Young children enjoy exploring a variety of tactile materials and media with their hands and fingers, beginning to experiment with the feel, movement and direction of their marks.    

Paint offers another material for experimentation, exploring movement and mixing colours. The important point is that a variety of media should be made available for children to explore, and that teachers and practitioners appreciate how important this is.  

These 3-year-old boys have discovered that using an artefact such as a wheeled car, results in tracks of paint that are very different to those made with fingers and hands.  

Finn (1 year, 8 months) was keen to make his own marks on the outline of a road that an adult had drawn. A practitioner sits nearby, sensitively interacting and observing as Finn explores his drawing with a pen.

Myles (3 years, 1 month) chose to use two pens, repeatedly making numerous energetic circular scribble-marks, and clearly enjoying his repetitive circular movements with the pens.