Yarn is a great 3-D medium for toddlers’ art, lending itself to a variety of projects. To wit, Travis and I had fun with these two activities on a recent morning.

To make a yarn sculpture, give your child a shallow dish of glue and pieces of brightly colored yarn. Drag the yarn through the glue and arrange any which way on waxed paper. Travis wanted to use a paintbrush to apply some of the glue as well, and was very excited when his “sculpture” momentarily adhered to the brush.

Let the glue dry completely before removing the yarn from the waxed paper. The resulting creation could make a great mobile or decoration in your child’s room!

Less permanent but equally fun is setting up a yarn “easel”. Glue sandpaper to a sturdy piece of construction paper and let dry, then give your child short pieces of string to arrange as artwork on the surface – the sandpaper will grip the yarn to help it stay in place.

It took a few demonstrations before Travis got excited about the idea, but then he returned to his sandpaper “easel” a few times throughout the afternoon.

His favorite was telling me that he’d made an ant!

What other yarn projects have you and your child made? Please share in the comments!