Notes on Kids

Your Pre+Schoolers Can Do It!

by Laurie Benn, B.Ed.

Welcome to the all new on-line version of a successful series of books originally printed in 1987 and 1988. It was primarily aimed at 3 – 5 year olds but has been used by Primary school teachers up to and including grade 3. Through age appropriate experiences with Arts, Crafts, Games, Songs and Rhymes relating to general themes of interest to young Canadian children, inner discovery and development of skills and talents occurs.

The activities on this CD are designed to help you provide safe, fun and educational experiences for young children to hone their skills and talents with. Paint will be messy, crafts will be gooey, tempers will flare when asked to share, and singing may be interesting, but nurturing the beautiful glow of self-confidence aching to develop inside a young child is phenomenal!

I hope you enjoy this CD with your young children. Here is one of my favorite quotes from a young child,

"Look! I did it all my byself!"

Understanding 3, 4, and 5 year old children's needs and abilities:

briefly summarized from an inspirational book entitled
"Art Experiences for Young Children" by Naomi F. Pile

3 year old children:

• are into growth, want to control.

• use scissors – should have dull points but sharp cutting edges. Construction paper is good because it can easily be torn when cutting grows tiresome.

• want to be master of their environment (ie. may spend a great deal of time tearing up a large sheet of paper into a heap of bits just to have mastered the ability of transforming a large paper into a pile of small bits).
• need to master gluing – will not know how much glue to use at first – may become so occupied with glue that they forget to stick anything to it – or may become so interested in the idea of making things stick that they keep gluing things on top of each other – or may be anxious to control the separateness of each piece and glue things far apart (ie. when making a face, the face would be separate from the eyes, nose, mouth, etc.).

• learn easily from each other as they are natural mimics.

4 year olds:

• an explosion of creative growth – a quest for power, information, mastery, physical skills and assertion of independence, nurturing their struggling egos.
• imaginative schemes, and dreams of grandeur.

• through art, fulfilling fantasies becomes reality (ie. a child makes a picture of a monster and then staples picture shut or paints picture black thereby trapping the monster so it can ’t get out!)

• drawing skills begin to become distinguishable noticeable details (ie. hair, eyes, eyebrows, arms, legs, toes, fingers).

• mastery of colors, style, technique is wanted and needed (at a basic level of course!).

• will mostly pick colors that deal with energy and emotion rather than the real colours of the subject matter.

• like 3-D forms other than clay.

5 year olds:

• settling from turmoil of being 4, seem more rational.

• are idea oriented and project oriented – are able to work together and sustain ideas from day to day.

• co-operation skills are forming, they talk and listen to each other more co-operatively.

• like role playing, ie. fireman, mommy, daddy, etc.

• highly experimentative.

• space takes on real dimension, can start simple mapping.

• might like to illustrate a dictated story.

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All pages © Robert Benn and Laurie Benn 1998 to present