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 Roller Print Art 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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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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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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