During our recent pet theme, the preschool kiddos enjoyed a process art activity we entitled “snowy footprints”. It was definitely one of those easy, fun art projects for kids that I will do again! I love it when something so very simple turns into a great experience for my students.
Related: “Quick as a Cricket” Fun Art for Kids
pet-themed fun art projects for kids
As I already mentioned, this was a process-based art activity. This means the focus was on the experience the kids had with the art. The focus wasn’t on a specific end result, although I made sure to display the finished artwork in our classroom.
Materials (Amazon links below)
Black construction paper
White tempera paint
Small pet animal toys – specifically, dogs and cats
Directions (look how easy this is!)
1. Pour the white paint into shallow containers.
2. Place construction paper and plastic pets next to the paint.
3. Let the kids have at it! 🙂 I did preface this activity with, “Let’s pretend our pets tracked snow into the house!”
4. Talk to the children and ask questions as they explore their “snowy footprints” art!
How We Created
Many children were waiting as I was setting up, eager to try out this art activity. They jumped right into it, as usual! Some of the children were incredibly precise as they painted. They wanted the animals’ footprints to look “just so!”
Others were all about stamping pet footprints randomly all over their papers.
As the children created, I tried to engage them in conversations about what they were doing. Some of the questions I asked were “what’s your pet doing now?”, “I wonder how the dog managed to track so much snow inside?”, and “how did you make that design?” I loved listening as the children answered, and I got such a kick out of their spontaneous discussions!
About half the children told me all kinds of stories throughout our pet process art. One little girl’s dog “escaped out of the house, then got too cold and ran back inside but didn’t wipe his paws. Then he got snow all over, and he slipped all over the kitchen floor!” All of this was said as she was acting out her story with the toy dog and paint!
Not all of the children verbalized what they were doing. Some were interested in answering my questions, and others wanted to ask their friends my questions. I loved hearing that!!
Learning
Did you know that fun art projects for kids includes all kinds of learning, too? Isn’t that just a win-win situation?! 🙂 Here are some of the early learning skills involved in our “snowy footprints” art:
- Fine motor skills (grasping those little animals carefully and using small finger movements to guide them)
- Gross motor skills (larger actions, like when the kids bounced their pets high into the air, then back down onto the paper)
- Language development (all of those stories, the discussions, and the answers to my questions)
- Higher level thinking (same as above)
- Creativity
- Imagination
Have you tried any process art activities with the kids? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
For more fun art projects for kids, check out my Arts & Crafts Pinterest board.
If you’re looking for more pet-themed ideas, please take a look at my Pets Pinterest board.
I love such simple ideas! I like the black-white contrast and animals snow tracks 🙂
This is really cute, Mary Catherine. I especially love the black and white!
We will be using green paper and brown paint to show muddy footprints since we live where it doesn’t snow.
I think that sounds like a wonderful plan!! Let me know how you and the kids like it. 🙂