DIY Paint Chip Puzzles for Kids

My preschooler loves puzzles.

And, I’m telling you, there’s nothing easier to make with a child than paint chip puzzles.  But, let’s rewind to a few months ago to when we made shape puzzles on the light table.  My daughter literally caught the puzzle bug.  Each and everyone of our puzzles started flying off the shelves first thing in the morning, which was great, but it meant that there were a lot of puzzle pieces everywhere, everyday.  A LOT. OF. PUZZLE. PIECES.  And, with a baby in the house, that was starting to get a little hairy (puzzle pieces taste great apparently…).  So, I asked my daughter if she wanted to make her OWN puzzles and she was thrilled.  All we needed was something that you can pick up for free at the hardware store…

Paint chips.  I love them, but honestly, it makes me a bit nervous to grab them at the hardware store.  I feel like a well-intentioned thief as I grab yellow, green, blue, and purple paint chips and boast about how I can’t wait to paint my walls….

But, I got over it.

Because paint chips are the best craft supply on earth and, let’s face it, they’re free for a reason.

The best part is that you’ll only need two things to make these easy paint chip puzzles.

Materials for DIY Paint Chip Puzzles for Kids

• Paint Chips
• Sharpie

How to Make DIY Paint Chip Puzzles for Kids

I started by drawing a fish on one of the paint chips.  My daughter insisted on drawing the face (which is just too cute) and then I wrote the word “FISH” underneath the picture.

After my drawings got worse (did you see the bear and giraffe?), I offered the pen to my daughter and she drew a picture of our family.

Although I cut the puzzles in different ways, my favorite is to cut along the white lines on the paint chips.  That was my daughter’s preference as well.

Note: Talking about the gradation of colors helps kids put the puzzle together and using vocabulary like lighter vs darker is a great way to boost learning

We loved making these paint chip puzzles for kids because they were so simple.

You could build in extra fine motor work by letting kids cut the puzzles up themselves!

More Fine Motor Fun from Happily Ever Mom