Sunday, October 5, 2014

Art for Children ages 2-5 Project "A"

Introducing creativity to children at a young age is important. It is a growth pattern that shows them that there is logic in the movements they seem to want to do naturally. This is a time when they realize they can start to control the "scribbles" and make objects. It's exciting to see when they realize they can create beauty. What's important right at first is that they simply go through the process of creating. We can "model" the process to them and then they can follow along.
For those that want to "help" them make something perfect, you're missing the point. They have to be exposed to the process of creating many, many times before they may have a recognizable product.
What this is about is guiding them in the process, allowing them to feel the creativity and helping build good synaptic pathways in their developing brains. Let them get their hands dirty and FEEL what art is. Help them feel joy in everything they do. Praise is so very important at this critical time.


* Start out simple, like turning a hand print into a picture that they can recognize as an object they may have just learned about.
* Connect the art project to a lesson, song or story that you just did. (ie. 5 Little Fishies song, What do you call a bunch of fish question, or any number of stories about fish)
* Show them the connection between words and pictures. This little project could be captioned "I'm not a fish but I go to school."
* Ask them to come up with their own creature that they can make out of their hand print.
* Have plenty of googly eyes, yarn, markers, crayons and laughter on hand.


Just have fun!!