• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Courses
    • Teaching Every Reader
    • Teaching Every Writer
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Contact

The Measured Mom

Education resources for parents and teachers

  • Alphabet
  • Reading
    • Printable Books
    • Pre-Reading
    • Balanced Literacy
    • Phonics
    • Sight Words
    • Comprehension
    • Fluency
    • Vocabulary
  • Writing
    • Grammar
    • Handwriting
    • Spelling
    • Writing in Pre-K
    • Writing Workshop in K-3
  • Math
    • Counting
    • Number Recognition
    • Addition & Subtraction
    • Colors, Shapes & Patterns
    • Visual Discrimination
    • Time, Money & Measurement
    • Place Value
    • Graphs
    • Multiplication & Division
    • Fractions
    • Problem Solving
  • Book Lists
    • Letter of the Week
    • Early Childhood Themes
    • Pre-Reading Skills
    • Math Concepts
    • Writing Mentor Texts
    • Versions of Familiar Tales
    • Holidays and Seasonal
    • History
    • Leveled Book Lists
  • Membership
Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Alphabet
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Book Lists
  • Podcast
  • Courses
    • Teaching Every Reader
    • Teaching Every Writer
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Membership
  • Contact

PSPKK123 February 21, 2014  •  13 Comments

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

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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!

8 amazing art ideas your kids will love, including fizzy art, melted crayon art, sticky paper art, movement art, shaving cream art, ice art, salt art, and stamp art!

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.

Fizzy art - Magic fizzing shamrocks made from fizzy paint (paint and baking soda) mixed with 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).

Melted crayon art - Earth Day crayons made from melted blue and green crayons

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!

Sticky paper art - Valentine's heart sticky wall decorated with buttons on contact paper hung sticky side out

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).

Movement art - Painting with marbles in a box

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.

Shaving cream art - Marbleized shaving cream painting

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).

Ice art - "paint" ice using salt and liquid watercolors

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).

Salt art - Make your own salt fireworks in this activity that combines art and science

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.

Stamp art - use stamps to create an underwater ocean 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.

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: first grade, second grade, third grade, kindergarten

You May Also Enjoy These Posts:

Letter L Activities for PreschoolWhat is schema?Free Letter Book of Rhymes & Songs – Letter N
Books for Letter G
Books for Letter F

Reader Interactions

13 Comments

  1. PragmaticMom

    February 21, 2014 at 12:01 pm

    What a great assortment of art ideas. Pinning and tweeting!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      February 28, 2014 at 8:35 am

      Thanks so much!

      Reply to this comment
      • Katherine Whelchel

        November 5, 2020 at 5:29 am

        Hello Ann,
        I am looking for some design projects fro a couple of 4 year old girls who love to create patterns. I bough the Connect Four game which they turned into a pattern pastime, stacking the chips or creating patterns with them. I wondered if you had any of those tangram puzzles where the same pieces could be used in different ways-an expanded version of a kaleidoscope? Please respond to kathiew7contacts@gmail.com

        Reply to this comment
        • Heather Groth, Customer Support

          November 5, 2020 at 11:24 pm

          Hello Katherine! Your girls sound very creative! You can check out Anna’s post here, https://www.themeasuredmom.com/simple-ways-teach-patterns-preschoolers/, for some more pattern-making fun!

          Reply to this comment
  2. Katie @ Gift of Curiosity

    February 21, 2014 at 11:44 pm

    Thanks for giving me the opportunity to guest post and share my ideas with your readers!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      February 28, 2014 at 8:43 am

      Thank YOU for a great post and some wonderful ideas, Katie 🙂

      Reply to this comment
  3. Primary Beginnings

    February 25, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    Fabulous ideas! We love the movement art and melted crayon ideas!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      February 28, 2014 at 8:44 am

      Yes, we’re excited to try those out at our house! Gift of Curiosity has so many great open-ended art activities.

