This Quick as a Cricket art activity combines a well-loved children’s book with colorful art. You’ll definitely want to add this to your preschool art projects.
While we enjoy crafts around here, process art is by far where most of the kids’ creativity is focused on.
During the preschool year, my students explore it almost every day. At home, we enjoy it quite a bit too!
So for this month’s Book Club Play Date, I thought it’d be fun to share a simple but fun art project based on Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood.
Related: Simple Pond Sensory Play Idea
Quick as a Cricket Art
As I mentioned above, this art activity is rather simple. You don’t need many materials, and the directions are very straight-forward.
But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile! The children will get a lot out of it, and it’s a good way to extend a children’s book.
Materials
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Tempera paint
White construction paper
Plastic animals (we used a grasshopper, an ox, a bee, a lizard, and a lion)
Quick as a Cricket Art Directions
After reading Quick as a Cricket, chat a bit about the book. Ask the children to think of times when they’ve been “as quick as a cricket” or “as loud as a lion.”
I’m sure the stories they tell will be amusing! Plus, the children will be working on language development and vocabulary through this discussion.
Related: Easy Messy Play Ideas
Next, break out the plastic animals, paint, and paper. We chose to use five animals from the book, rather than every single one of them.
We didn’t have all of the animals, and I wanted to keep the activity rather simple.
Since we didn’t have a cricket, we went with a grasshopper. I know it’s not exactly the same, but the thought was there!
Related: Process Art
I know it’s not a cricket, but we used the closest thing we could find!
Put a little bit of paint on a tray, then let the kids choose which animal goes into each color.
Then it’s onto the painting! Let the children have fun just using the animals to create different patterns on the paper.
Some may want to use the animals as “paintbrushes” to make certain pictures. That’s okay, too! Almost anything goes here.
While the kids are painting, talk a bit more about the book. Ask the kids if they can paint “as quick as a cricket” using the cricket toy. See if they want to show how busy the bee is through painting.
It would be a great time to talk about opposites during that time, too. Paint “as busy as a bee”, then “as lazy as a lizard.”
I think it’s interesting to see the different ways children will use art to reenact the book.
Would your kiddos enjoy this fun Quick as a Cricket art? If you try it out, be sure to let me know!
More Quick as a Cricket Activities
Here are a few more activities to try after you read Quick as a Cricket with the kids:
Quick as a Cricket Sensory Play from Still Playing School
Cricket Snack for Kids from Craftulate
Teach Empathy with Quick as a Cricket from The OT Toolbox
Done-For-You Preschool Resources
Preschool Teacher 101 can make your preschool teaching life so much easier! Click on the images below for more information on the resources, and be sure to check out the membership options.
What a fabulously fun idea!