Finger painting gets a tasty makeover when the artistic materials include pudding, frosting, animal crackers and other tasty treats. Ask children to put on their aprons and roll up their sleeves to make an artistic, edible work of art. Preschoolers must use their imaginations to pretend pudding or yogurt is paint. Will they create a tree from chocolate pudding or make a beach scene with blueberry yogurt and vanilla pudding? Can chocolate chips represent shells on the beach? Once their artwork is complete, let them share their creation with other students before consuming their works of art.
Studies prove that music fosters creativity within preschoolers. When scientists took two controlled groups of preschoolers and exposed one of the groups to singing and musical group play twice a week, the students exposed to music tested higher than those who weren’t on creativity and intelligence tests. Consider playing music quietly as students do routine classroom activities. Follow up by teaching students about different instruments and invite them to make their own from objects in the classroom. Show them that a school desk can become a drum or a school box filled with crayons can become a rattling sound maker. See where their imaginations take them.
Using legos or building blocks, ask students to work individually or in small groups to create a building. Explain that there are no limits when it comes to making their building: it can be tall and skinny or short and wide. However, there are limits when it comes to the colors or shapes they can use. For example, tell one group of preschoolers they can only use blue blocks; another group must use red legos. Students can work together and get creative to build different structures. In addition to using their creative side, students will also learn about spatial relations. Mix up the limitations and see how their buildings change and how they challenge themselves to build new designs.
After reading several stories to the preschoolers over the course of a few days, ask the students what they liked about each story and what they didn’t enjoy about some stories. Then work together as a class to create a one-of-a-kind story. Each student can make up one sentence of the story. For example, a student begins by completing the sentence, “Once upon a time...” The student to her right makes up the next sentence, and so on. By the time each student has made up a line for the story, the teacher can wrap it up by proclaiming, “The end!”