I believe most children can identify with the helpless, small, insignificant caterpillar, and they rejoice with it when it turns into a beautiful butterfly. It is an affirmation to all children. It says: I too can grow up. I too can unfold my wings and fly into the world. – Eric Carle Young children learn…
Painting
Salt Dough Ornaments
Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. ― Peg Bracken Salt Dough Ornaments make adorable little gifts! Younger children will enjoy manipulating the dough and relish the sensory feedback they are getting, especially from their tactile sense! Squishing, rolling and cutting the dough are fun activities by…
Thanksgiving Canvas Banner
Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. – William Arthur Ward For Thanksgiving we focused on themes of sharing and caring, community and compassion for each other. We practiced saying ‘thank you’, discussed how we can make each other feel good, tried to remember who helped us with…
Halloween Games and Activities
We always have much fun celebrating Halloween! Here are some of my favorite activities and games you can use with your preschoolers and kindergarteners. Face Painting Face Painting never fails to excite children, especially when they get to paint their own faces! We had much fun celebrating our strengths and special powers of who we…
Pumpkin Pour Painting
It’s pumpkin time! October is an exciting time of the year: Sweater weather, all things Halloween, songs about wind and pumpkins and lots of talk about costumes and candy. And more than enough reasons to try Pumpkin Pour Painting if you’re looking for a fun, easy, open-ended and really engaging pumpkin project for your children!…
Leaf Banners
After observing and talking about the changes outside in nature and reading various books about autumn, the children started to notice how many different leaves there are and wondered more about leaf veins and why leaves fall off the trees. Their thoughts and questions about autumn are constantly present while playing and creating. Through art projects…
Tape Resist Flowers
Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. – Hans Christian Andersen Tape-resist is a simple and fun process art technique for young children. You can create any design, make open-ended abstract masterpieces or create to a topic like we did. Materials: Watercolor Paper Painter’s Tape Liquid watercolors Thick paintbrushes…
Mother’s Day Banner
Some of my favorite art projects for young children include canvas fabric and liquid watercolors. There’s something magical about watching the watercolors bleed into the canvas and children are usually mesmerized by how beautifully the colors mix. Ever since seeing Meri Cherry’s lovely Mother’s Day Banners (head over to her website to see how they’ve…
Scrape and Squeegee Paintings
Scrape and squeegee paintings are wonderful art activites. As toddler’s are growing and searching for new experiences, they really like exploring a wide range of materials which is the perfect time to introduce squeegees, brayers, rulers, squeezing paint, and mixing colors. Art projects like this will support your toddler’s growing independence while also lending themselves…
Painting Snow
A high fun, low cost toddler activity for the winter is playing and painting with snow. This is guaranteed to hold your toddler’s attention span and will keep your children engaged for hours. Yes, seriously! Materials Snow Kitchen utensils (trays, scoops, spoons, pans etc.) Optional: Large storage container filled with snow (or better: your summer…
