To give the preschoolers some inspiration for this clay craft, show them a picture of a kitten sitting or curled up before they begin working. Have the kids roll out balls of modeling clay or play dough to create a kitten's body and lengths of clay for legs and the tail. They can use a pencil to draw the features of the kitten's face, then make ears and whiskers. Creating a three-dimensional kitten out of clay encourages preschoolers to use their fine motor skills.
Preschoolers can also create a kitten using circles of construction paper. Pre-cut several large circles for kids to use as the kitten body, along with smaller circles for the head and paws. Also pre-cut several small triangles for the kitten's ears and a "C" shape for the tail. Let the preschoolers glue the cutouts together to create their kitten. They can use crayons to add features to the kitten, such as eyes, nose, whiskers and spots.
Use a kitten or cat shaped stamp along with short pieces of string and glue to create "kitten chasing string" artwork. Have preschoolers stamp the kitten shape on a paper and then use markers to draw a background. They can glue bits of string around the paper to make it look like the kittens are chasing the yarn. Kittens like to chase things, so encourage the children to make their kittens look like they are running and jumping.
Discussing shapes found in kittens helps reinforce preschoolers' shape recognition. Let them draw kittens using pictures of cats for inspiration. Place pictures of kittens around the work area and give each child a paper and selection of crayons. Talk about the shapes found in the form of a kitten, such as triangles for ears and circles for eyes. Allow preschoolers to draw their kittens using as many shapes as they can.