Activities

Set up easels, paint and brushes in the art center. Model various ways to move the brush across the paper and use movement and dance terms to describe your motions, such as “glide,” “sway,” “press,” “dab” and “flick.

With the assistant teacher, model how to create a painting with a friend at the easel with paint and brushes in the art center. Show them how to take turns with their strokes and colors, and talk about what they are doing.

Provide brushes, dish sponges, bath poufs or feather dusters, along with buckets of water. Take the items outside and encourage the children to “paint” a wall, sidewalk or tricycle trail.

Add building-shaped sponges to the easel in the art center. The children can use the sponges to paint a picture representing their home, center or school or other buildings in the community.

Tape a large sheet of freezer paper to the table, shiny side up. Provide fingerpaint. Encourage the children to make a group mural.

Provide white paint and two primary colors such as red and yellow in the art center. Mark off a grid of 11/2–2" squares with masking tape on white poster board.

Provide paper plates, butcher paper and paint in the art center. Red, yellow and blue are great alone but when you mix them with a friend, you can do so much more. Place butcher paper on a table for the friendship mural.

Set up a “painting class” table in the art center. After you have looked at various paintings by artists, place a vase of flowers in the middle of a table, with paper and paint the same colors as the flowers.

Set up a “painting class” table in the art center. After you have looked at various paintings by artists, place a vase of flowers in the middle of a table with paper and paint the same colors as the flowers.

Set up easels, paint and brushes in the art center. Model various ways to move the brush across the paper and use movement and dance terms to describe your motions, such as “glide,” “sway,” “press,” “dab” and “flick.

Sit on the floor with the infant, with a large piece of paper and fingerpaint (commercial or homemade). Encourage the infant to explore the paint with his/her hands and fingers while you describe how it feels and looks.

Provide ample paint and various painting tools such as brushes, feathers, cookie cutters and popsicle sticks for self-expression in the art center.

Cut easel-sized paper in the shape of large block letters in the art center. Invite the children to paint “their” letter in any way they choose. Colorful masking tape makes a great addition to easel painting.

Use round found objects such as wheels, spools, bottle caps, plastic gears and toy wheels in the art center. Encourage the children to paint with the objects by putting them in paint and rolling them on the paper.

Provide a variety of painting tools such as brushes, rollers, stamps and sponges. Show the children how to dip them into the paint and then press them on the paper. Talk about the different marks the tools make on the paper.

Place paint on paper plates. Give the children cars to roll through the paint. Make tracks on paper with the car after it is rolled through the paint.

You will need shallow box lids, marbles, paper and paint. Place the paper in the box. The children dip marbles in the paint and then on to the paper and move the box lid back and forth, tipping it to roll the marbles around.

Give the children small containers of water and some paint brushes. Encourage them to "paint" on paper or on the sidewalk.

Provide different items that have wheels and axles for the children to dip in paint and roll over paper in the art center.

During otdoor time, set up bones that have been cleaned and bleached, shovels and plastic tools in a sand box and talk about a paleontologist and the work he/she does.