Pre-School Art

Back in October I did a program called Easy Art, which was the inspiration for this similar version of the program. This program was all about process, not product. Like Easy Art, it was meant to be a chance for kids (ages 2-5) to get messy, be creative, and have fun! (In the newsletter, I wrote "dress for a mess.")

I had four "creative stations" set up. Then, when the kids came in, I put on some music and let them move freely around the room, from station to station, making crafts and exploring. Same format as Easy Art and tons of fun for everyone!

Here are the stations I had set up:

Watercolors

To accommodate different ages and abilities, along with the watercolor palettes, I put out sponge brushes, skinny paint brushes, and white crayons for a little wax resist fun. The white crayons went largely unused but a few parents wrote little messages for their kids to uncover and it was cute. This was probably the most "challenging" station of the bunch, but the kids really had fun and did great!

Stamping

This station was the easiest for me to set up. Kids ages 2-5 don't need anything too fancy here. I put out some big white paper, 4 stamp pads, and an assortment of rubber stamps and let the kids go wild. It was enough! Everyone had fun!

Collage

I think the collage table was consistently one of the most crowded stations of the afternoon. I put out colored construction paper (yellow and baby blue), scissors, pre-cut shapes, glue sticks, Elmers glue, a TON of assorted pom poms, and colorful pre-sticky-backed buttons. The kids really got creative here (see below). I wound up seeing a really big variety of completed projects. Some kids did lots of cutting; some kids built pom-poms up to make really neat 3D art; and some kids wound up making a lot of things that looked like happy faces. The kids spent a lot of time here. This station, again, was a total success!

Play Dough

What can I say? It's play dough. Easy to set up, fun to work with, and the only station that required a tarp on the floor below it. This was the only station where the kids didn't get to take their product home, but nobody seemed to mind-- play dough is worth it! Plus this wasn't a program meant for taking home an awesome craft, but a program meant for playing and being creative!

 

What worked least: A few years ago I let myself put "nothing" for what worked least and today, I am doing it again. This was an easy program that, despite taking a decent amount of set-up, didn't take a lot of planning, money, supplies we didn't already have on hand, or exhaustion on my part. The kids liked it and the parents liked and--what can I say besides it just worked?!

What worked best: I'd say, while again, all of this program felt like a success to me, the two "best" stations of the hour were the play dough and the collage.

Overall, this was really fun! I definitely need to do more programs like this one and Easy Art in the future.