Art is one of the best ways for your preschooler to express themselves. While it may look like they are just making a mess they can actually be learning important motor skills or even something as simple as just letting things go if they make a mistake. Art will also teach your preschooler how to make a decision when they are picking out colors or what supplies to use.
In order to make the following crafts on this list your children will have to use their listening skills to follow along step by step. This is a skill your children will use throughout their life so why not let them learn it in a fun way?
The following craft ideas are pretty simple and fun to make. Most of the items used can be found around the house or they are very inexpensive if you have to buy them. Don’t be afraid to let your kids use their own imaginations and make these ideas their own and most importantly have fun!
10. Paper Plate Instruments
Make tambourines and other musical instruments from paper plates and simple decorative items! This perfect noise maker is made from basic materials and provides your preschooler with their very own musical instrument crafted from their own artistic hands!
Materials:
- Paper plates
- Beads or dried beans
- Stapler
- Markers, glitter, glue, stickers, other embellishments
9. Painting with ice
Create paintings and other works of art with ice! This opportunity enables kids to swirl paints over assorted papers to create beautifully unique designs.
Materials:
- Craft sticks or popsicle sticks
- Assorted papers
- Ice cube trays
- Liquid child-friendly paints
8. Hanging CD Ornament
Use old CDs and clean up unwanted clutter by saving this item from the trash bin and letting young children make their own sparkly works of art from it!
This fun recycling project helps kids to learn the value of recycling and provides them with a fun and entertaining experience at little to no cost.
Materials:
- Sparkly craft items like beads and sequins
- Fishing line or beading wire
- Child-safe scissors
- Craft-style glue
- Newspaper and other papers
7. Sparkle Bottles
This activity lets children make their own glittery water bottle full of sparkles and fun! Within the bottle are alphabet letters jumbled up to provide immense fun for toddlers who are trying to learn their letters.
Materials:
- Alphabet beads or shapes
- Empty water or soda bottle
- Assorted glitter colors
- Sequins and other decorations
- Water and corn syrup
- Paper sheets
- Highlighter marker
6. Blown art
This activity provides an innovative and fun new way for your toddler to perfect their artistic and painting skills. Blow painting will have your toddler giggling as he creates unique splotches and shapes in an array of vivid hues.
Materials:
- Watered-down paint for a sheer effect
- Plain paper
- Bending straws
- Spoon
- Container with sides to hold liquid in
5. Sensory Dough
Much like homemade play-dough, this recipe makes use of common household items like baby oil or cooking oils. For the ultimate in cheap and entertaining play opportunities, sensory dough will have your toddler safely entertained while they pull and squish joyfully through this non-toxic and all natural dough.
Materials:
- Baby oil – 1 cup
- Flour – 8 cups
- Plastic container
- Food colorings (assorted)
4. Colorful Rainsticks
Rainsticks are instruments that feature a hollow core and that are filled with small objects like rocks or beads to produce a variety of interesting noises and effects. Rainsticks make special noises when they are turned side to side and upside down and will have your child engrossed with the different effects they can produce with their changing hand motions.
Materials:
- Colored markers
- Cardboard tube (from empty paper towel roll)
- Aluminum foil
- Small objects like dried beans or rocks
- Masking tape
3. Waxed paper art
All children love to color, whether it be on paper, books, or even on walls! Rarely are kids presented with opportunities to draw on alternative sources such as wax paper that offers impressively different results from coloring on regular paper.
Have your toddler-aged children cut out shapes and give them markers and crayons to decorate the shapes to their heart’s content. As they watch nearby, you or another adult can carefully iron the art to create a seamless melding of bright cheery colors that you can hang up in your child’s room or elsewhere.
Materials:
- Iron (for adults)
- Wax paper
- Pencils
- Pencil sharpener
- Scissors
- Crayons
- String
2. Clothespin Caterpillars
This arts and crafts project enables your child to create their very own vibrantly hued caterpillar bug. Complete with small accessory eyes and pipe cleaner antennae, this lovable and whimsical caterpillar toy will be your young one’s favorite toy as he lovingly carries from room to room.
Assisting in promoting color recognition, and strengthening fine motor skills, this art project is both entertaining and educational.
Materials:
- Elmers-style white glue
- Colored pom-poms in a variety of sizes and colors
- Pipe cleaners for antennae
- Googly eye decorations
- Magnets
- Clothespins
1. Melted Crayons
This art project lets your kids pick out their favorite colors of crayons and lay them out in a way that looks good to them. Then they will learn about heat and how it melts the wax crayons. This project will strenthen their decision making ability as well as their fine motor skills. This is a fun craft that also looks good and is very simple to make.
Materials:
- Crayons
- Canvas
- Hair dryer
Additional ideas for awesome arts and crafts activities for your toddler-aged child!
- Tape-resistant art – Place pieces of tape on paper while children color over the paper and tape. Peel off the tape to expose uncolored areas that create a cool collage effect
- Color mixing activities – Free paint into paint-cubes within ice tray compartments and bring them outside on a hot day to see the paint streak and run and create drippy works of art that will have children enthralled
- Sponge art – Simply cut sponges into familiar shapes like circles, hearts, stars, and squares and have children dip sponges into their favorite colors and dab away to create their own sponge paint masterpiece
- Add sensory touches to any arts and crafts projects to provide a multi-sensory experience that ups the educational ante. Anything with texture (such as grains of salt and sugar, tissue paper, and flour) are great sensory additions to art work
- Shave crayons and melt them with your hairdryer as your little ones look on at awe while your crayons melt into a seamless rainbow of hues
- Try very simple cooking or preparation idea with your little ones, by letting them do simple tasks like stirring batters and carrying utensils to the sink
There are so many fun art projects for preschoolers to create and they will have so much fun that they won’t even notice that they are learning. Through the use of color, imagination, blocks, shapes, and ample opportunities for self-expression preschool is a time where a child’s brain is exposed to many of the important components of the world around them. Children can learn so much through art, self-expression, and creativity.
