Bona Vista's Child Care Solutions

Art is a necessity in every child’s life and for their development. Art activities promote the development of hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and communication skills. For young children, the process of art is more important than the finished product. The point is to focus on the experience rather than the perfection.

You are most likely already doing art – and concentrating on the process versus the product. But how can you turn the craft projects that are sent home more into the same art process? Read on to find an example of how to extend the crafts ideas into art and cover more learning areas of the Foundations.


Theme: Bugs

Project: Creating a lady bug

Step 1: Cut the lady bug’s body from a piece of paper. Please closely supervise the children with this step. This might even have to be more of a one on one opportunity and could take the better part of one day. That’s ok, because creating this lady bug is going to take a while.

Step 2: Apply color to the lady bug’s body. How? Any way you want to. There’s always paint and crayons or markers. Get creative with how you will have the children apply the color to their lady bug. Maybe it is finger painting or splatter painting. Do you have extra tissue paper from the holiday’s laying around? You could rip and glue pieces to create a full sheet of color. You can also talk about different colors as the children choose what color to make their lady bug.
Tip: If glue starts getting on hands, turn it into a sensory activity. Have the children spread/rub school glue around their hands and hold them open to dry. When the glue is dry, the children can the peel it off of their hands.

Step 3: Adding the spots. How many ways can you think of to make spots? Paint, markers, crayons, stickers, use round foam brushes for circles. Circles? Did you say circles? – Foundation alert! Math F.4.13 “Copy circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles.” Can the children ages 3+ years old draw different shapes of spots?

Step 4: Before moving on, ask the children what is missing on their lady bugs? They might say eyes or antennae. This is another Foundation you are hitting. Math F.6.1 “Identify attributes of objects” and F.6.2 “Identify the missing object.” Talk about the different attributes that make a lady bug different from a fly or an ant. What characteristics do they have in common? So what did your kiddos say is missing? Eyes? Let’s add some eyes. There are always the standard googly eyes that can be glued down. What about pompons? You could even have them find eyes in magazines and cut them out.

Step 5: Antennae time! Some different methods for creating antennae include using pipe cleaners. You could also have the children fan fold strips of paper. These are both good to create 3-D antennae. You could add anything else to your lady bugs as well. Use resource books and try to make them look authentic.


After the children have completed their lady bugs, hang them up at the children’s eye level to create an art gallery. The children will love to show off their art to the others. Have the children do a gallery walk of their art; take the time to compare the lady bugs and talk about the differences that the children see. What are some of the similarities of the lady bugs? This activity would meet Foundations in Science F.4.2” Identify attributes or characteristics for comparison (e.g., color, size, gender, shape).”

Throughout the time you spent with your children doing this and other art activities, you will be working on the Visual Arts Foundation, F.2.16 “Demonstrate increasing skill in using different art materials. (e.g., paper, paint, clay, scraps, buttons)”

Include your infants in the art too. Their art might be seen when they focus on motions and movement. Infants and toddlers can be provided with large sheets of sturdy paper and materials to draw with such as crayons and chalk. Infant Toddler Visual Arts Foundation B.1.6 says, “Assign meaning to scribbles.” Talk with your infants and toddlers about what they have drawn. If it is during the lady bug week, a circle or other shape could be their lady bug. Science Foundation B.1.9 states manipulate objects. Further the infant’s and toddler’s science development by allowing the children to play with some of the objects that were used during the art project. The tissue paper would be fun to
hold, shake and crumple.

Here at Child Care Solutions, we have some great things in the Lending Library. We have brain noodles that are like giant pipe cleaners that your infants and toddlers can explore. We also have a toddler bug collecting jar with soft bugs to extend the activity into science. Are you looking for more activities on bugs? Look no further! We also have a bug themed Mission Thinking Cap and a new Toddler Thinking Tote that is bug themed as well. Do you have a different theme in mind? Ask your mentor what is available for you to check out! We love to bring you materials for your planned activities.

We would love to hear about some of your activity ideas and experiences – art projects, sensory experiences or ways you have extended your current learning areas. Please use the comment section provided. We are “ant”icipating hearing from you!