Roller Painting With Toy Cars

Toy cars with textured wheels (bigger wheels make bolder tracks)

Washable paint in 3-4 colors

Paper plates for the paint

Large paper or butcher paper

Tape

Smock or old clothes

Pour washable paint in thin layers onto paper plates, one color per plate. You want just enough to coat the wheels.

Tape a large piece of paper to the table or floor. The bigger the paper, the more room for driving.

Show your toddler how to roll a toy car's wheels through the paint on the plate. Roll back and forth to coat evenly.

Drive the paint-covered car across the paper. Colorful tire tracks appear behind it like magic.

Let your toddler choose different colors and criss-cross the tracks. Overlapping colors make beautiful patterns.

Experiment with speed — fast pushes make thin, energetic lines and slow pushes make thick, deliberate tracks.

Add more paper if your toddler wants to keep going. Tape sheets end to end for a long highway of art.

Cars with chunky, textured wheels leave the most interesting patterns. Construction vehicles with treaded tires are perfect.

This is a brilliant activity for car-obsessed toddlers who might not naturally gravitate toward painting. It meets them where their interest already is.

Wash the cars right after — dried paint in wheel axles can make them roll poorly.

Try setting up ramps and let gravity roll paint-dipped cars down onto the paper for abstract art.

The finished prints look genuinely like abstract expressionist art. Frame one for the playroom wall.