Art and craft for toddlers

Art and craft for toddlers

Nowadays there is a lot of positive talks about process art and some negative ones about craft. I think they are learning opportunities for toddlers in both. I was told that teacher shouldn't demonstrate how to do a project because it kills the creativity of children and make them feel bad about their skills. I don't think it's true with the toddlers. Most of them are mostly interested or not in the process anyway.

I like to show them the finish product and if they are not interested it's ok. For example when we did our hand print polar bear, i show them mine first. The older ones were interested and the younger not at all. We did an icy lanscape first. I gave them a blue construction paper and 3 light blue ones, with glue and paint brush. When they were done I gave them 1 or 2 snowflake stickers.

They were all different and they were all perfect for the polar bear back ground.

The polar bear itself was more a craft but the overall project is an artistic experience. At that age the appreciation of art is more the goal than the finished product. So if one of your child doesn't want to touch the materials and you do it for him/her, it is still an artistic experience to stimulate the process of creating something.

Here's how I specifically organized the hand print polar bear activity which develops, of course the appreciation of art but also fine motor skills and cognition.

https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/hand-print-polar-bear.html

By the way I don't display my projects. I don't want they compare theirs to mine.

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