As long as I have been teaching, I have been including car painting in my lesson plans. That would be over 20 years of ruining Hot Wheels and other cars (that are probably now collectibles) with paint and water…
Today as I walked around, I observed children painting with cars yet again. But as I watched them, I didn’t hear – “You mean we are going to paint with cars again?”
Nope, instead I observed children taking their time exploring the mixing of colors, making designs, checking out thin lines and thick lines, criss-crossing their lines, using fine motor skills to hold their cars without getting paint on their fingers, and focusing on their “work.” In fact, the children seemed so peaceful as they painted – almost like it was therapeutic…
I am almost willing to bet that if we left the cars out with paint all week long, that there would be someone at the car painting table everyday….
I am always on the look out for new and innovative ideas. Perhaps it is because I get bored with the same old ones I have used over and over again. But I have to remember that what we, as grown-ups, find to be an old outdated idea may just not be so old and outdated to a child under the age of five. And each year, as a child gets a year older, the experience takes on new meaning and new interest…
So why should you offer up that same old boring art activity to your preschoolers? Because it isn’t just an idea – it is an experience…