Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation. Check my disclosure page for more information.

I try to do some art with Mac because I’m all for fine motor development with a side of creativity. But sometimes I don’t want to deal with messy crayons, chalk, or paint. (Plus Mac is teething right now, so all art supplies seem to end up in her mouth.) One art medium that parents don’t tend to think of is stickers. Doing stickers with toddlers takes supervision, but is otherwise so easy. We have them available on the art shelf in our Montessori toddler room and I have started to do them with Mac. Here is how I keep my sanity while doing stickers with toddlers.

Setting Up

The most important part of doing stickers with toddlers is making sure those stickers don’t end up on the wall, the cat, your hair, etc. That requires both supervision and a good set-up. As you can see in the picture below, I put down a colored mat underneath the white paper. That helps a toddler distinguish where the paper stops so the stickers end up on the paper and not the table.

In the toddler room, we have a tray with two slots. We put two or three pieces of paper in one side and put a small page of stickers in the other side. Mac isn’t ready to do this project totally on her own, so I help her.

Also, stickers can be expensive. Most of the ones I have I got free in the mail. I even have a bunch of address labels I could let her use. At this point, Mac doesn’t really care what the stickers look like. (For kids who are a bit older, Melissa and Doug makes great sticker books. They have bundles of reusable stickers like dinosaurs, dollhouses, and vehicles. They also have this super cool book where kids can use food sticker to make meals on place settings printed on paper. So fun!)

Picking the Sticker

Toddlers love to be given a choice. This is Mac’s project, so I let her pick which sticker she wants to put on the paper next. It can get frustrating when she changes her mind 7 times, but it is good for her to pick.

Partially Peel the Sticker

Okay, the above picture shows the sticker a little more peeled than I normally do. But the gist is I get a bit peeled off so Mac can use her pincer grasp to peel the rest of the sticker off.

A tip I learned from Bethany at Mostly Montessori is to peel the extra sticker stuff that goes around the stickers. So instead of having to try to differentiate the sticker from the rest of the sheet, the sticker is just a bit elevated and a bit easier to grab.

Stick It Down

Let the toddler figure out how to get it off of their finger and on the paper. The first couple of times, I offered Mac some help after a little while. But now I leave her to figure it out. I have shown her how to stick down any corners that aren’t stuck down.

Once she has done this a few times and is ready for more of a challenge, I will start encouraging her to spread the stickers out.

Fine Motor Development

This is a great example of an activity that is a great precursor to writing without it being a writing activity. In order to be able to learn to write, a child needs to have their fine motor skills developed. They need to have a pincer grasp (grasping with their thumb and pointer finger) so that they can write with precision.

What Toddlers Normally Do With Stickers

The majority of toddlers don’t just sit down with a sticker tray and make a nicely thought out art piece with them. Some toddlers will pile every single sticker on top of each other in the middle of the paper. Other toddlers will put all of the stickers on the paper and then take them all back off. I guess that seems like a more natural end to the project since the emphasis in a Montessori room is putting your work away when you are finished.

Just remember that you aren’t looking for a masterpiece. This is a project that is working on fine motor skills while also allowing them to experiment creatively.

Any more tips and tricks you have when it comes to doing stickers with toddlers? Let me know!