2 of the Best Preschool Art Activities for Summertime
Summer is an exciting time for school-age kids and a stressful time for parents looking to engage their children and support their growth. Summer art projects are a fun way to help foster your child's creativity and art skills. These activities can fill an afternoon and help prepare your child for success in the next school year. Here are two of the best summer art and craft ideas for preschoolers that will keep them busy and excited about art.
"Kick off a creative summer with these engaging art projects for kids!"
Fruit Still Life
Creating a Still-life painting is a must for young artists looking to learn the foundations of shape, form, color, and value while building their drawing and painting skills. This colorful project can be done in an afternoon, or added to throughout the summer. Here is everything you'll need to create a Fruit Still Life project with your preschooler.
Materials
· Tagboard
· Tempera Paint Cakes
· Black Tempera Paint or Black Permanent marker
· Scissors
· Glue
To create a still-life fruit painting that is perfect for summertime, students will start by drawing out their favorite fruit on a piece of tagboard. Students should be sure to make their fruit resemble a real fruit and should match the size the best they can.
Once the fruit outline design has been drawn on the tagboard, students can paint them by using tempera cake paints. These paints have a great pigment and come in easy-to-use cakes, just like watercolors. Encourage students to paint in their shape completely. This is a great activity for preschoolers to examine and reproduce the colors they see in the natural world.
Once all the paint has dried, students can outline their shape in either black paint or a black permanent marker, whatever they are most comfortable with. After their fruit is fully outlined, students can use scissors to cut out their fruit shapes.
When all the shapes have been cut out, students can arrange them on their background sheet or tag board. This is a great opportunity for students to practice their visual problem-solving skills to make all the fruits fit nicely into the scene. When the fruit is arranged to the student's liking, they can glue them to the background to create their very own vibrant and lively fruit still life painting.
"Explore textures, colors, and layers with this delightful Green Apple Collage art activity!"
Green Apple Collage
A collage is a great way for students to use multiple materials and methods to create one cohesive piece of art. For this green apple collage students will paint, cut, and glue to create the perfect green apple for summertime. Here is what you’ll need.
Materials
· White Paper
· Two Shades of Green Tempera Paint
· Brown and Green Construction paper
· Scissors
· Glue
"Inspire young artists with vibrant still life examples to kickstart their creativity!"
To begin this project, preschoolers will draw the outline of their apple sheet on a white piece of paper. You can model how to create the shape or have students look at real apples to determine what their outline should look like. Students can draw or paint their outline with black paint or a black permanent marker. Be sure to have students draw their apple in the middle of the paper to leave plenty of room to create their college background later on.
Once the outline is created, students will begin painting their apples with two different shades of green. This adds depth and texture to the apple painting making it look good enough to eat. Be sure to encourage students to use vertical strokes on their apples to give them a more natural texture and to highlight the curved face of the fruit.
While the apple dries, students will begin creating the apple stem and leaves out of construction paper. First, students will tear or cut a small rectangle out of brown construction paper, this will be the stem of the apple. Next, students will tear or cut green construction paper to make the leaf of the apple. When the paint is dry, students can add their stems and leaves to the top of the apple with glue.
To make the apple really pop off the page, students will make a collage background with different colors and patterns of construction paper. Begin by having students tear pieces of different colored and patterned construction paper. Students will then begin filling the negative space in the background with their torn pieces of construction paper creating a fun and unique mosaic background. Encourage students to create a fun and unique background that really makes their apple painting stand out.
Here are some of my other favorite apple projects:
Final Thoughts:
These summer art activities are sure to bring creativity and joy to young artists while supporting their growth and development. Encourage exploration and self-expression through these engaging projects.
"Endless possibilities! Check out these stunning fruit basket paintings created by young artists."
More Great Ideas:
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Amanda Koonlaba, Ed.S.
Hi! I’m Amanda. Teaching children to be creative thinkers is my greatest joy. I’m here to help you bring that same joy to your classroom.
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