painting activities

Some Handy Ideas for Kindergarten Readiness: Painting

Kids love using their hands to paint and painting is definitely a kindergarten readiness learning and fun activity. Adults think of paints and crayons as tools for creating art. For kids, paints and crayons are more than that. They are tools for discovering and learning through play.

What are some of these learning and kindergarten readiness activities?  Fine muscle control and eye-hand coordination. are the most obvious skills developed, helping little ones with writing tasks later on.

  • Creating with paints and crayons is also a form of self-expression as kids explore what they like and don’t like. They explore their own ideas and exercise their imaginations.
  • They are also building the understanding that images on paper have meaning; this is a basic concept for both reading and writing.
  • As kids talk about what they are doing and practice words such as more, darker-lighter, bigger-smaller, and the vocabulary for  shapes and colors, they are developing language skills.
  • Kids discover that some colors mixed together make new ones for some science fun.
  • Helping clean up afterwards and taking care of their crayons and paints also helps them learn to be responsible.
  • As kids work and play, they are building their attention span, as well as focusing and concentration skills.

While painting kids experiment with boundaries. Their first attempts will probably be random patches of colors. Some children have a very difficult time stopping their work and end up with thick, brown puddles. But this is all part of the learning process and will help build kindergarten readiness. Can some painting time be included to keep little hands busy having fun and learning?

Kindergarten Readiness– June Bugs For Fun and Learning #10

Did you know that paint dabbers are both a kindergarten readiness tool and fun toy? There’s just so many ways to play with them plus they when they drop they don’t spill gray paint water that overshoots the protective newspaper. Who invented these, anyway?

Little hands are painting all over a big piece of paper that will be cut-out to be a ladybug. Yes, ladybugs are not always red. Now that the big paper is dry comes the best part–adding the dots. Talking about colors can be included in the fun. Many kindergarten readiness checklists include being able to name at least some colors. This gives teachers an idea of a child’s level of thinking skills. Kids who are having difficulty learning colors may be struggling with other concepts, too.  There is no doubt that learning colors is a learning challenge. There are many variations to each color and many different objects with the same color. Kids need to see lots of things that are each color and lots that are not, gradually matching shades to names.

Playing with paints and colors involves other learning too, such as doing things in order, language used to explain, following instructions, fine-motor control, patience, planning, completing a task, focusing and attention skills and more. Painting with brushes and other tools also appeals to kids and gives them different ways to play, learn and create–the basis for kindergarten readiness. What kinds of bugs or creepy crawlies might your child like to paint?

Kindergarten Readiness – Spring Fun/Learning Activities #10

Q. What tree goes Meow in the spring? A. The willow tree with catkins. Catkins is another name for pussy willows and pussy willows is another way to explore some kindergarten readiness and learning fun. If possible, find some pussy willows that you can show your little one and share a tickle with the soft fuzzies. This easy art idea kept 2 little hands busy for quite awhile as she explored painting, touching and gluing.

The first step is to protect the table or floor and your child’s clothes with some paper and a paint shirt or old t-shirt. Then let your child paint a tree on a stiff paper or cut-out side of a cereal box. Our set of paint dabbers doesn’t have brown so I squeezed some blue into a dish first to mix with orange. Then, I just mixed both orange and blue in the dish and Little Lee used q-tips, making big circles and little circles.  Talk with your child about the shape of the tree: is it round? is it flat? does it have arms? etc. This will help your child observe what a tree looks like to paint. Once that part is done, it needs to dry. The next step is gluing on some cotton pieces. (Separating a long cotton batting chunk into smaller sections doesn’t look like it would be hard but my grownup hands were needed to help the kidlet ones tear it up.) I just squirted some glue into a plastic tray to make dipping easier. Then the glue needs to dry, too.

Using tools and practicing fine-motor skills are obvious skills learned. But there’s also observing, shapes, creating, organizing, language and patience involved as well. We explored science and nature using the pussy willows. To extend the learning, ask your child to think of other things that are soft such as feathers, quilts, marshmallows, pillows, and more. What things are not soft? Lego on the floor is not soft especially on barefeet and mustaches can be prickly even though they tickle under chins just like pussy willows. What are some other learning activities and spring fun with pussy willows?

Kindergarten Readiness – Play & Learn with Paints & Crayons

Adults think of paints and crayons as tools for creating art. For kids, paints and crayons are more than that. They are tools for discovering and learning through play. What are some of these learning and kindergarten readiness activities? The most obvious skills developed are fine muscle control and eye-hand coordination. This helps little ones … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness – Play & Learn with Paints & Crayons

Readiness for Kindergarten – Backpack Masterpiece

Pablo Picasso once said “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” Paintbrushes and colors are often favorites of children and painting activities develop many readiness for kindergarten skills. Besides drawing about a backpack, your child may enjoy painting about it. One of the most important … Continue reading Readiness for Kindergarten – Backpack Masterpiece