Posts Tagged ‘Preschool Art’
This is my favorite time of year and even though I have some new fall crafts to share I can’t ignore these old favorites we made in the past that may even be new to you.
Cut and Paste Indian Corn Craft
Mini Pumpkin Prints
Foam Handprint Turkey
Falling Leaves
Coffee Grinds Sensory Tub
The temperatures are tapering off. Summer has gone and Autumn is making its appearance. Whether you live where the lives change or not, this craft is the perfect way to prepare for fall and all of its splendor.
You will need construction paper, glue, sandwich/snack bag, brown marker, cotton swabs, and three colored pasta (uncooked).
You or your child can draw a rectangle on the paper for the tree trunk. Have them color it in. My 5 year old drew his own, my 3 year old just colored.
Put some dry pasta in a plastic sealed bag. I used a snack size bag, but it really doesn’t matter. You want to make sure all of the excess air is out, though.
Have your child crush the noodles. Depending on the brand, they can be difficult to crush. Having the excess air out enables you to have the option of putting the bag on the floor and stomping it, or using a plastic hammer and whacking the bag. Trust me, we have done it all. Obviously the more intense crushing you do the more likely the bag is to rip and make a mess. So just be prepared. Regular crushing (and even stomping) hasn’t ripped our bags yet.
Squeeze some glue onto the piece of paper in the general shape of a tree top. Have your child spread around the glue with the cotton swab. I squeezed glue out for my daughter, but my son did his own glue.
Now sprinkle the noodle pieces onto the glue. This is exactly like giant noodle glitter. You will need to put on a lot, let it dry, and shake off the excess.
The final product looks just like a fall tree. It will have a wide array of colors, too. This craft is great fro talking about Fall, the changing seasons, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and colors. It also is a great sensory craft.
Look at that texture! It is so much fun to run your fingers across.
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried Itby Kim
Who doesn’t love an apple craft? We have a local apple festival here and the kids go nuts for anything apple at this time. This one is made from stuff around your house and apples.
First gather your supplies. You will need one apple, red paint, chenille stem, cereal loops, marker, piece of cardboard (we used a pizza box lid), and scissors.
Take your marker and draw an apple outline on your cardboard.
Cut your apple in half and squeeze out some red paint. I removed the seeds and the stem.
Let your child start stamping away. This was so much fun!
Once your child has filled in the apple by stamping, you can let it dry. Don’t worry about paint outside of the lines. They are little and you are going to cut out the apple any way.
While the apple is drying, instruct your child to thread the cereal loops onto the chenille stem. I let my daughter do it however, but this is a great time to introduce or practice patterns.
When they are done filling up the stem with cereal, thread one last one on the end. Bend the tip around and twist to secure the last loop. This will stop the others from coming off and makes a great “head”. Can you tell it is a worm yet?
I took a pencil and poked a hole into the cardboard, but you can use whatever you have around.
Push the open end of the stem into the hole. I wrapped the end around itself and the twisted the end into the loop to secure it.
Now you have an apple with a “real” worm coming out of it. My daughter really loved the craft. She has named her worm and insisted he get buckled into the van with the rest of us. She was refusing to pose for the shot. I am sure you have had those moments, too. 
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
If you combine water balloons with art you’ll get this super fun summer activity! Right after my son turned 4 all of a sudden his finger took the shape of a gun, his pretend play switched from firefighters to police, bad guys and super heroes and my sanity got a little more fragile. I am a born pacifist so it’s taken me some time to acclimatize to bombs, blasters and such. One way that we have addressed it in our house is you guessed it, art and play. A project like this that channels the aggression and need for destruction was the answer for us. It was also fun!
- Gather your materials. You will need some water balloons, a container, a canvas, water color crayons ( or washable markers), and a kid ready to blast a few things.
- Start by coloring the canvas with water color crayons – washable markers will work too, just use darker more vibrant colors.
- Fill up some balloons.
- Go outside.
- Throw!
My son was adamant that he could throw it at it and had fun even though none of the first round of balloons hit it, although some were really close. - Dropping them worked way better!
- Check out how the canvas has changed!
- A few days later we tried adding washable marker.
- Blasted it with water “shooters”- liquid syringes since we were all out of water balloons, after I told him we could go blast some, luckily this was available and just as “cool”.
- Worked great.
- Let dry – pull out again and again, I think we are going to do this many more times for the rest of the summer. The layers of color will be so cool.
* As with every craft please make sure you only do crafts that you and your child can do safely. Broken balloons can be very dangerous for kids who are still putting things in their mouths. Please ensure all pieces are picked up and disposed of so we can all keep playing and creating. *
We love bugs and during the summer spend many late afternoons flipping over rocks and seeing what creepy crawlies scurry past. This activity is a great one for families with different abilities and ages because it’s the same supplies but everyone can participate. Of course my son had an elaborate story about an evil spider and super bee to go a long with the painting but my daughter was content with the simple task of making a mess.
- Gather your materials. You will need some plastic bugs , our little ones are from Lakeshore Learning and our big ones are from Dollar Tree. You will also need some paper , plate and paint.
- For young toddlers I would also suggest some painters tape to hold down the paper so they don’t make an even more amazingly big mess!
- Start by pouring the pain tin the plate.
- Dip your bug in and make some prints.
- My daughter was skeptical at first.
- My son not so much.
- I thought the big bugs would be sought after but both of them liked painting with the smaller ones best I think. This also let me sneak in a little exploration about big and little for my daughter.
- As well as allowing her to touch and explore the bugs we shelter her from in the garden .
- I also unintentionally let her explore cause and effect when she grabbed her gleaming white head band with a paint covered hand. Ooops. Still a few girly things to adjust to.
Books About Bugs
An Ant’s Day Off
Buzz
I Love Bugs!
