Educating young elementary school children can be difficult and for a number of reasons. With the younger grades it can be difficult just to keep their attention for more than a few minutes. Young kids would rather be outside playing with their friends or watching a movie.The last thing on their list is to study inside. It takes a special teacher to keep small children interested in any activity for long. If you want to keep the children’s attention you should use some fun crafts. You need to mix fun with learning and the only way to do so is to make your activities creative. Although you might not have thought about it, coloring is a great way to get young elementary school kids to love learning. Almost all kids love to color and you can easily combine this interest with other learning activities. Described below are some of our favorite coloring crafts for young elementary school kids:
1. Noah’s ark. This is a great way to teach young children about an interesting story and to teach them some more about animals. Help the children cut out a large ark from a piece of construction paper. Have each child make a different animal for the ark by cutting it out of construction paper. Then the children should all color the animal and write its name on the construction paper. When everyone is finished have them walk all of their animals up onto the ark.
2. Name coloring. Have each child draw their name in large letters on a piece of paper. Cut out the letters. Have each child color the letters in different colors. Attach the letters to each other with string and hang them from the classroom.
3. Coloring feelings. Many young children have a wonderful connection with their emotions. In most cases they naturally understand how the colors connect with their emotions. They know that red means anger or passion, that blue means quiet contemplation, and that green means growth and life. Allow the children to express themselves in whatever way they choose. You will be surprised to see just how much the kids will tell you through color. They don’t have to draw anything concrete–all they need to do is express themselves through pure color.
4. Coloring music. This is a more abstract activity but it sometimes produces some really fascinating results. Put on a piece of music and have the children listen to it for a few minutes. It would probably be best if the music does not have any lyrics–something classical might be best. Once the children have listened to the music have them try to express how it made them feel with colors. This will help the children to begin to recognize the connection between colors and emotions. It might also help them to start to appreciate art and music.
As you can see, there are all sorts of great ideas out there for coloring crafts that teach important lessons to kids. The great thing about these activities is that they entertain while educating. They also give the young child an opportunity to control their environment. Most young children have all of their decisions made for them by adults. Allowing them to participate in some coloring crafts gives them the opportunity to control something. They make the decisions about what colors to use and where they should go. You would be amazed to see just how much children love learning if they have a little control over the way they do it.