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Preschool Standards by Gera Jacobs and Kathy Krowley, “Through the arts, children learn to express themselves and discover that they can represent their thoughts and ideas through many different media. The arts help children develop the concept that one thing can represent an idea…Art assists children in making meaning of their world”.  Art nurtures creativity.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to promote creative development by providing art activities that explore media and materials and encourage imagination.

This Valentine’s Day craft is an excellent example of an activity that provides the opportunity to for expression, to encourage spontaneity in material usage, and to introduce children to textured materials.

This lesson plan includes a materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity to make childcare jobs easier, but also the age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.

Valentine’s Day Card Holder Materials

Paper plates
Red and pink paint
Glitter
Markers
Embellishments such as pieces of Valentine’s Day themed wrapping paper, old Valentine ’s Day cards, etc.
Yarn
Stapler
Glue

Activity Preparation

• Cover a table with butcher paper
• Place all materials on the table

Procedures for Valentine’s Day Activity

1. Invite the children over and tell them that you are going to make a mailbox for Valentine’s Day cards.
2. Cut 1/2 off of one paper plate. Put them together to create a pocket.
3. Show children how to glue plates together to secure the holder.
4. Let children paint the card holder with paint and glitter. Allow to dry.
5. Encourage children to decorate the holder with embellishments.
6. Staple a loop of yarn to the top of the holder.

Valentine’s Day Holder Craft Objectives

Objective 1

To provide the opportunity for expressive activities by encouraging the children to create a Valentine’s Day Card holder
Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to make Valentine’s Day card holders!
Verbal Cue B: Would you like to decorate the card holder?

Objective 2

To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to choose the designs for the Valentine’s Day change holder.

Verbal Cue A: Which would you like to use to decorate your card holder?  �
Verbal Cue B: I like how you are designing your card holder!

Objective 3

To promote the sharing of art materials to foster social interaction and cooperation
Verbal Cue A: Let’s take turns using the paint.
Verbal Cue B: Can you pass the stickers to Karen?

Kids will have great fun in your childcare center making something unqiue and functional while exploring materials and textures.

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Early learning goals for toddlers include creative development. “The creative arts, including music, movement, dramatic play, puppetry, painting, sculpture, and drawing, are a crucial part of early childhood. Not only do the arts allow children to express themselves, but creative activity can enhance development of children’s skills in literacy, science, math, social studies, and more” according to “Spotlight on Young Children and the Creative Arts” by Derry Koralek [NAEYC, 2005]. Art, therefore, nurtures creativity.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to promote creative development by providing art activities that explore media and materials and encourage imagination.

This Valentine’s Day mobile craft is an excellent example of an activity that provides the opportunity to for expression, to encourage spontaneity in material usage, and to introduce children to textured materials.

This lesson plan includes a materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity to make childcare jobs easier, but also the age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.

Valentine’s Day Mobile Materials List

Red Tempura paint
White Tempura paint
White construction paper or poster board
Paint brushes

Plastic clothes hanger

Butcher paper

Hole punch

String

Scissors

Activity Preparation:

• Cover the table with butcher paper
• Mix some of the red and white paint to create pink paint
• Cut string in various lengths
• Place all materials on the table

Procedures for Valentine’s Day Mobile

1. Invite the children over and tell that you are going to take make a beautiful valentine’s day mobile
2. Show children how to cut out hearts from the white paper.
3. After the hearts have dried, punch a hole in the top of the heart put strings through the holes
4. Tie hearts onto the hangers.

Valentine’s Day Mobile Lesson Objectives

Objective 1

To provide the opportunity for expressive activities by encouraging the children to create hearts out of paper

Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to make Valentine’s Day hearts!

Verbal Cue B: Would you like to cut hearts out of paper and paint them?

Objective 2

To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to choose paint colors or to combine colors.

Verbal Cue A: Which color would you like to use first?

Verbal Cue B: I like the way you are mixing your colors!

Objective 3

To promote the sharing of art materials to foster social interaction and cooperation

Verbal Cue A: Let’s take turns using the paint.

Verbal Cue B: Can you let John use the pink paint?

Kids will have great fun in your childcare center while learning important cognitive skills: sorting and classification.

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Earth Day, celebrated on April 22, was created to promote awareness and appreciation for the Earth and its environment. Celebrate Earth Day in your childcare center with this simple creative arts craft, Earth Art. Early learning goals for preschool age children involve creative development.

According to Art and Creative Development for Young Children by Schirrmacher and Fox [Delmar Cengage Learning, 2008], “Creative expression fosters emotional development and positive mental health by validating the uniqueness of the individual…Creativity fosters success and mastery since there is no one right way involved…Children feel worthy and confident knowing that they can have an effect on their environment”.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to foster creative development in young children by providing art activities that explore media and materials and encourage imagination.

Earth Art activity is an outstanding illustration of a creative activity that provides the opportunity for expression and promotes spontaneity in material usage. It is also a great way to introduce children to textured materials.

