Thursday 26 September 2013

Easy Preschool Art Projects

By Kate Halfey


Preschoolers are always on the go, and filling up the hours can be tough for a parent or caregiver. One way to not only pass the time but do something educational is to consider some great art activities. Here are some art projects specifically geared toward the preschool set.

When it comes to art, it is wise to allow children to explore a variety of mediums. One fun option is collage. Take your child on a nature walk and have them collect twigs, leaves, rocks and pebbles. Then glue the items down on a piece of construction paper. Talk about the different textures of each of the items, such as the smoothness of a pebble or the fuzzy feeling you get when you touch some of the leaves.

Other types of collages include tear art projects. These are fun ways to celebrate various seasons or holidays, and they help children work on those fine motor skills. For example, a fun autumn or Halloween project would be to create a tear-art pumpkin. Take a large piece of paper and trace the shape of a pumpkin. Give the child pieces of orange paper, perhaps a few different shades, and have them tear the paper and then glue it inside the shape. You can add a stem and have them glue on triangle eyes and a triangle nose. Consider doing the same with a Valentine Heart, a Christmas tree or a star and maybe a big flower to celebrate spring.

One interesting endeavor would be to have your children create a large mural on a long sheet of paper. While this is fun, sometimes you will see that children tend to leave a good deal of the paper blank, unsure how to fill in every bit. A fun option instead would be to head online to ArtProjectsForKids.org and purchase and print one of their downloadable murals. These are better suited to older preschoolers, around 4 or 5 years of age. It's also a fun project if you have several children to keep them occupied as each person can tackle part of the mural.

The mural choices include nature scenes, pictures of animals and recreations of famous works of art. This includes everyone from Van Gogh to Warhol. Animal pictures, such as a whale or dinosaur are probably best for smaller children. All you have to do is download the mural and print it out. Children color each page with crayons or markers, and then you put it all back to together like a puzzle to create one single work of art.

Children tend to learn more if there is art involved. So if you wish to teach your children about a particular subject, be sure to have some cool art projects that relate to the theme. For example, an ocean theme would include having children create pictures of a jellyfish, creating a turtle out of a paper plate or perhaps designing a crab using their handprints. Don't forget to include a trip to a local aquarium if possible. A weather theme would include making a daily weather calendar, as well as having the children create pictures of the sun, clouds and rain or snow to put onto the calendar.




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