5 Art Activities Your Preschoolers Will Love

I enjoy art projects, so as soon as my children could hold a crayon, I supplied heaps of drawing paper. Before long, they were cutting and gluing magazine pictures. I’d catch up on housework while they operated art central from the kitchen table. The following are some crafty art activities I think your preschoolers are going to love!

Homemade Modeling Clay >

This recipe for Salt Dough from First Pallette is great to keep on hand for rainy afternoons with your restless clan. Even your older kids will enjoy making decorative beads for bracelets, dishes for loose change and funky fridge magnets.

What You’ll Need:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup salt
• ½ to ¾ cup water
• Spoons or spatulas
• Measuring cups
• Mixing container
• 1 to 2 Tbsp. wallpaper paste (optional)
• Food coloring or tempera paint (optional)

Instructions:

1. In a basin, mix two cups flour and 1 cup salt.
2. The amount of water needed ranges from ½ to ¾ cup. Begin with ½ cup and add a bit more in the next step.
3. Mix and knead, adding a bit more water if the dough is too tough or dry. The resulting dough should be firm but still workable.
4. For extra cohesiveness, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of wallpaper paste to dough.
5. For color dough, add several drops of food coloring or poster paint and knead in.

I like to air-dry projects crafted with salt dough. They can be painted with craft paint and sealed with a spray varnish. Some people store leftover dough, but I prefer to make a fresh batch each time.

Sock Puppet Activity for Kids >

Gather your family’s threadbare socks and re-purpose them into Sesame Street’s sock puppet friends. Enjoy hours of imaginative fun with your preschoolers! You might even act out a favorite story with this art activity the whole family will love.

What You’ll Need:

• Old sock
• Yarn
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Markers
• Craft glue

Instructions:

Place sock over hand to determine placement of face. Make eyes out of construction paper and have child glue them on. Glue on strands of yarn for hair. Use markers to draw a nose and mouth. Put the sock over your hand and show your child how to animate his new friend.

Children’s Collage Art >

My first art experience involved blunt-tipped scissors and a magazine and ended in my first haircut! Needless to say, watch your children when they use scissors, blunt-tipped, or not.

What You’ll Need:

• Magazines
• Scissors
• Paper
• Craft glue

Instructions:

The object is to let your child cut out pictures of his choice and paste them onto a sheet of paper in a random pattern that pleases him. You can pick a theme like animals, buildings or colors to add to the challenge.

Kids’ Shape People Activity >

This clever triangle-circle clown from education.com lets preschoolers manipulate shapes to form figures. Whether it’s triangles and circles, diamonds, rectangles or squares, your children will enjoy making shapes into people to play with. I like to have the kids glue their shape people onto poster board. Then we cut out the people and mount them on tongue depressor sticks, or large craft sticks, for imaginative play.

What You’ll Need:

• Construction paper
• Craft foam
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• Poster board (optional)
• Tongue depressor sticks or large craft sticks (optional)

Instructions:

1. Before the activity, cut out circles and triangles of various sizes. A few of them should be about the size of an adult hand, some of them should be the size of an adult fist, some of them should be the size of a child’s fist, and some of them should be even smaller than that. Cut the shapes out of various materials – whatever you have handy.
2. Tell your child that you'll be making a picture of a clown using only triangles and circles. Ask your child which shape would work best for the clown’s head. Then ask which one would work best for the clown’s hat. Have her try out the combination by putting two of the largest shapes together and see if it looks like a clown’s head with a clown’s hat. Adjust as needed.
3. Help your child glue these two pieces onto a piece of construction paper or a large piece of poster board to make the clown’s head and hat.
4. Now ask your child which shapes would work best as the clown’s body. His feet? His hands? There is no right answer to these questions, but help your child arrange the pieces until she's satisfied with how her choices look, and then glue them down. Keep in mind that strings of circles may work for arms or legs.
5. Follow this same process to add two eyes, a nose and a mouth to the clown. Then help your child decorate the rest of the clown’s body with smaller circles and triangles. Voila! A circus clown made from shapes!

Leaf Rubbing Art Activity

Since I was a child, leaf rubbings have been a traditional fall craft project at our house. Take a walk through the autumn leaves, crunching and kicking them up into a crisp breeze. Along the way, collect some to bring home for this fun art activity.

What You’ll Need:

• 5 or more differently shaped autumn leaves (colorful and firm, not brown and dried)
• standard copy paper (any color)
• crayons with paper removed

Instructions:

Have children collect about 5 differently shaped leaves to bring home. Use standard copy paper (any color) and crayons with paper removed. Place a leaf beneath the paper. Using the crayon on its side, rub over the paper to bring out the leaf’s imprint. Combine leaves and use various colors for an artistic masterwork!

Enjoy art with your preschoolers, and be sure to capture the memories for always. Learn how to save your child’s artwork online, right here on Remember Stuff.com.