Art plays a vital role in your Montessori elementary child’s development. Children use art to express feelings, explore creative mediums, and expand their imagination. During the holidays, supplying the themed materials encourages creativity and learning.
Art Box Activities
Providing open-ended art activities allows your elementary child to create based on personal choices. Filling an art box with holiday-themed supplies is a perfect way to start. The art box does not need to be large. A simple shoe box will provide enough materials for one child. Place the art box next to large pieces of paper, poster board, or paper plates. For added fun, the paper may be cut into the shape of trees, ornaments, sweaters, snowmen, or gingerbread people.
Keeping with holiday-themed colors, red and green, consider the following ideas for your art box:
- Paper towel rolls
- Glitter glue
- Felt pieces
- Popsicle sticks
Children love to give homemade gifts. Creating holiday cards is a great activity to exchange with parents and loved ones. Place regular, folded cardstock on to an individual tray. Supply paint, glitter, or glue, gems, stickers, and other holiday-themed material to complete the card.
Easy Holiday Ornaments
Create easy holiday ornaments with pipe cleaners, pony beads, and bells. The pipe cleaners are easy to bend into a variety of shapes including candy canes, wreaths, stars, and bells.
Using pinecones from a recent outdoor nature walk increases the excitement of the holiday art activity. Gluing the base of the pinecone into a mini pot instantly creates a three-dimensional holiday tree for decorating. Paints, gems, beads, felt, and pipe cleaners are ideal for decorating the tree.
Using store-bought or homemade air dry clay, encourage children to create holiday-themed sculptures. The clay activity will take more than one day to finish. The first day is about creating the piece. Use rolling pins, cookie cutters, and other materials to create your holiday art. Usually, within 24 hours, the piece will be dry.
The second day, complete the art activity by encouraging children to paint or add texture materials to the art piece. Once again, the piece will need 24 hours to dry for final completion.
At the Montessori School of Pleasanton, our elementary students are encouraged to think creatively and explore through hands-on learning at their own pace. To learn more about the Montessori Method and to schedule a tour, contact us today.