This lesson contains the materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity. The age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning are also included.

Earth Art Materials List

• Sturdy white paper or poster board
• Blue tempura paint
• Turquoise tempura paint
• Green tempura paint
• Sponges
• Paper towels
• Butcher paper

Activity Preparation:

Cover the table with butcher paper to protect it. For each child, cut a large circle from white paper.  Place paper, paint and sponges on the table.

Procedures for Earth Art Activity

1. Invite the children over and tell that you are going to create a colorful earth using paint.
2. Encourage children to dip their sponges in the different colors of paint and mix the colors on the paper.
3. Next crumble paper towels and blot the earth art for a textured effect.

Earth Art Lesson Objectives

Objective 1

To provide the opportunity for expressive activities through the earth art activity by encouraging the children to create designs using paint.

Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to make a smaller version of earth!

Verbal Cue B: Let use paint to make a design.

Objective 2

To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to choose colors or to blend the colors they choose

Verbal Cue A: Which color would you like to use first? You can choose blue, green or turquoise.

Verbal Cue B: I like the way you are mixing your colors!

Objective 3

To promote the sharing of art materials to foster social interaction and cooperation

Verbal Cue A: Let’s take turns using the paint.

Verbal Cue B: Can you let Joey use the blue paint?

Earth Art is an enjoyable, creative activity that children in preschool and daycare centers ages 3 and older will certainly enjoy.

Earth Art activity adapted from “Earths” activity on the Preschool Education website.

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Early learning goals for preschool age children involve creative development.

According to Art and Creative Development for Young Children by Schirrmacher and Fox [Delmar Cengage Learning, 2008], “Creative expression fosters emotional development and positive mental health by validating the uniqueness of the individual…Creativity fosters success and mastery since there is no one right way involved…children feel worthy and confident knowing that they can have an effect on their environment”.

Preschool teachers and daycare providers have the opportunity to foster creative development in young children by providing art activities that explore media and materials and encourage imagination.

Crayon Melt Art is an outstanding illustration of a creative activity that provides the opportunity for expression and promotes spontaneity in material usage. It is also a great way to introduce children to textured materials.

This lesson contains the materials list, preparation instructions and procedures for this activity. The age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning are also included.

Crayon Melt Art Materials List

• Electric Griddle
• Aluminum foil
• Old crayons
• Blank sheets of paper
• Oven mitts
• Damp Cloth

Activity Preparation:

Cover the electric griddle with aluminum foil to protect it.  Cover table with butcher paper and place paper and crayons on the table. Set the griddle on low to warm it.

Procedures for Crayon Melt Activity

This activity requires close adult supervision!!

1. Invite the children over and tell that you are going to take turns making colorful designs by melting crayons.
2. Invite one child over and let them carefully draw a pattern on the foil with crayons. The crayons will melt and create colorful designs.
3. With oven mitts on, place a sheet of paper over the crayon design and carefully smooth the paper down.
4. Lift the paper off. The design will transfer onto the paper.
5. Using a damp cloth, wipe the foil clean and invite another child over to participate in the activity.

Crayon Melts Art Lesson Objectives

Objective 1

To provide the opportunity for expressive activities through the crayon melt activity by encouraging the children to create designs using crayons.

Verbal Cue A: Today we are going to make crayon melts!

Verbal Cue B: you can use the crayons to make a design.

Objective 2

To encourage spontaneity in material usage by allowing the children to choose colors or to blend the colors they choose

Verbal Cue A: Which color would you like to use first?

Verbal Cue B: I like the way you are mixing your colors!

Objective 3

To promote the sharing of art materials to foster social interaction and cooperation

Verbal Cue A: Let’s take turns using crayons.

Verbal Cue B: Can you let Bill use the red crayon?

Crayon Melts is a enjoyable, creative activity that children in preschool and child care centers ages 3 and older will certainly enjoy. While it is a creative activity, it is also great for developing motor skills. 

Crayon Melt Art activity adapted from: Kuffner, Patricia. Preschooler’s Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities To Occupy 3-6 Year Olds [Meadowbrook, 1998].

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Children are always so enthusiastic to learn. At this stage, their learning abilities are at a maximum this is why parents should take advantage of this. You child is still willing to grasp new ideas and skills that they may find to be useful in the future. It is important that you come up with activities that will be both fun and effective for your child. Children learn best when they are having fun so you need to be as creative as possible. You can incorporate in your daily activities lessons in numbers, reading, writing, drawing, history and even science.

Crafts are one activity that your child may enjoy doing. This enhances the creative mind of your child. It is now up to you how you are going to incorporate lessons in this activity. This is the perfect choice if you want your child to enjoy as well as learn. This can be something which you and your child can enjoy together. Remember that what is important is that your child is learning from these and not to come up with the perfect output.

With so many choices, it may be difficult for you to choose one. It is highly recommended that you have a lesson plan and depending on the lesson for the day, you can now pick up your craft sets in toy stores and teach your children how to learn the fun way!

