Preschool art projects can be anything from coloring a picture to creating something to hang on the wall, take home and place on a shelf, etc. When doing art projects with preschoolers, consider the following, as this will make them more beneficial:
Practice cutting: Most preschoolers need to master the hand coordination and fine motor skills required to operate scissors effectively. If you are doing art projects with preschoolers, have some element of it involve cutting with scissors. Help them learn to cut straight lines, follow patterns, etc. as this will help prepare them for kindergarten, and it is learning that they will not even realize because they will be having so much fun doing their art project.
Simplistic: Preschoolers need to take things in steps, and often need to progress really slowly, so when you do an art project with preschoolers, make it simplistic. Do not have too many steps for completion. You can give them something to cut, something to glue something onto, or a coloring page, but don’t ask them to create anything too complicated, otherwise they will become overwhelmed and learning will stop. A great art project that is simple and fun for preschoolers is to have them dip their hand in brown finger paint, and make a handprint on a page, then glue feathers to the fingers, and a google eye to the thumb to create a Thanksgiving turkey.
Stay in lines: When you do art projects with preschoolers, practice the skills they will need the following year in school, such as staying in the lines on coloring pages. Give them several different images on one page, and let them know not to color outside the lines of the image.
Trace shapes: Another important skill for preschoolers to learn is control with their art tools. So, ask them to create a piece of artwork by tracing shapes, and then coloring them in, or tracing shapes and then cutting them out, etc. Give them a chance to do art with the shapes they trace, but get them to practice control with the crayons, etc. first.
Practice names: a great thing to do with any art project for preschoolers is to have them practice their names. You can create their names in block letters and let them color them in, or just have them write their name, or the best they can, on the top of each page. The more practice they get writing their name, the better they will be at it. So, include it with every art project.
Preschoolers love art, and it is a great way for them to express themselves, and learn some of the motor skills they will need as they progress in their education. Giving them plenty of opportunities to express themselves through art is great, but you can use art as a means of learning other things as well. For example, have their coloring pages be of things that start with the letter they learned that day, etc.