      Reply to this comment
  4. Susan @HomeschoolWithLove

    February 26, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    The Fizzy Art looks really fun! You make me wish I had young children again. Guess I’ll have to wait for grandchildren to test these out on. 😉 Thanks for sharing.

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      February 28, 2014 at 8:44 am

      Thanks so much for checking it out, Susan!

      Reply to this comment

Trackbacks

  1. 8 amazing art ideas your kids will love {guest post} » Gift of Curiosity says:
    February 25, 2014 at 5:00 am

    […] get tired of doing art with your kids? Are you stuck in an art rut? I recently did a guest post at The Measured Mom to share eight ideas for unconventional art that kids are sure to […]

    Reply to this comment
  2. St. Patrick's Day Activities & Pinning Party #25 - Teaching Mama says:
    March 6, 2014 at 4:01 am

    […] Creative Art Ideas for Preschoolers from the Measured Mom […]

    Reply to this comment
  3. Process Vs Product Art Remarkable Effect Of Art In Early Childhood | The Moms Little World says:
    July 18, 2020 at 3:43 am

    […] 1.Click the fellow Mom bloggers link to check many such art activities […]

    Reply to this comment

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Grade Level Key

  • PS Preschool (ages 2-3 years)
  • PK Pre-K (ages 4-5 years)
  • K Kindergarten
  • 1 1st grade
  • 2 2nd grade
  • 3 3rd grade

Hello, I’m Anna!

Welcome to The Measured Mom. I’m so glad you’re here!

Meet Our Team

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Shop Our Most Popular Resources

At The Measured Mom®, our mission is to share high quality educational resources that are engaging for students and easy for educators.

Letter of the Week Curriculum

$29.00

120 Print and Play Math & Literacy Games for K-2

$15.00

Mystery problem solving activities

$20.00

Shop All Resources

Members get more!

The Measured Mom Plus is the perfect online membership for Pre-K to third grade educators.

Learn More

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Join our online courses and get the tools you need to teach every learner in K-2!

Confidently teach every reader in your classroom. Still have time to live your life.

Learn More

Get everything you need to teach writing well, including over 200 ready-to-use lessons.

Learn More

Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher

Check out these recent podcast episodes:

  • The 3 Keys to teaching phonological awareness
  • 5 Important things you may not know about phonological awareness
  • How to meet every writer’s needs during writing workshop
More Episodes

Join the conversation over on Facebook! We have three separate groups for Pre-K through grade 3.

Join Facebook Group

Check out these FREE email courses...

Get strategies and tools to teach a particular topic with a free 5-day email series! Just click an image to sign up. We recommend signing up for just one at a time.

For Pre-K Educators

How to teach letters and sounds to preschoolers

How to teach letters and sounds to preschoolers

Learn my must-follow tips for teaching the alphabet in this free 5-day email series!

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

Learn how to develop this important pre-reading skill with a free 5-day email series!

How to teach preschool math

How to teach preschool math

Learn exactly what to teach your preschoolers in this free 5-day series!

For Kinder & 1st Grade Educators

How to teach kids to sound out words

How to teach kids to sound out words

Learn my top strategies for teaching kids to "sound it out"

How to teach sight words

How to teach sight words

Get strategies and tools for teaching sight words to young learners!

Tips for teaching phonics

Tips for teaching phonics

Sign up for our free 5-day email series to learn what phonics skills to teach and how to structure your phonics lessons!

For 2nd & 3rd Grade Educators

How to build reading fluency

How to build reading fluency

Learn smart strategies for helping your learners become fluent readers with this free 5-day series!

How to teach writing in 2nd & 3rd grade

How to teach writing in 2nd & 3rd grade

Learn the most important writing skills to teach to 2nd & 3rd graders in this free 5-day series!

How to build reading comprehension

How to build reading comprehension

Discover the essential reading comprehension strategies for 2nd & 3rd grade and how to teach them!

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” –Matthew 6:33

Copyright © 2021 The Measured Mom •  All rights reserved  •  Privacy & Disclosure Statement  •  Site Design by Emily White Designs