few minutes to dry and then pour off the excess sand.
The sand will stick to the glue and form whatever shape or drawing your kid made. It’s an incredible artwork that’s easy and only requires a few basic materials at home.
Leaf Name Activity
Let your toddlers learn how to write their names more creatively through this gluing activity.
All you need is some glue which you can put in a bowl so your toddler can easily brush it over the paper.
Let them practice writing their names using the glue. Then, using leaves of various colors and shapes, have your little one stick the leaves on the glue. As it transforms into a colorful artwork showing their names, they will learn to recognize the letters and to appreciate the writing as well.
Torn Paper Rain Boot Craft
This craft is the perfect way to keep your toddlers busy while staying indoors. Draw a boot on a piece of paper and give your toddler torn pieces of paper in different colors. They can then decide to glue the torn pieces on the boot drawing however they want.
Of course, you can also do this for plenty of other objects that you can draw, especially those that you know your toddler loves.
Cut and Paste Nature Art Activity
This craft is also a great way to keep your toddler busy, but this time they spend their time outdoors.
Have your toddlers go around the garden and pick up whatever they want to include in this activity – twigs, leaves, rocks, flower petals, grass, barks, etc. Once they have enough materials, have them sit with their gathered materials and start gluing to the paper.
Leave everything to their imagination about how they want to weave everything together and watch them have fun!
Googly Eyes Counting Game
Draw some characters on paper but leave the eyes out of the picture. Then, your toddler can glue googly eyes on them! It’s as simple as that.
This activity is simple, yet it teaches your kids fine motor skills as they try to glue the eyes the proper way. It also helps them learn by counting. You can make it more fun by telling them how many eyes each character should have. Therefore, drawing monster characters is perfect so that they can have more than two eyes.
Paint Glue Salt Experiments
This gluing activity for toddlers combines art and science. Doing this allows your toddler to witness how “magical” science can be and helps them appreciate it more as they learn more about scientific concepts growing up.
Through this activity, children can learn about patterns, shapes, and how the fusion of different colors creates new colors. This is a slightly more advanced craft than your regular glue and paper activity so make sure that you are with your toddler every step of the way. As they get used to doing this and start asking to do it more often, watch them improve and get acquainted with doing it by themselves.
To learn more about how to achieve this learning activity, check it out at NurtureStore.
Match & Glue
If you have extra butcher paper lying around, take it out to create this awesome gluing activity with your toddler.
All you do is draw various dots around the butcher paper using different colors. Make sure that the colors match the colors of the material that you have that your toddler can glue on the paper. One time, you can use pom-pom balls. Next time, you can also use other colorful objects you have around.
Once the dots dry, have your toddler match the colors and glue the pom poms on the paper. They will learn about colors while exercising their motor skills using glue.
Glue Stick Activity Bin
If your toddler is not yet ready to use liquid glue, you can have them start by using glue sticks. Show them how it works from the cap to the twister on the bottom.
Then, teach them to put the glue on the paper instead of the objects they need to stick. This is a more manageable approach, especially since most items they need to stick on paper are tinier pieces. Provide all these materials in a bin so they can easily access them whenever they want to do this activity at home.
This is also a great way to show your toddler that glue is not something they stick to their mouths and nibble on but is something they can use to create beautiful artwork and projects.
Glue the Fall Leaves
When fall comes, it can be the perfect time to go out and do some “leaf hunting” with your kids. Take their treasures home and recreate a tree following this simple activity.
Simply draw a tree on a piece of big paper, then have your kids fill the branches with the leaves they gathered.
For more details about this craft, check it out at Days with Gray.
Under the Sea
If your child is ready to do gluing activities that deal with tiny parts, you can start with this under the sea activity.
It consists of simply providing cutout shapes to create colorful fishes when glued together. You can give them a guide to follow so they can focus on gluing the pieces. You can cut out circles, triangles, rectangles, and strips of colorful paper. In the beginning, you can demonstrate how it works. But with practice, they will soon be doing this on their own. Just make sure to provide a tray for all these materials to go into before and after the activity so they can easily access them whenever they want to be creative with this project.
They can create fishes, an octopus, corals, and all other underwater creations they want. Let your kid’s imagination thrive through this gluing activity.
Learn more over at What Can We Do with Paper and Glue.
Invitation to Create: Flower Garden
Once they’ve had their fun with underwater creatures, they can also go ahead and create a flower garden using the same tips and steps.
Simply put, they can recreate almost anything under the sun with these colorful pieces and a little glue. Watch and be amazed as your toddlers present you with a new masterpiece every time when they continue to do this activity.
Easy Silly Accordion Guy
Using small cutout squares of colorful paper, some googly eyes, and your trusted glue stick, create this silly and colorful character that has accordion-like limbs and unique facial features. Let your toddler take control of the design and how they want their accordion guy to look. Just be sure to guide them every step of the way.
Check this complete guide at The Empowered Provider to learn more.
There are plenty of fun, easy, and priceless gluing activities for toddlers. All it takes is for you to see which ones would truly make your child happy and keep helping them achieve those crafts. Gluing is a simple and effective way to teach your kids various skills, so make sure that you include it in your list of “must-do” with your little ones.
