Preschoolers will love playing with squishy clay. The days of making ashtrays are over, but preschoolers can form animals, letters of the alphabet or images of their own faces out of clay. After the creations dry overnight, have children paint them with acrylic paint. Children can also easily form clay into small disks. When the disks dry, have children paint them with different colors of paint and use them as pretend coins to illustrate lessons about counting and money.
Not only can young children make drawings with crayons, they can even make their own crayons. Give each child a paper muffin liner and some broken crayons. Help preschoolers peel the crayons, break them into small pieces and arrange them in the muffin liners. Bake the crayons in a 200 degree F oven for a few minutes, until the wax is melted and new jumbo crayons are formed. Let the crayons cool completely, then have children use them to make drawings. Children can also paint over their crayon pictures with dark watercolors to see the interesting way the crayon seems to shine through the paint.
Making mobiles provides preschoolers with plenty of cutting practice, and they can be used during a variety of lesson plans. For instance, when you’re talking about weather have children draw and cut out several small pictures of rain, snow, sun and wind. When you’re teaching them about animals, preschoolers can make mobiles featuring types of animals that live in zoos or in people’s homes. When they’ve cut out all their pictures, help children punch a hole and tie a piece of string to each picture. Have them tie all the strings to a wire coat hanger and hang the mobile from a window or in a doorway.
Any opportunity you have to expose preschoolers to books will help them learn to appreciate reading and develop literacy skills. Ask each child to make an “All About Me” or “My Family” book by decorating four or five pieces of paper with pictures of her life and family. Ask her to explain what’s happening in each picture and write down her captions at the bottom of the paper. Help children punch holes in the sides of their books and tie the pages together with yarn.