5 Ways to Integrate Arts and Crafts in Your Daily Preschool Activities

Preschool Arts & Crafts Activities

Preschoolers are a fun group to teach; they are curious about what is going on around them and they are eager to learn. These little guys and gals learn so much from hands on activities at this age; it is easy to include an art or craft into the lesson plan. Preschool arts and crafts are a whole new level of learning for these youngsters.

Many teachers want to include hands on activities to aid in learning a specific topic. A themed study is an easy way to include an art or craft. For example, a study on transportation could include having a helicopter day. On this day, coloring pages with the letter “H” and a helicopter could be used. Allowing the children to make a paper helicopter with a moveable rotor is an easy project.

Teaching basic phonics and numbers can include an art page whether it is using paint, colored rice or grits glued to the page. For History and the study of the flag, little ones can paint a flag on card stock. For Science, allowing children to plant grass seeds in a cup and caring for them until they are sprouted allows the child to see how things grow.

Teaching children to love books and reading is something that most teachers try to instill in their students. Stories like Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty and making a craft of finger puppets or Little Mice Tales and making a collage are just a few ideas on adding art to help in learning.

While preschoolers are learning the basics, fine motor skills and cognitive development cannot be overlooked.  Little fingers and hands need to be strengthened; playing with play dough helps in teaching the correct way to hold a pencil. Cutting straight and curved lines on paper helps children in learning how to use scissors.

Cognitive development helps later on in recognizing shapes, colors, letters, numbers, and with reading. Activities to boost this development include matching colors and shapes, stringing different colored beads or pasta, and sorting using colored sorters, beans or pennies. Learning the difference between large and small items can be taught with different colored construction paper being glued onto another page labeled large and small.

When facing the decision of including arts and crafts in the preschool area go with simple, non-time consuming activities. Children love to create and they can learn from the simplest activity.

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