Arts and Crafts for Preschool Children
Arts and crafts activities stimulate a preschool child's creativity and imagination as they promote physical and mental development. Preschool children develop motor skills including grasp, manipulation and coordination as they make crafts, according to the University of Illinois, which also notes links between arts education and achievement in other areas, including academic success. When selecting activities for preschoolers, choose simple crafts that involve tasks like drawing, free-form cutting and pasting.
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Coffee Filter Butterfly
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Provide each child with a coffee filter to draw on with water color markers. Demonstrate how to mist the colored filter with plain water in a spray bottle, creating a tie-dyed effect. Allow the filters to dry overnight. Help children fold the filters accordion-style, gather the filter in the center and secure it with a chenille stem folded in half, which forms the butterfly's body. Curl the ends of the chenille stem to create antennas.
Toy Boat
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Help children insert a straw into a plastic foam meat tray for the boat's mast. Show them how to cut a sail out of paper, decorate it as desired and tape it to the straw. They can add stickers or use markers to decorate the boat. Children will enjoy sailing their boats in a bathtub, swimming pool or sink.
Necklace
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Provide lengths of yarn or string for each child that have a piece of masking tape rolled on one end to facilitate lacing. Encourage them to lace tubular, uncooked pasta and/or larger ring-shaped cereal onto the string to create a necklace. It helps to tie one edible "bead" on the end of the string so the beads don't all fall off as children are stringing their necklace.
Blossoming Spring Tree
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Show children how to draw the outline of a tree (or help them with this step). Provide small squares of pink and white tissue paper for them to squish or roll into balls, dip in glue and put on the tree branches to create spring blossoms.
Paper Bag Vest
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Cut large paper bags along the seam on the back side. Cut a large circle in the bottom of the bag for the neckline and cut arm holes on the sides of the bag. Show children how to cut fringe along the bottom if they wish. Provide markers, stickers or paints so children can decorate their vests as they like. Once vests are dry, children can wear them.
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