Permission to Make a Mess with Cheap Preschool Halloween Crafts

Last week we went on a family walk and passed a house in our neighborhood is that is vacant, falling apart and on sale. The nosy neighbors that we are we  peeked in the windows and did not see much however on our way off the property I saw a pile of rocks, so I grabbed a couple with these projects in mind.

First I let Lydia paint the rocks. I set her up only orange paint for the big rocks and then let her paint a couple of the smaller ones any way she liked. We had to let the rocks dry before phase 2 began. The transition activity I picked up at Michael's for a dollar. They are little watercolor pages which have the paints on the bottom that are activated by the water and brush. These are by Creatology and were Halloween themed.
  After the rocks were dry I had Lydia glue faces on the rocks.  She loves to use real Elmers glue. She feels like she's a big girl. One rock was a pumpkin, the other a cat. I used scraps of paper to make the parts of the face, I also had googly eyes which Lydia really enjoyed. She attached them all on her own. On the smaller rocks I used a regular sectioned plate and placed random items in it like sequence, buttons, pieces of ribbon, scraps of crafty things I had or had been given. So she could decide to make faces however she wanted.
I love the way her projects turned out this time. They are certainly fun and creative. I was thinking about my approach with her during these times and for almost all of this activity I was making dinner, so I would set her up and let her just do it. I have no fear of her making a mess, because well that is part of it. She spilled water, so we moved her to the other side of the table. She got paint on herself, so before dinner we washed it off. She wanted the stick buttons on random places of the rockfaces and I certainly didn't stop her. She got glue on the floor, we wiped it up.

I truly believe that part of the process and purpose is to let them have a creative outlet and be guided by their own whims. This is not to say that all of these endeavors always go perfectly, but I try to pick times that I am willing to be a gamer about it, meaning I am in a state of mind that is patient and open-minded and prepared to redirect the preschooler. Some may wonder where was Vivi? Well she was napping. Gluing is not quite the right toddler task, so timing does have  a lot to do with a successful kid craft experience.

 

Another Halloween craft which was very simple and a lot less prep I gave Lydia a wooden Bat mask to color with markers, also a dollar at Michaels and she wanted to color it pink and purple. I let her use the glitter glue squeezers and she decorated it with glee and for a long time. Once again, I just gave her the tools and the directions and waited to see what the result was.