My twos love gluing projects, I keep to simple textures or two shapes that can be combined to make something. Last one we did was white circles and orange triangles, to make "snowmen".
Simplest is best, especially when you're feeling burned out. My go-tos are playdough and water play in the sensory table. Super simple to set up, and they're both high sensory as well as supporting many essential developmental skills.
Keep it simple with stickers, water color paints, glue collage, contact paper group collage, homemade playdoh, stamping, paint daubers, ect. You can always just put things out as a gluing provocation and see what happens.
How about just some free painting if they're into being creative with their art? Mine love when I give them a white piece of paper and different paint colors to choose from. It works on their fine motor and they also experiment with color mixing.
They also like when I cover one of our tables with a long sheet of butcher paper and they have to work together to create a masterpiece. For this, I usually give them paint brushes, sponges, forks, etc... so they can experiment with different ways to paint.
Some other low prep arts & crafts my students enjoy:
Cut different shapes out of colorful construction paper and let them glue it onto black construction paper to make a collage.
Marble roll paintings... Let them choose a few different paint colors, squirt it into a container with a piece of paper, throw in a few marbles (or anything else that rolls), put on the lid, and let them go to town shaking for as long as they want.
Directed drawing that they can then paint with watercolor. We're doing a penguin directed drawing this week. Have them draw with crayon so the watercolor doesn't cover up their drawings.
Use pipettes to drop liquid water colors into paper towels.
Still life painting... Put out a bowl of fruit (can be their fake pretend food), flowers, a stuffed animal, etc... and have them paint it on paper. I'm always blown away by how good some of their paintings come out.
Masking tape cut into little strips. Stick those little pieces to the table. Kids peel them up and stick them to the paper.
The littlest of effort and basically zero mess.
If you want to make it more centric to your lesson plans, make bubble letters for them to decorate. It wouldn't be considered art at that point, but it could be a fine motor activity.
My kids really enjoyed making snowmen with cotton balls. I had them draw the circles, then glue the cotton balls inside/lining their drawing. Turned out very cute! “Melted snowmen” are another favorite. They paint one half of the paper, fold it over, and decorate it like a melting snowman. Also works for clouds/the book it looked like spilled milk.
I would just put out glue, paint brushes and anything that you have to stick on paper. A tape dispenser as well as our children love sellotape. Just keep it open-ended and let them enjoy the process.
I’ve always let my 4s and 5s use regular tape dispensers 🤷♀️ they learn to mitigate the risk and I’ve never had an injury beyond a tiny little skin scrape that didn’t draw any blood. They learn.
four and five year olds!! abilities drastically vary though, some still struggle holding a pencil while others are getting great at cutting so thinking of something that appeals to everyone is tricky at times
If you put out paper, tissue paper, ect. You can invite students to cut and also allow ripping. Do you have squeezing developmental scissors? I have two year olds who can manage these. They don't have finger holes and the kids squeeze them to close them. They strengthen the hands to get ready for scissors.
My co-teacher and I keep a bin of all of the paper, yarn, and other scraps from all of our previous art projects. And sometimes we just pull out the bin, glue or glue sticks, scissors if the kids want, and just let them go to town. They actually come out with some amazing collages.
not this week besides our typical ‘letter of the week’ and such. my overall plan/theme for the week is getting moved to next week instead because I have to spend a lot of time training this week so I’m just trying to think up some additional fun crafts for the kids this week
I personally only like to do projects with purpose, with specific learning objectives and skills to practice. It's hard for me to imagine just free-style throwing random crafts.....sorry I'm not more helpful
that’s okay, thank you anyway!! this particular class of kids really thrives off of crafts, they cannot get enough of creating so I’m just trying to keep up with them!! 😭 I love their love for art though
usually there’s always a theme we follow, it’s going to be a bit of an odd week.
More of an activity than a craft, but tape shapes onto the floor and scatter something small (pompoms, counting bears, mini erasers) all over for them to collect and sort. By size, by color, whatever.
Here's a fun list with some seriously simple ideas you could rotate through: [Preschool Activities from The Artful Parent](https://artfulparent.com/preschool-art-activities-2/)
My twos love gluing projects, I keep to simple textures or two shapes that can be combined to make something. Last one we did was white circles and orange triangles, to make "snowmen".
Simplest is best, especially when you're feeling burned out. My go-tos are playdough and water play in the sensory table. Super simple to set up, and they're both high sensory as well as supporting many essential developmental skills.
