The arts motivate and engage children in learning, stimulate memory and facilitate understanding, enhance symbolic communication, promote relationships, and provide an avenue for building competence. – Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections, The Task Force on Children’s Learning and the Arts, 1998 We are playfully following the journey of very hungry caterpillars as they…
Ages 2+
Christmas Potato Prints
Potato Printing is one of the most simple, open-ended and playful printing techniques perfect for little hands. You can make anything from Christmas stockings, wrapping paper or wall hangings with this fun printing activity. Materials Small potatoes and a knife Packing paper and cardboard Tempera paint Tray or paper plate Scissors Tissue paper Glue stick…
Print your own Christmas Stockings
One can never have enough socks. – J.K. Rowling Are you still looking for a meaningful Christmas activity for you and your family? How about making your own stockings? This is easy to set up and leaves more than enough open-ended possibilities to create and experiment with fun printing techniques. Materials: Stockings (or you can sew…
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…
Fall Leaf Suncatchers
With October in full swing, the leaves are starting to show their last colors while the peaks are already snow capped. If you want to hold on to fall a little longer and need an idea what to do with all the leaves on the ground, this project is for you! Go on nature walks,…
Pumpkin Pour Painting
October is an exciting time of the year: Sweater weather, all things Halloween, songs about wind, falling leaves and lots of talk about costumes, candy and decorating pumpkins! Make sure to give Pour Painting a try if you’re looking for a fun, easy, open-ended and REALLY engaging pumpkin project for your children! Young children really relish the…
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. Art projects like this will support your toddler’s growing independence while also lending themselves to beautiful creations. All materials can be handled easily which will empower children to create,…
Snow Play
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…
Painting with Watercolors and Droppers
One of my favorite art activities for preschoolers is watercolor painting on paper towels and felt. Young children find it absolutely mesmerizing to watch the colors mix and love squeezing and dripping the paint with the droppers. It’s a fun and playful way to teach about colors, to develop those fine motor skills and practice…
Salt Dough Valentines
Salt Dough is simple enough for younger children to handle and offers many open-ended ways to sculpt or decorate with. In the past we have used Salt Dough to make holiday ornaments, heart magnets and necklaces as well as little sculptures. Simply provide your child with the supplies and invite them to explore and create with the…