Whether it’s fingerpaint or painting with a paintbrush, paint is a great open-ended craft for preschoolers. It allows them to explore color and introduces them to color hue. When they apply the paint in different intensity, it may very well be their introduction to mixing colors.
There are many materials available to create collages, including tissue paper, construction paper and recycled magazine pages. While preschoolers may be working with the same materials, no two collages will turn out the same. Collages are a great open-ended craft to introduce children to spatial concepts.
Like most other open-ended crafts, there’s a double benefit to working with certain materials. When using clay, preschool children exercise the fine-motor skills that they will need when they begin learning to write. The outcome of projects however, will be as diverse as the group of students. While one child creates a group of small balls, you may learn that he is building a snowman, while another child forming balls may explain that she is making peas.
Preschoolers love to color and draw with magic markers. When given free reign to create whatever they like, preschoolers explore colors in a way that’s different from paint or crayons. One interesting way to allow preschoolers to work with magic markers is to give them coffee filters as their canvas. The ink absorbs in a way that’s fascinating to preschoolers and encourages them to create some one-of-a-kind pieces.