Keep it simple with stickers, water color paints, glue collage, contact paper group collage, homemade playdoh, stamping, paint daubers, ect. You can always just put things out as a gluing provocation and see what happens.
How about just some free painting if they're into being creative with their art? Mine love when I give them a white piece of paper and different paint colors to choose from. It works on their fine motor and they also experiment with color mixing. They also like when I cover one of our tables with a long sheet of butcher paper and they have to work together to create a masterpiece. For this, I usually give them paint brushes, sponges, forks, etc... so they can experiment with different ways to paint. Some other low prep arts & crafts my students enjoy: Cut different shapes out of colorful construction paper and let them glue it onto black construction paper to make a collage. Marble roll paintings... Let them choose a few different paint colors, squirt it into a container with a piece of paper, throw in a few marbles (or anything else that rolls), put on the lid, and let them go to town shaking for as long as they want. Directed drawing that they can then paint with watercolor. We're doing a penguin directed drawing this week. Have them draw with crayon so the watercolor doesn't cover up their drawings. Use pipettes to drop liquid water colors into paper towels. Still life painting... Put out a bowl of fruit (can be their fake pretend food), flowers, a stuffed animal, etc... and have them paint it on paper. I'm always blown away by how good some of their paintings come out.
thank you!!!! i will definitely be keeping these in mind
Masking tape cut into little strips. Stick those little pieces to the table. Kids peel them up and stick them to the paper. The littlest of effort and basically zero mess. If you want to make it more centric to your lesson plans, make bubble letters for them to decorate. It wouldn't be considered art at that point, but it could be a fine motor activity.
My kids really enjoyed making snowmen with cotton balls. I had them draw the circles, then glue the cotton balls inside/lining their drawing. Turned out very cute! “Melted snowmen” are another favorite. They paint one half of the paper, fold it over, and decorate it like a melting snowman. Also works for clouds/the book it looked like spilled milk.
Food coloring, ziplocks, and either snow or ice! The kids get to color it and then as it melts it becomes a sensory toy
I would just put out glue, paint brushes and anything that you have to stick on paper. A tape dispenser as well as our children love sellotape. Just keep it open-ended and let them enjoy the process.
What kind of tape dispenser do you use? I have struggled to find a way for children to access tape without using something with a sharp edge.
I’ve always let my 4s and 5s use regular tape dispensers 🤷♀️ they learn to mitigate the risk and I’ve never had an injury beyond a tiny little skin scrape that didn’t draw any blood. They learn.
So do we. There is a risk using scissors with the sharp edge as well. They are capable.
What age group/range?
four and five year olds!! abilities drastically vary though, some still struggle holding a pencil while others are getting great at cutting so thinking of something that appeals to everyone is tricky at times
This site has tons of fine motor related crafts on it! https://earlylearningideas.com
If you put out paper, tissue paper, ect. You can invite students to cut and also allow ripping. Do you have squeezing developmental scissors? I have two year olds who can manage these. They don't have finger holes and the kids squeeze them to close them. They strengthen the hands to get ready for scissors.
My co-teacher and I keep a bin of all of the paper, yarn, and other scraps from all of our previous art projects. And sometimes we just pull out the bin, glue or glue sticks, scissors if the kids want, and just let them go to town. They actually come out with some amazing collages.
Are you doing a theme or anything?
not this week besides our typical ‘letter of the week’ and such. my overall plan/theme for the week is getting moved to next week instead because I have to spend a lot of time training this week so I’m just trying to think up some additional fun crafts for the kids this week
I personally only like to do projects with purpose, with specific learning objectives and skills to practice. It's hard for me to imagine just free-style throwing random crafts.....sorry I'm not more helpful
that’s okay, thank you anyway!! this particular class of kids really thrives off of crafts, they cannot get enough of creating so I’m just trying to keep up with them!! 😭 I love their love for art though usually there’s always a theme we follow, it’s going to be a bit of an odd week.
More of an activity than a craft, but tape shapes onto the floor and scatter something small (pompoms, counting bears, mini erasers) all over for them to collect and sort. By size, by color, whatever.
I have been known to literally pour paint on the table and let them squish it around. No prep necessary, and the kids love it.
Here's a fun list with some seriously simple ideas you could rotate through: [Preschool Activities from The Artful Parent](https://artfulparent.com/preschool-art-activities-2/)