# Animal Resist Painting
> Glue a paper animal cut-out onto half a sheet of cardstock, paint all over it with a fat brush, then peel the animal off to reveal a clean white silhouette. Once dry, draw in the animal's habitat and food, and talk about where each animal lives and what it eats.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/animal-resist-painting/
- Ages: 2–5 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: medium
- Time: prep 20 min, activity 20 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class
- Skills: fine-motor, process-art, animals-and-habitats, vocabulary, colors
- Cautions: ingestion-risk

## Materials (one batch)
- 4 sheet Cardstock, cut into half sheets
- Printed animal outlines, cut out (household)
- 1 piece Scissors (household)
- Glue
- Kids' paint
- 1 piece Fat paintbrush
- Markers (optional)
- Play dough cutters (as stencils) (optional)
- Stickers and sequins (optional)

## Substitutions
- Instead of animal cutouts: Play dough cutters held down as stencils (The author started this way but found printed cut-outs worked much better.)
- Instead of animal cutouts: Shapes cut from removable labels on watercolor paper, painted with liquid watercolor (Reader tip. Let the paint dry completely before peeling (a hairdryer speeds it up). The reader says labels stick if peeled while wet.)

## Safety
- An adult does all the cutting with scissors.
- Use washable, non-toxic kids' paint and glue, and supervise toddlers closely. Paint and glue are not for mouths.
- Expect vigorous painting and splattering. Cover the table and dress kids for mess.
- Sequins and small stickers (birthday-card extension) are choking hazards for toddlers. Supervise closely or skip them for little ones.

## Before you start
- Cut the cardstock sheets in half.
- Print animal outlines and cut them out.
- Cover the table and set out paint and fat brushes.

## Steps
1. Pick an animal cut-out and say its name and the sound it makes.
2. Spread glue on the back of the cut-out.
3. Stick the animal onto a half sheet of cardstock and press it flat.
4. Paint all over the paper with a fat brush, right over and around the animal.
5. Peel off the cut-out right away to reveal the white animal.
6. Let the painting dry.
7. Draw in where the animal lives and what it eats, like grass for the rabbit or fish for the duck.
8. Choose a new animal and make another one.

## Tips
- We started with the play dough stencils and soon realized that regular printables worked much better.
- Peel off the cut-out immediately. It comes off without any trouble.
- I didn't expect them to turn out clean, but the printables were surprisingly easy to peel off. Half a sheet of cardstock doesn't take long to finish painting.
- Talk about where each animal lives and what it eats while you paint. Baby A repeated the animal names over and over and made the animal noises.
- Our toddler chose her own colors, but you could also pick a background color that suits each animal.
- It is NOT EASY making art with a toddler, because co-operative toddlers are very hard to come by! Expect a "one more" instead of a tada! moment.
- Using removable labels instead? Let the paint dry completely before peeling, or use a hairdryer if you're in a hurry. Peeled while wet, they stick. (from readers)
- A special education teacher planned to adapt it for a general education art class, painting over different textures for texture work. (from readers)

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2012)

Today I wanted Baby A to be the lead mess maker of this animal resist painting project. While Big A was away, mom and baby buckled down with something we both love – PAINT. I’m introducing brushes to Baby A.I cut 4 cardstock paper into halves and made 8 individual pieces to work on.

 We started with the play doh stencils and soon realized that regular printable worked much better. Anyway, mom picked out a few resist art animals to add to the fun element and to create more interest in wildlife with babyA. While I held on to the animal stencil, baby A started painting, might I add vigorously around the stencil. Once I removed the stencil I thought she would have a tada! moment. She looked at it and said “one more” Bummer!


Baby repeated the names of the animals over and over while making corresponding animal noises. Mom and baby had an amazing uninterrupted conversation while making art. I just talked to her about where each animal lives and what it eats. I’m not sure if anything got into her amidst the vigorous painting and splattering. Love one-on-one with kids. Makes me feel like a much better mother. We tried a couple of more stencil art.


Soon Baby A wanted new resist art animals – a duck and a rabbit. The stencil looked miserable and so I just cut out the image from an outline printable. Baby worked her fine motor skills and process learning skills, by applying glue on the back and then sticking them on the cardstock paper. Once the animal is stuck on the card stock, it shouldn’t take long for the kid with a fat brush to fill up the cardstock paper with paint.



 Peel off the cut out immediately. It comes off without any trouble. That’s it you got your own animal resist painting. We made a bunch more.







 Once they dried, I added habitat and diet details. Unlike us (with a toddler who chose the colors she wanted to use) you could also do a nice job and choose appropriate background colors for each animal Here is the final line up of all our color resist art animals.

 I realized it is NOT EASY making art with a toddler because co-operative toddlers are very hard to come by! Made me want to do more toddler activities. Ways to extend this activity 1. Once dried, you have an older sibling to add details to the card. For example, add flowers for the butterfly and talk about where each animal lives and what they eat. Add fish to the bear art..You get the point. 2. Convert it into a birthday card for another person. Glam it up with stickers, sequins, whatever catches the kid’s fancy.

**Thanks for reading**

**Happy Sharing**