Clay working is such an incredibly fun art experience for kids. Plus, the end product is always a cool sculpture piece for your living room.

Here is a very simple activity that can be done with just a few supplies and fit for the attention span of any preschooler. Also the perfect activity to help kids develop fine motor skills, finger strength, and creative expression.

Sculpture Art Project

Time: 20 minutes Ages: Toddlers + Difficulty: Easy 

Supply List

• Modeling Clay Dough

• Styrofoam (save those from delivery packages)

• Tempera Paints + Brown Paper Bag

• Paintbrushes

• Wooden Skewers

Step 1: Prepping board with some paint

Set up the area with couple paint brushes, block of styrofoam, wooden skewers, modeling clay and paint. Paint the styrofoam board while discussing project. We used tempera paint, just enough to get our inspiration going.

Step 2: Squish, squeeze, shape, and sculpt inspired by imagination!

Select a couple of wooden skewers, have child pick one and carefully place onto the styrofoam. They love the feeling of the pointy end moving through the board. All set for the fun to begin. 

Step 3: Sculpture Art

My almost three year old son was totally wrapped into this activity. He loved punching the holes, rolling the clay and the mushy feeling of clay between his hands. Placing the wooden skewers onto the foam board helps for stability and gets them to work vertically. Offering a new perspective.

Watch them play and grow their imagination.

In this activity, kids learn how to:

• Develop fine motor skills, color recognition and creative expression.
• Shape clay into different shapes and if they need a little nudge, explain how vines naturally grow on tress. This will get them to naturally work upwards.  

These are the coolest art sculptures!

Please tag me in your creations on Instagram and FB and use the hashtag #EXPLORERARTLAB to spread the word. We hope you enjoy this activity and thank you for being part of our community to grow "Everyday Creative Explorers". 

When I think of exploratory art making, I think of ways that we can get to recreate what nature already provides as inspiration. In this case we learned about the underwater world starting with corals.

Living in South Florida we've seen bits and pieces of coral wash ashore. These living organisms are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems and to learn about it we decided to create our own clay model using what we found at the beach. 

Overfishing and destructive fishing, pollution and all things that cause a change in the ocean chemistry are all taking a huge toll on coral reefs. A big reason why ocean literacy needs to start young. And what better time to engage and inspire ocean advocates than childhood.

Time: 20 minutes Ages: Toddlers + Difficulty: Easy 

Supply List

• Drift Wood
• Modeling Dough
• Seashells
• Loose parts (beads, bottle caps etc)

PROMPTS TO HELP YOU FURTHER ENGAGE IN THE ACTIVITY:

• Tell me about what you made.
• I wonder if our local coral reef has all these colors. What do you think?
• What colors did you use? Can you find these same colors in nature?

Please tag me in your creations on Instagram and FB and use the hashtag #EXPLORERARTLAB to spread the word. We hope you enjoy this activity and thank you for being part of our community to grow "Everyday Creative Explorers". 

Everyone loves holding a stamp and getting a good print out of it. This project combines all of that: DIY stamp making, printing and up-cycling fun. 

We turned our drift wood finds into a collection of stamps and made a good set of prints. The best part is that our up-cycled wood was the perfect size for a toddler to work his art magic.

If you have wood scraps laying around the house why not turn them into stamps. You can also cut cardboard, make it square size and layer together for a good stamp hold.  If you want to get in on the fun, read below for our step by step process. Surely, stamp printing projects will be a favorite in your household.

What you’ll need to make the wooden texture stamps:

Supply List

• Acrylics
• Wood Scraps *Cardboard works just as good
• Paint brush
• Glue
• Foam craft sheets
• Mat Boards or Regular Paper Sheets

Step 1:

Set aside the wood scraps you plan to work with. Use about five foam craft sheets and cut out different shapes. Paste the shapes onto different sides of flat end of the wood. I know, most stamps only have one side. But, I wanted to take advantage and use all the sides available.  

Step 2:

 Once the foam sheet shapes have dried on the wood,  select colors. We didn't have ink, so we made it a bit more fun. We took a paint brush and painted over the shapes. It required greater skill and ended up being just as messy as ink.

Step 2:

You are ready to start start stamping away. Make sure to have ample boards for your prints. We used all the different sides and overlapping happened.

Perfect abstract art that only our mini artists know how to create.

PROMPTS TO HELP YOU FURTHER ENGAGE IN THE ACTIVITY:

• What shapes did you create?
• Did you like painting each stamp with different colors?
• These patterns look great, which one is your favorite?
• It is so much fun to use wood we had laying around the house!

