Did you hear the news that doodle art is making a comeback? No wonder–it’s terrific exercise for the brain. Often we forget to encourage the creative and artistic interests of children. To extend the imagination activity from yesterday, have your child draw a picture about the backpack in your story. Drawing helps develop readiness for kindergarten, too.
Drawing is the first way that your child expresses meaning through print. When drawing, young children first just experiment with making marks and lines on papers. As they develop, they begin to attach meaning to t
hese squiggles. Later on, we may be able to recognize the objects in their pictures. Making pictures is a step before writing and helps reinforce that meaning-print connection. In addition, making pictures on paper is good practice for making pictures in the mind or what is called visualizing.
Fine muscle skills are developing in young children and need lots of experimentation and practice. Drawing and coloring is one way to do this. While some children seem to draw well for others it can be quite a challenge. I never have been able to draw as well as many of my kindergarten students! But drawing can be fun for kids as they experiment and explore with all kinds of lines, colors and shapes. Kindergarten readiness in pictures. What does your picture show and tell?