Inside: How to use objects around your house to make simple shape art!
Learning about shapes can be fun and creative! Giving preschoolers a lot of opportunities to explore shapes can help kids as they begin learning alphabet letters, early math skills, and problem solving.
Today we learned about Paul Klee as part of our Famous Artists series and challenged the kids to make their own shape art project, inspired by his painting, Castle and Sun.
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How do you introduce shapes to preschoolers?
The best way to introduce shapes to toddlers and preschoolers is through simple hands on activities and noticing them in their environments.
Here are a few simple ideas to introduce shapes to kids:
- Talk about shapes when you see them out in your neighborhood or in your home.
- Read books about shapes and notice them in books. Notice shapes you see in different alphabet letters.
- Do simple art activities using shapes.
- Make a shape themed sensory bins with foam or wooden shapes.
- Do puzzles together, play with shape blocks, and do other similar problem solving activities.
Creating with shapes was so much fun! Check out our easy shape art project below.
How do you introduce Paul Klee to kids?
Paul Klee was a popular Swiss & German artist who created a large amount of artwork in his life. To get started learning about him, we always like to watch a quick video and read any books we can find.
Here are some Paul Klee resources:
READ: The Cat and The Bird by Geraldine Elschner and Paul Klee by Mike Venezia.
Once we got to know Paul Klee a little bit, we were ready to start creating with shapes inspired by his art piece Castle and Sun.
Paul Klee Inspired Shape Art
MATERIALS NEEDED:
- large roll of white paper
- painters tape
- scissors
- markers/crayons/pencils
- shape toys (Magformers, Magnatiles, wooden blocks, Jumbo cardboard blocks)
- recycled materials shapes (different sizes of boxes)
- scrap paper
- glue
SET-UP:
- Roll out a long sheet of paper and secure it to the ground. If you have kids that will try and pull up the paper, tape all the way around.
- Set out markers, crayons, or whatever materials you feel comfortable having kids use. We also put out scissors, glue, and scrap paper.
- Gather blocks and other shape toys from around your house. My kids especially liked Magformers and jumbo cardboard blocks and wood blocks.
- Grab any recycled materials that kids could use to draw shapes.
- (Optional) Pre-cut a variety of shapes out of colored paper.
DIRECTIONS:
- Once all of your materials are out, challenge your kids to create their own shape art using the blocks.
- Demonstrate how they can trace the blocks with pencils and then color in the squares on the paper to create a block city or castle.
- Give kids scissors and scrap paper if they want to create their own shapes to glue onto the paper.
- Encourage kids to add as much color as possible. Talk about using contrasting colors next to one another to make the colors pop more. Make sure you join in too!
- With my toddler, she brought me the shapes to use, then I would trace them, then she would help me color them in. We worked together as a team.
- When you're finished, see if you can use the shaped toys as tangram pieces to build on top of your drawing. Can you make the shapes fit?
- Once you're done, take time to admire your creation and talk about the shapes. You can even cut the mural pieces up to display.
Do you have any other favorite art activities for kids inspired by famous artists? Please share them with us!
You can find all of the art activities in our Famous Artists series HERE.
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