Creative Art Ideas for Preschoolers (Older kids will love them too!)

Today I’m thrilled to welcome another fabulous guest blogger!  Katie writes at Gift of Curiosity, and if you’re not following her already, I hope you start today!  Katie has an master’s degree in education and a Ph.D. in child development.  She’s also incredibly creative and generous — you will find countless free printable packs on her website in addition to many creative art ideas, science fun, and much more.

Here’s Katie…

I’m Katie from Gift of Curiosity, and I’m glad to be guest posting here while Anna is enjoying some much deserved time with her new daughter. I have two preschool age children, and I try to incorporate a lot of kid-friendly arts and crafts into the work I do with them at home. But sometimes using paper and crayons gets a bit old. Today I’m sharing eight creative art ideas for preschoolers.  These will help you start doing art with your kids in new and nontraditional ways that they are sure to love. I hope you’ll find some ideas below to inspire you and your kids to get creative and to get learning!

Creative Art Ideas for Preschoolers

1. Fizzy Art

I love art, but even more than art, I really love science. Fizzy art is the ultimate way to combine art and science in one kid-friendly project.

Fizzy art requires just two simple ingredients, and you probably have both of them in your kitchen already: baking soda and vinegar. When combined, baking soda and vinegar produce a (safe) chemical reaction that bubbles and fizzes, much to the delight of children everywhere.

I’ve done several holiday-themed fizzy art projects with my kids, including St. Patrick’s fizzy painting, Christmas fizzy painting, and Valentine fizzy painting. The image below shows our St. Patrick’s magic fizzing shamrocks bubbling and fizzing with the application of the vinegar.

2. Melted Crayon Art

Melted crayon art is another great way to combine art and science. The art is in the final product that is produced. The science, on the other hand, comes from seeing solids melt at high temperatures and then solidify again as they cool. In this way, melted crayon art teaches children about states of matter.

We’ve melted crayons with a hair dryer to decorate pumpkins for Halloween. We’ve also melted crayons in the oven to make our own earth-shaped crayons for Earth Day (image below).

3. Sticky paper art

Sticky paper art is art that is created by having children stick items onto contact paper. Kids love the sticky texture of the contact paper. Sticky paper art also frees them up to be creative in a way that may not be possible with crayons or markers.

Sticky paper art can be really fun when you get creative with the kinds of objects that kids can stick on. For example, we’ve applied buttons to a large Valentine’s heart sticky wall (image below). We’ve decorated a sticky wall Christmas tree with pom poms, sequins, and miniature lights. We’ve also done a simple sticky paper snowman craft using cut out paper shapes. The possibilities with sticky art are quite endless!

4. Movement art

We all know young kids love to keep moving. Why not take advantage of your children’s need to be active by having them create some movement art in the process?

My kids have had a blast jumping and shaking bottles filled with paint for a no mess color mixing activity. They also loved painting with marbles, which involves shaking marbles in a box to create a beautiful painting (see image below).

5. Shaving cream art

If you are looking for a quick and simple way to create your own “paint,” look no further than shaving cream! Just mix shaving cream with liquid watercolors or food coloring to create your own shaving cream paint. Best of all, shaving cream art cleans up very easily, so you can apply it to the canvas of your choosing and know that clean up will be fairly simple.

My kids have enjoyed making shaving cream art in the bathtub. We’ve also done a marbleized shaving cream painting activity that not only turned out beautifully but also gave my kids a lesson in color mixing.

6. Ice art

Ice can also make a wonderful medium for doing art. Ice can be used both as a tool for doing art as well as the canvas on which children create their masterpiece! Ice art can be done anytime of the year, but it may be especially enjoyed during hot summer days when kids love to be outside.

We have used ice as a tool for doing art by making our own ice chalk. We have also used ice as a canvas by sprinkling it with salt and liquid watercolors in our hidden ice treasures activity (image below).

7. Salt art

Salt art is yet another way to combine art and science. With salt art, kids can create beautiful works of art while observing how liquids spread. Salt art actually provides children with a basic introduction to surface tension!

To do salt art, begin by laying down some glue and then sprinkle it with lots of salt. After the glue dries, shake off the excess salt. Children can then apply small drops of liquid watercolor to the dried salt and watch as the color spreads. For best results, kids should add just a little liquid watercolor at a time.

My kids and I have done two themed salt art projects, including salt art icicles and salt art fireworks (image below).

8. Stamp art

Finally, don’t rule out using plain old fashioned stamps to create some wonderful stamp art. I grew up loving stamp art, and I’ve enjoyed passing some of that experience along to my kids.

One year we made our own heart-shaped stamps for Valentine’s Day and had a blast stamping lots of different kinds of hearts. We’ve also used purchased stamps to create an underwater ocean stamp art scene.

I hope these eight ideas have provided you with inspiration to stretch your children’s art experiences further. Which type of art do you think your children would enjoy most?

Katie is the mom of two wonderful and curious kids. With a master’s degree in education and a Ph.D. in child development, she loves engaging her children in hands-on learning activities. She shares lots of educational ideas as well as printable resources at Gift of Curiosity. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

© 2014 – 2016, Anna G. All rights reserved.