Veronika seems to enjoy art projects best when I squeeze out the dots of glue ahead of time and then she gets to press down materials on each little white blob. So today, with no other agenda or other final product in mind, that’s exactly what she got to do!

To set up, I used a piece of black construction paper as the background so that the white dots would show up clearly, and simply dotted all over it with glue. I set out a plate of buttons, pom poms, and dried beans for her. Anything else easy to glue down would be great in the mix, too.

Veronika immediately began adding buttons, and wanted to name the color of each as she pressed down.

For fun, I made some of the glue dots in a representation of other things, like a smiley face. She was delighted as soon as she saw what we’d made.

She didn’t want to add any of the pom poms, but enjoyed pressing down the dried beans, too.

This was a simple activity for fine motor skills, and would work well as a busy activity for preschoolers who can even make the glue dots by themselves.