Crafting Creativity: Art Projects for Preschoolers

The ages of three to five are crucial to a child’s overall development and well-being. This is when they discover foundational skills they’ll be using throughout life. And since children learn best when having fun, art is the perfect and entertaining way for them to do just that!

But before we list some fun activities your child can do, here are some awesome perks art gives kids.

How Does Art Benefit Preschoolers?

Children are the perfect canvas by which we, their teachers, can paint a fulfilling life using art as our medium. That’s because art teaches them:

• Fine motor skills. Drawing, painting, and cutting help young kids develop hand-eye coordination that they’ll need for tasks such as writing, buttoning clothes, tying laces, or handling utensils.
• Self-expression.  Through art, preschoolers can convey their emotions and imagination. These are in their use of color, familiar characters (family members, friends, pets), and storylines. Let their creativity rule and you’ll be awed by their limitless imagination!
• Academic skills. Art can teach preschoolers shapes, colors, letters and patterns, counting, and spatial recognition. Kids also learn to experiment, guess outcomes (like when mixing colors), and innovate. They also learn to listen and take instructions.
• How to stretch that attention span. Kids are quickly bored these days, even preschoolers. But art helps grab (and keep) a child’s attention through stimulating activities. They also learn goal setting and the satisfaction of achievement as they finish each project.
• Social skills. Part of the fun in some of these art projects is doing them together with your preschooler. Use that quality time to create a strong bond with your little one. These may well become a child’s core memory in life.

It’s always a win-win with art! Now let’s get started with some fantastic ideas.

Easy Art Projects for Preschoolers

Kids love drawing and painting. Let’s give these a twist for more excitement. And don’t worry about spending a lot. Be practical and use materials you can find in and out of the home.

The no-drawing game

It’s easy to create a picture using a pencil but this task doesn’t use one!

Let your child imagine a scene or object and use different materials to create it on paper. For example, an outdoor scene can use cotton as clouds, popsicle sticks for buildings and trees, leaves for plants, or felt for grass. And instead of drawing an animal, you can use yarn, string, or pieces of cloth to emulate fur. The smaller the objects to stick, the better it teaches them to improve their pincer grasp to enhance those fine motor skills.

Printing

Creating cool, colorful patterns is easy through printing. Instead of using a brush, your preschooler can use cookie cutters, cut-up fruits and vegetables, bubble wrap, sponges, styrofoam, or even cutlery! Dab your material of choice in fun, loud colors (like basics, glitters, and neons) and print away!

Tracing

Body parts work great with this one. Have your preschooler trace a hand, a fist, or a foot on paper to create funny characters. If you want to teach your child shapes and lines, you can have him trace jar covers, bottle caps, food containers, and such.

Have fun creating patterns, filling them in with color, or sticking colorful materials such as cut-up construction paper or string. A pair of googly eyes is the perfect finishing touch.

Take this up a notch with a rad self-portrait! Stick an acrylic sheet on a mirror and have your kid trace the reflection of his face using paint pens. This can be a group activity amongst kids, where the funniest face wins!

Mixing colors

You’ll need an eye dropper, a couple of palettes, mini muffin trays, lots of cotton balls, and some food coloring. The child mixes colors in the palettes and uses the eye dropper to color a cotton ball in the muffin tray cups.

Alternatively, you can use salt instead of cotton balls. Kids find it fascinating when the color spreads on the salt pile. Want something a lot cooler (literally!)? Drip those colors on snowballs instead.

Cookie or cupcake decorating

Who says art can only be expressed on paper or through crafts? Food becomes art when your child puts his creative touch on baked desserts. Relish the moment and laugh it off when your gingerbread men’s faces start to look like fish or if there’s more frosting on your kid’s hair than on the cupcake.

And who says they have to be edible? You can create a cookie or cake pillow if you have throw pillows, cases, and pieces of cloth you can use. Your child can create the design and won’t have to be hands-on when you use hot glue or a needle later. At the end of the project, your preschooler will have something to cuddle. Sweet!

Wearable art

Let your preschoolers channel their inner fashionista! Your child can get a sense of accomplishment by decorating something useful like a pair of canvas shoes, a shirt, or a backpack for school.

Based on his or her personality, you may need something sparkly (sequins, broken costume jewelry, rhinestones, glass beads), or other decorative items you have like shoe charms or pin buttons of his favorite characters. You can also draw with glitter or acrylic pens.

If you have a Cricut machine, go digital and let the child create a shirt design on his tablet. Print this on heat transfer vinyl and press it onto a blank shirt or tote bag.

Relief Rubbing Art

Got broken crayons? Use them for this color-rubbing activity!

Leaf rubbings give your preschooler an appreciation for textures and nature. But you can use anything with a relief pattern like tree barks, backsplashes, or pavement bricks.

Encourage your child to be uniquely stylish by using a variety of colors. Or he can rub the same pattern over and over again but with different colored crayons and paper. Cut these pictures up and place them side by side for that Andy Warhol effect.

Funny headdress or costume

Is your preschooler a prolific storyteller? Enhance that imagination with DIY costumes or headdresses. Let him be a pirate, a space ranger, a cowboy, a superhero, an animal, or any character of his choice for the day.

Some playtime costume ideas your child can make:

• Cut up a sleep mask to create an eye patch for your pirate, or create holes for the eyes and glue decor to create a superhero mask.
• Use old stockings and wire hangers to create fairy wings. Color and glitter them up.
• Cut out a cardboard crown and stick it to a ball cap.
• Glue cotton all over an old sleeveless shirt. Now Mary’s not the only one with a little lamb!
• Draw a superhero logo on cardboard, color it up, and have your preschooler wear it on his chest.

There are a million more art ideas and activities your preschooler can enjoy and learn from.