Learning Activities: Arts & Crafts

Arts & Crafts Ideas

Doing art and craft projects is a decidedly simple way to get your child involved in developmental pursuits. Not only will she have fun, but allowing your child the freedom to create as she desires will help her gain a variety of skills beneficial to her development as a child. Your child will learn patience, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, creativity, and color recognition just to name a few. Set aside a special time for you and your child. Provide items and projects that are appropriate for her age and developmental stage. Above all, have fun!

Painting

Mix tempura paint with an equal amount of water. Freeze in ice cube trays or small paper cups. When partially frozen, place a popsicle stick in the middle. When completely frozen, paint (outside is good for this one!) using heavy paper or cardboard.

Using construction paper, drop different colors of paints on top of the paper. Take a sheet of wax paper and lay on top of the paint. Have your child twist the wax paper or smush the paint around to blend the colors. Cut out a simple paper frame to glue on the painted section when it’s dry. These can be BEAUTIFUL pictures when completed. You can use a holiday theme and match colors appropriately. For Harvest, mix up some orange, red, yellow and brown. For Spring, mix up some greens, blues and yellows on a blue background with blue frame. For Valentines Day, use red, white and some hot pink to make someone that special valentine picture. Winter can be white paint on blue paper. You can add some glitter and even a drop of silver acrylic paint to this. The options are endless. You can also create frames from different designs like butterflies, balloons, cakes, rowboats, trees and other simple designs. Have fun creating with your child!

Water color paints are an easy way to get started with painting. You can purchase an 8-color set at a drug store or make your own. Take some dry tempura paint and mix it up with water. Put it in small dip cups or ice cube trays and let dry. Then use as water colors.

You can also experiment with food colors. Put some water in baby food jars or something similar. Then gradually add the food colors, counting the drops as you go. Note when red water is pink and when it turns really red. Have some extra baby food jars nearby and mix some of the colors…what happens when you mix red with blue?

Take some of the colored water and set aside for creating dinosaur eggs. Boil a couple of eggs and let cool somewhat. Crackle them, but do not peel them. Let the eggs sit in the extra colored water in the refrigerator overnight to create dinosaur eggs. Peel them for breakfast!

Egg cartons are great to paint and create with. Paint one blue and add googly eyes and star stickers to begin an outer space theme. Paint half an egg carton and add eyes and pipe cleaner antennas to make a caterpillar. Paint each section of an egg carton a different color and when dry, play matching games with your child.

Use some fabric paint to decorate gift bags, tennis shoes or t-shirts. Add different beads, laces, ribbons, buttons or “jewels” to create a unique look.

Paint printing is a very interesting way to include your environment in your child’s fun. Take a piece of fruit, cut it in half and make a stamp pad out of it. Some other things to use are veggies, leaves, fingertips, sponges, plastic animal footprints, cookie cutters and just about anything you’d like. Take a potato and, after cutting it in half, cut out a shape on top. Use cooked spaghetti to paint with. Drag the cooked pasta through some paint and “paint” with it on a sheet of paper.

Put a piece of paper in a small tub. Put about a tablespoon of paint in a small bowl and add grapes (or marbles), and roll them around until well-coated . Pour into the tub on the paper and roll them around to create an interesting design. You can cut out a variety of shapes from different colored paper (such as stars, hearts, trees, suns, etc.) and roll the grapes on these to hang in windows or from the ceiling.

Karo syrup is fun to use as paint. Add food coloring and watch how s-l-o-w-l-y the syrup runs together. See what colors are created when they run together. This is a super sticky project, so be sure to have lots of wet rags, newspaper and aprons on hand.

Drawing

Drawing is a way for young children to gain manual dexterity and fine motor skills. Help your child by providing paper and a variety of writing tools.. Used computer paper is terrific and most businesses will donate non-confidential, used paper. Introduce your child to many different types of drawing implements by creating an “art book”. On each page, use a different method of drawing. For instance, use felt pens (thin & wide lined), ink pens of different colors, #2 drawing pencils, charcoal pencils, grease markers, fountain pens, oil pastel crayons, chalk, colored pencils, etc. (To enhance this “art book” add different types of paints (acrylic, oil, water colors, tempera, etc.)

When your child is ready, you can help her learn fine motor skills. Dot-to-dots are good ways to begin learning how to draw and cut. As she masters these beginning skills, you can add curvy lines, circles and other shapes. After your child has cut out several shapes you can glue them on a large sheet of paper and create collages. For a more advanced activity, create a picture with dots and have your child complete the drawing.

A much more important “drawing” skill is to learn how to write “my name”. Begin when your child is asking you how to draw an “A”. You can show her by example as well as by dot-to-dot. When she is ready and asking for more letters, you can help her begin to write her name. Then give her pictures, books, cereal boxes, soup cans, etc., with labels that she can reproduce. Give her a journal for keeping her “writing” in. Show her signs in the community that she can write. As long as her interest is there, keep providing her with materials.

Other Mediums

Chalk can be used dry or wet. Children like to color “hard” so use heavier paper if your child uses wet chalk. Chalk can be used to draw around puddles on the sidewalk outside.

Not only is this experience “drawing”, but can be used as an evaporation experiment for a science theme. Check this outside drawing every hour or so and draw around the puddle each time. See how much evaporation has occurred. Cover a sheet of construction paper with chalk. Then use wet Q-tips to draw over the chalk. Outside, draw your shadow!

Sculpture by using playdough or clay. Use spoons, toothpicks or other age-appropriate materials to press and mold the clay. Cookie cutters are fun also. Another great “sculpting” activity is to take 1 liter bottles and fill them with water. Freeze and cut the ice out of the bottle. Then “sculpt” the ice using screwdrivers or other age-appropriate materials.

Glue Art is messy but fun! Children seem to love to squeeze glue all over a BIG sheet of paper. You can purchase colored glues or add food coloring to your bottles. Add glitter to some of the glue and create picture frames or your own creative art work. Colored glue will dry bright and glossy. Cook some spaghetti pasta and drain well. Mix it up with some colored glue and put in a small, shallow container until it dries. Peel out and attach a ribbon or string to it and hang up in your window. Or leave out the pasta and put a thin layer of colored glue in a oatmeal lid. When dry, this makes a great sun-catcher for your window.

Popsicle sticks can be used for almost anything. Create picture frames, pot holders, planters, bird houses, mobiles or anything else you can think of. You can make a great Native American game by drawing designs on both sides of the sticks. You then toss the sticks in the air and when they land, see if any of the designs match.

Stringing pasta or cheerios is fun, as is creating your own beads to string. Use a salt-based playdough recipe to design your beads. Make sure they have big enough holes to string yarn through. Bake in your oven at 250 degrees until hard. You can then paint these with non-toxic, water-soluble acrylic paints. Note: If the string or yarn you use is too difficult to get through the holes of the beads, tape the end of the yarn tightly.

You can use the same salt-based playdough recipe to create your own magnets. Design what you’d like using tiny cookie cutters or your own imagination. Bake at 250 degrees until hard. When cool, you can paint with acrylic paints. When paint is dry, an adult can add a layer of verathane (or modgepodge–a clear crafters acrylic) to give the magnet a glossy look and seal the paint. Do this in a well-ventilated room. Get a magnet strip at a craft store and cut off a piece of magnet to fit your design. Test it on your refrigerator!