Sensory Art – A Creative Art Experience!

What is this unit about?

Sticky, fuzzy, wet, and wooly—great art projects for kids stimulate all the senses. This unit will give you ideas for art projects that get the children to use their senses of touch, taste, smell, and hearing.

When you are looking for art projects that are worthwhile, remember that young children learn best by doing things for themselves through their senses, rather than being told. Lydia, age 4, was gluing feathers and beads to a piece of white paper, making a collage. "I was amazed by how long she spent doing it," said her caregiver, Kim. "She carefully placed the beads and feathers with her sticky fingers and seemed to enjoy the glue as much as the beads and feathers, sticking her hands together, peeling the drying glue off her hands. Her art project made a sticky mess, but boy, did she love doing it!"

By watching Lydia, Kim was discovering that the process of making art for young children is more important than the finished product. We adults often want the finished products to be nice and neat and pretty, but the most valuable art projects are those that get kids to take their time and explore with their senses.

Most family providers have learned to do art with children the way it is done in preschool. We have learned to match art projects to our curriculum; for example, making an egg carton caterpillar when we are learning about the change from caterpillar to butterfly. While projects like these can have value, the best type of art is art that gets kids' senses activated and allows them to explore and make their own choices.

Choking Caution: The following activity must be closely supervised if you have children younger than three years old. It could be a choking hazard for younger children who often put things in their mouth

Have you ever noticed how hard it is for children to follow the direction "Don't touch"? This is because young children use their sense of touch to learn. You can give children great art projects if you keep in mind a varied sensory diet.

Just like a healthy diet is made of many different kinds of foods, great learning experiences are made up of a wide variety of things to touch and feel.

Collage is a great activity for young children, as well as a fun way to use up leftover arts and crafts supplies. Take leftover paper and have the children cut it into scraps to be used for collage. Add other things like smooth and shiny buttons, fluffy feathers or cotton balls, rough things like sandpaper, and recycled materials: metal and plastic lids from jars, etc. The idea is to mix things with very different feelings all together. Projects that offer varied supplies like these tend to hold the children's attention. Kids love it because they can explore many materials and make lots of choices.

Think about adding more texture to other art activities, too. Paint can be made exciting by changing its texture. All you need to do is put in some additions to one cup of paint. Try adding 2 tablespoons of corn syrup to make it very shiny, or grainy and shiny by adding ½ cup of sugar. Salt will make it sparkly, and ½ teaspoon of sand will make the paint gritty. This adds interest and stimulates the senses.

Clay is one of the best sensory art materials to use with children. It gives the kids' hand muscles a great workout. Even children as young as three can use clay, but it does take time for them to build the muscles needed to work on it. Make sure you offer it on a regular basis to keep the children working on building muscle strength so they can get a sense of satisfaction when they use it.

Art and music go together like peanut butter and jelly, and most children love music. You can take advantage of this great combination by laying a large sheet of paper on a table and playing whatever music you like: pop, jazz, classical. Ask the children to listen carefully to the music and color with markers or dot painters in time with the music. Children can also draw with crayons or paint to music. Encourage the kids to use their whole arm in the movement and make large circles. Children can also change colors when the music stops.

Kids love this mesmerizing activity. You can use it as a way to expose them to different kinds of music. One day draw to pop music, the next day paint to country. This activity can help improve children's awareness of rhythm, improve listening skills, and practice using hearing, sight, and hand muscles together.

Can you remember the smell of crayons? One whiff can take most people back to the days of their childhood. Smells are deeply connected to our memories. To make your art projects memorable, stimulate the children's sense of smell.

Get small nail files from the drug store and cinnamon sticks from the grocery store and let the children make cinnamon powder by filing the sticks. The ground cinnamon with its wonderful smell can be sprinkled on glue. Add natural treasures such as pieces of bark, seeds, and other things you can find on a nature walk with the kids to make a collage.

Just as you can add more texture to paint, you can also add scents. This activity works best with children who are old enough to know not to put the paint in their mouths. To one cup of paint, you can add any of the following scents:

• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 dozen cloves (Let the children grind the cloves into powder; they can use a plastic hammer, with the cloves inside a small plastic bag)
• 1 teaspoon of allspice
• All of the above together along with a little nutmeg for the scent of pumpkin pie
• ½ teaspoon of food flavorings like vanilla or peppermint or whatever you might have around
• Juice of 1 lemon, lime, or orange

Once children are ready to tell the difference between what is edible and what is not, then it is possible to introduce art projects that stimulate the sense of taste. It is not recommended to do this with younger children since it may confuse them about what is OK to eat. Try the following activity with easy-to-make cream cheese play dough.

Ingredients:
8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 cup non-fat dry milk
1 tablespoon honey

Directions: Combine cream cheese, milk and honey in a bowl and mix until well blended. You may need to do the first mixing to soften the cream cheese to the point where the kids can take turns mixing it for themselves. The kids can mold the dough into sculptures and then place on crackers and decorate with raisins, dried fruit, or celery and carrot slivers. This makes a healthy snack.

Caution: This activity is not for infants. Do not use honey in beverages and uncooked foods for infants under the age of two years. Honey may contain botulism toxins.

Sensory art looks messy, and parents don't understand why you are sending home something that looks so messy. Remember 4-year-old Lydia and her art project? Kim took some time to tell Kate, Lydia's mom, about what she saw Lydia do while she was making her collage. "The only thing she sits still that long for is watching a movie!" said Kate with surprise. This is a great opening to begin to teach parents about the value of doing art rather than the finished product. "I try to help parents see the real value in the messy-looking art that I send home: building hand muscles, having your own ideas, and the choices that kids get to make—all the things that help them grow physically, cognitively, and emotionally," said Kim.

But what about the mess in your house? Many providers have found that messy art projects are great to do outside. If you don't have outdoor space or the weather prevents it, put down plastic tablecloths and then newspaper on top, so that instead of taking time to clean the table you can simply bundle up the messy newspaper and put it in the garbage once the children are done. Cover the floor as well so that you can do the same and not have to worry about cleaning the floor. Many providers find that it is less work for them to offer sensory art projects.  Amy said that when she uses sensory art "The kids stick with this activity for a while, and that gives me time to be with the baby and do other things. It's worth it since the kids get so much out of it."