TinyStepper
Baby exploring taste-safe sensory play with cooked coloured spaghetti

Bath Wall Art

Draw on bath tiles with bath crayons or soap — a mess-free creative session that washes straight off.

Activity details

18m–3y15 minslowindoorBath Crayons

Instructions

Tiny Steps

Get ready
  • Bring bath crayons (or a small, thin piece of bar soap) to the bath.
  • Show your child how to draw on the tiles by making a simple mark: 'Look — I can draw on the wall!'
  1. Bring bath crayons (or a small, thin piece of bar soap) to the bath.
  2. Show your child how to draw on the tiles by making a simple mark: 'Look — I can draw on the wall!'
  3. Let them explore freely — scribbles, dots, lines, anything goes.
  4. Narrate what you see: 'You made a long wiggly line! It goes all the way across!'
  5. Draw alongside them: make simple shapes (circle, square, wavy line) and name them.
  6. Play a copying game: 'Can you draw a circle like mine?'
  7. For older toddlers, draw a face together: 'Two eyes... a nose... a big smiley mouth!'
  8. At the end, let your child wash the art away with a flannel or splash of water — the erasing is half the fun.

Parent tip

Set out bath crayons before inviting your toddler in so the first minute feels smooth.

Toddler sitting back from a sensory tray looking calm and satisfied after focused play

What success looks like

Watch for focused exploration — fingers digging in, pouring back and forth, or sorting by feel. Even a few minutes of this builds concentration.

Hand your toddler a bath crayon (or a thin sliver of soap) and let them draw on the bath tiles. The smooth, vertical surface feels completely different from paper, and the knowledge that everything washes off removes all pressure to get it right. Scribbles, circles, faces, stripes — whatever emerges is celebrated. You narrate what they create: 'You drew a big circle! And now lines coming out — is that a sun?' The combination of warm water, creative freedom, and descriptive narration turns the last ten minutes of bath time from a chore into a highlight.

Why it helps

Drawing on a vertical surface develops shoulder stability and wrist extension — the same upper-body control needed for writing at a desk later. The EYFS Expressive Arts and Design area identifies mark-making as a precursor to early writing, and doing it in a consequence-free environment (everything washes off) encourages experimentation and builds creative confidence. The narration element strengthens vocabulary by linking descriptive words to the child's own creations.

Variations

  • Use different coloured bath crayons and talk about the colours: 'Which colour do you want next? The blue one!'
  • For early walkers who are not yet drawing, let them make handprints on steamy tiles or drag a wet flannel across your drawings to erase them.
  • Draw simple outlines (a house, a tree, a cat) and let your toddler colour them in — bath-time colouring book.

Safety tips

  • Use only bath crayons or soap specifically designed for this purpose — regular crayons or markers may stain tiles or contain ingredients unsafe for bath use.
  • Supervise closely to ensure your child does not put bath crayons in their mouth — while most are non-toxic, they are not designed to be eaten.
  • Test bath crayons on a small tile area first to check they wash off your specific tiles without staining.