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Preschool Process Art Activity with Leaves and Glue

By Rachelle 5 Comments

This process art activity is easy to set up and a developmentally appropriate art experience for toddlers and preschoolers. Remember: The journey is the destination.

In an effort to help you minimize holiday stress, through the end of the year, we’ll share some of our favorite, simple Creative Table invitation to Create. Today’s set-up was inspired by a parent-led project at my daughter’s preschool. It focuses on the process more than the product and will meet children where they are.

There are two things I adore about today’s process art activity: it’s low-cost and helps us connect to nature. Bonus: collecting leaves with young children adds extra meaning to this project, extending it into a nature walk.

The Benefits of “Leaves and Glue”

This activity will help children…

  • develop fine-motor skills
  • learn to work independently
  • build creative confidence through experimentation
  • Encourage creative thinking
  • build an eye for aesthetics by developing a composition
  • develop a broader understanding of upcycling materials (i.e. leaves) as art supplies

Creative Table with Leaves and Glue

Supplies: Leaves and Glue

  1. Leaves
  2. Chip board or card board
  3. A sturdy paintbrush
  4. Shallow bowl or plate filled with glue

leaves and glue on paper

Step One: Clear Your Table

Remove any distractions that will take your child’s focus away from the creative invitation. Create a set-up that looks something like our photo (above).

Arrange the leaves artfully to make this appeal to your child’s aesthetic sensibility.

Once the table is “set,” ask your child if he or she would like to use/explore/experiment with these supplies.

leaves and glue painting

Challenges and Critical Thinking

One of the exciting challenges in this prompt relates to gluing down bumpy, twisted, and generally non-compliant leaves. If your child is frustrated by the non-flat quality of your leaves, or has difficulty gluing them down, this is an opportunity to tease out solutions. You could say something like, “Hmmm, I see you’re having trouble attaching the leaf to the paper. What could we do to help it stick better?” From that, ideas such as “add more glue” or “turn the leaf over” might emerge.

Variations:

  • Replace leaves with paper cut into leaf shapes, circles, rectangles, etc.
  • Tint the glue with a little bit of food coloring or liquid watercolors
  • Before you set up the invitation, go on a leaf hunt together to collect your materials

Bubble Painting Process Art

By Rachelle 6 Comments

“There are no failures, just experiences and your reactions to them.”

Tom Krause, Author and Motivational Speaker

Bubble painting is such a fun painting process art project with completely unexpected outcomes. I did this with my preschool child and our experience follows. I’ll show you all the supplies you need for bubble painting and how to have a successful painting session.

Aren’t these pretty? These are the result of a semi-failed experiment in bubble painting. The failure isn’t evident, is it? We had fun, experimented, and although this didn’t turn out as we expected, it was worth it!

Bubble Paint Process Art with Kids

Bubble Paint Supplies

  1. Tempera Paint
  2. Dish Soap
  3. Water

I started with a mixture of tempera paint (red with a little silver), dish soap, and a little bit of water to make it runny.

We started with a natural dish soap from Whole Foods, and learned that while it’s great for dishes, it’s truly terrible for making good suds. If you’re up for this project, Dawn or Joy are most likely the way to go for a bowl full of bubbles. You’ll want to read our bubble paint recipe to get the best recipe and soap suggestions for this project. The bubbles in our session were pretty flat and we’ll try this again for sure.

That was the first failure, but here comes one that’s even bigger.

Can you guess what happened here? We poured the mixture into a little bowl, and then after I gave a short demonstration, I instructed my daughter to BLOW.

Out.

Don’t suck it in.

It’s not a drink.

Don’t forget to blow OUT.

She did great, and then, “Oh no! Is that red paint all over your FACE?” I’m a terrible mom! Wash it out. Check the bottle. Phew, it’s non-toxic. Ack!

Then she blew paint about five minutes but then just forgot what she was doing. Totally understandable. She’s only two, after all. And sometimes I forget that.

Sigh.

Bubble Painting Tip: MaryAnn Kohl has a good suggestion in Preschool Art (affilate) which I wish I had read beforehand: Pierce a hole near the top of the straw to keep your child from sucking paint into their mouth.

After that short, freaky interlude, we resumed Project Bubble Paint. From this point forward, I was responsible for blowing bubbles.

And they make for delightful gift tags, don’t you think?

If you enjoyed this, I know you’ll love the Best PlayDough Recipe Ever. It’s been used by thousands of people with so much success. Some of my other favorite art experiments and recipes for kids are: How to make Slime, Vinegar and Baking Soda for toddlers and preschoolers, playful experiments with Flour and Water , and setting up a provocation with Flour and Chalk.

Bubble painting with kids