Puppet shows are one of the most enjoyable learning methods of children. You can teach them how to make their own puppet and play with them afterwards. Choose a theme or storyline from their favourite show and you can play with the puppets and imagine that they are the real thing. This will really allow your child to use their creativity in making puppets. One more thing is that they will learn how to be resourceful. They will learn that they can use sock for puppets and even buttons for eyes. Your child will learn a lot from this activity.

Play dough has been one of the most popular choices for parents. Almost everyone you know have played with this. All you need when playing with clay is your imagination. You can teach children how to make animals, people, shapes and numbers using play dough. The children can work in groups and come up with a whole set of animals or a village. This is an enjoyable activity for your child since they can mold anything that they like, in any color that they want. You can play guessing games by molding a shape and ask your child what you have molded. This will allow your child to discover new things through pay dough.

Cooking is a fun activity that you can teach your child. The easiest way that your child can enjoy cooking is through baking. You can bake your child’s favourite cake, cookies, cupcakes, muffin and almost anything. You can teach your child how to mix the batter and pour them in the pans. But cooking does not stop there. You can buy decorating materials for the cake. You can buy colored icing and flowers made out of sugar which you can use to decorate a cake. You can put different designs on the cake which will make it more enjoyable to eat.

In baking cookies, you can use various shapes on cookie cutters which will be make cookies more fun to eat. You can also make crafts like designing cookie jars where you will out your cookies after baking. You can teach them how to draw simple things on the jars which they will remember everytime they get a cookie.

Playing outdoors have always been one of the things that children enjoy doing. Crafts are usually done indoor which may bore your child. It is important to have some fresh air once in a while. One activity that you can teach your child that can e dine outdoors is gardening. Teach your child how to plant, make flowerpots and even garden bins. At this point, your child may have established a favourite flower, fruit or vegetable. You can buy seeds and team up so that you can plant together, dig the sand, place the seed and cover it with soil. You can teach your child to be responsible by checking up on the plant from time to time and watering them based on the schedule. You can also plant in pots where you can put designs like a face where the hair is the grass that is growing. There are countless of options that you may take when it come to gardening.

Making scrapbooks is one craft that your child will surely enjoy. You can but a blank scrapbook which you can decorate from scratch. Let your child pick pictures which they like or remember to have a good memory with. These are the pictures which you can place in the scrapbook. Your child can practice his writing, coloring and even designing. They can incorporate colors which complement each other and designs with a theme. You can have fun reminiscing these moments with your child.

There are so many crafts from which you can choose from. You just need to be creative in coming up with an activity for you and your child. Make sure that you are able to teach your child the importance of doing the activity so that they will not only enjoy to learn but they will also enjoy the activity.

Children love to learn in a creative way so make sure that whatever you are doing, your child is interested in this. They will be willing to learn if they are enjoying what they are doing. Make sure that you are doing a craft that is age-appropriate that will allow them to learn from these. Remember that crafting is more than just a hobby or a past time, it is something which you can use to teach your child certain skills which they can further develop when they grow up.

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It is important to teach children the letters of the alphabet because this serves as building block for learning to read and other early education milestones. But even if the children already know their alphabet, it is needed that they are still regularly reminded and challenged with the letters in various order.

It is effective to find a way to teach the child that is both effective and fun. You do not need to buy flashcards or expensive educational tools as long as you make learning fun, enjoyable and friendly, then, there is an effective daycare education.

This effective daycare learning can be done with three simple methods: see it, say it, and experience it. First, you need to let the child see the letters – both in order and out of order. Then you must say the letter and he has to say it too. Finally, he must use his senses to experience the alphabet in order for him to really understand the letters. You can use food and crafts to help the child experience the letters of the alphabet. Whit this, he can see and create the shapes in three dimensions as well as eating food which either starts with the chosen letter or is in the shape of the letter.

Example of this is by letting the child munch on carrots and candy while gluing cotton balls into the shape of letter C. or maybe, he has to blow bubbles or glue beans in the shape of B while eating banana split.

You can also prepare snacks that start with some letters. W snacks such as waffles, whipped cream, and watermelon; Y snacks which can be yogurt, yellow cake, or yeast rolls; and Z snacks like zucchini bread, Zesta crackers, and Zwieback toast.

Three dimensional art projects are also enjoyable and exciting to do. It could be kite strings beans for K; leaves, lace lima beans lids letter stamps, and shoe laces for L; and for M can be play money, material, macaroni, and moon shapes.

You will be surprised that there are many ways that you can teach your child the alphabet and once you have started looking around your house and outside like in grocery store. Always remember that you just have to be creative and let your child’s wild imagination explore and roam in your kitchen or around the house for the available craft supplies he can use.

As you can see, teaching your child to read and preparing him for his future education should not be difficult, boring, or expensive. It has to be fun and filled with excitement for him to enjoy fully while learning. You will also find it easy if you will use the world around you by using the foods and crafts available in your house.

See: How to start a daycare center

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