Arts and crafts are an integral part of childhood. There are so many different skills to be developed by encouraging your child to be creative with art materials.
You can help your child to develop the hand strength needed to create art by offering play opportunities that focus on fine motor skill development. Our Sensory Busy Board is the perfect item for encouraging little ones to use their hands and fingers to explore.
Your child can begin to explore with art supplies from a very early age. Help to foster this love of creativity through art by supplying your child with various materials that are age-appropriate and safe. Designating an area in your home for your child to create art can be beneficial. A small table and a chair, with containers of art supplies that your child can access is sufficient.
Creating art that corresponds with the current season can help your child to form a better understanding of the world around them, as it looks right now. Taking a nature walk and speaking to your child about the way that the trees look, how the weather feels, what animals they see, or if there is snow on the ground or not, are all great ways to help your child to understand the current time of year.
There are two different types of art that are commonly discussed (and debated) in the early education world: product art and process art.
Product Art
Simply put, product art is artwork that is focused on the final product. This may look like a craft that was created by an adult, with pieces that are pre-planned and pre-cut. Product art is beneficial for helping children to learn to follow directions, develop spatial awareness when placing their pieces onto the paper, and to work on their fine motor skills by using materials like scissors and glue.
Many parents prefer product art because they like to have a visually appealing piece of work to hang in their home or to save for the future and look back on.
Here are some ideas for winter crafts that are considered product art:
Handprint Penguin
To create this adorable handprint penguin, you’ll need scissors, felt, glue, construction paper, and googly eyes. Simply help your child to trace their hand, cut it out to use as the penguin’s body, then create a winter-themed background.
Melted Snowman Shape Craft
Help teach your child about shapes while they create their own melted snowman. You’ll need glue, brown construction paper for the rectangular arms, an orange triangle for the nose, white squares for the snow, a black marker or small black circles cut out for the eyes and mouth, and paper to glue the pieces onto. This project is a sort of combination between product and process art as your child can use their own creativity when placing the pieces onto the paper, and all completed projects will look different!
Process Art
This type of art is focused on the process of creating something, rather than the final result. The finished product may not look as visually appealing or put-together as product art, but the learning happens while your child is creating. Process art encourages your child to explore different materials and to use items in new and different ways. A stick can replace their paintbrush, glue can be spread all over the paper rather than in designated spaces, car wheels can be rolled through paint and put onto paper to make a road (to mimic our Montessori Car Traffic Road Map) and no two finished products will look the same.
Here are some ideas for winter crafts that are considered process art:
Ice Painting
All you will need for this activity is a block of ice, (fill a container with water and freeze overnight) a tray to contain the ice, watercolors, and a paintbrush. Your child can be creative when choosing which colors to paint their ice block and will also be getting a science lesson as the ice melts while they work!
Water Bottle Snow Painting
For this activity, you’ll only need an empty water bottle, white paint, and a sheet of paper. Your child will use their water bottle lid as a paintbrush to create a snowy scene!
Encouraging your child to create art whether it’s focused on the product, process, or a mixture of both, is beneficial to their development. By using art materials and creating their own work, your child can feel a sense of pride in having completed something, their imagination will be activated, and they’ll develop fine motor skills with the use of various art and writing tools.