Please tag me in your creations on Instagram and FB and use the hashtag #EXPLORERARTLAB to spread the word. We hope you enjoy this activity and thank you for being part of our community to grow "Everyday Creative Explorers". 

The "Creative Village" is a grown-up playgroup, for creative moms and their little ones. Once a month we get together to talk, make, and share projects we've been working on. We exchange stories on passion projects, talk hobbies, design, have a clay date, make stuff, and sure occasionally there's talk about multivitamins. (We aren't the typical mom group if you get the vibe). We enjoy getting messy for art!

We promise a no-pressure crafting fun zone. Away from the daily parenting grind we learn something new and have a great time. Bring along your mini artist, there is an art station set up for them to have fun while we chat and craft.  

Sign-up here to join! 

Where do you meet? Details provided via invite.

Is it tactile? Kids like using their hands to manipulate different types of materials with different textures. Exploring how things feel, fit together and come apart is an exploratory adventure already. Collage, sculpture and fun assembly projects make this easy. Best part is no matter the theme, you know that your students are working towards developing those important fine and gross motor skills. 

Is it sensory? A sensory environment can be set up in different ways. They can be found objects in nature, plastic items from the craft store or whatever recycled trinkets you've set apart. Playing with these types of materials are great for children's development. It allows them to explore and investigate in new ways.​

​Is it open-ended? Children generally love when they have an opportunity to play and explore freely. When using open-ended materials the activity goes from average to having a high potential for supporting creative thinking. Allow your children to explore materials as they see fit. 

Hopefully these three questions will help you in the journey of art exploration! 

Welcome to our "idea room" where it's cluttered with things that spark for a creative adventure. Together, we dive into the curious world of little artists and explore together.  Freebies of play-based, art ideas and engaging activities. 

Learning to add texture to art adds a whole new dimension to artwork. Trust me, we tried it. This project proved for fun discovery art mode. We started with questions:

• What happens when you paint over the textured surface?
• What about we cover our board with a collage of recycled materials?

When we applied netted fabric to our board, it turned out to be a fun sensory, textured experiment. Give it a try!

Textured Art 

Time: 10 minutes Ages: Toddlers + Difficulty: Easy 

Supply List

• Large Paper Board or card board A3 size
• Paint (Temperas)
• Glue
• Container to mix paint
• Loose parts (We used recycled grocery fruit nets)
• Paint brush

Step 1:

Start with explore as the lines, bumps and feel of the different materials you will use. Take your board and apply the net. Watch how paint took to the textured parts differently.

Step 2:

Paint along the top or right inside the grooves. Use a paint brush lightly over the surface to only paint the material on top.

PROMPTS TO HELP YOU FURTHER ENGAGE IN THE ACTIVITY:

• Tell me about the different colors you used?
• Do you think we can use this net for something else?
• What will you name your art project?

Please tag me in your creations on Instagram and FB and use the hashtag #EXPLORERARTLAB to spread the word. We hope you enjoy this activity and thank you for being part of our community to grow "Everyday Creative Explorers". 

Want a space and some materials for your little one to explore, create and invent?  We can help you design one or join us, at our Kids Art Classes. 

Projects and activities are always fun and promote independence, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills. Teaching goal is to foster a positive learning environment filled with creativity and to help protect natural habitats through education and art.

If you've got a mini adventurer then check out our Explorer Lab sessions. In the early AM we get together to explore coastal habitats in search of critters, seashells and more. We go on a nature walk, learn about the ocean and enjoy a simple craft project.

If you love to collaborate our "Creative Village", a friendly kid + caregiver group might be more your speed. We put creativity first, talk passion projects and make art together. Click here for an invite!

Making art with repurposed materials is easy. But getting organized is not. These tips can help you sort out the best items and get started.

RECYCLING TIPS

Start by setting aside the below materials:

• cardboard box
• recycled string
• bottle tops
• plastic containers
• natural materials

Prepping the material will help you save time.  

• Bottles

  • Recyclable if mouth is smaller than base

  • Empty, rinse, dry, and reattach lids

• Jugs

  • Recyclable if mouth is smaller than base

  • Empty, rinse, dry, and reattach lids

  • Examples: milk, soda, laundry, shampoo, contact solution

• Tubs

  • Make sure to reattach lid after rinsing (DO NOT place containers inside of other containers)

  • Empty, rinse, dry, and reattach lids

I find that it's helpful to have a small jar by the kitchen sink and a spare laundry basket, both designated for recyclables meant for art projects. Extending the life of an object is already a creative learning moment for both you and your mini artist. What other ways do you create a greener art space? 

Our photography block play activity is designed to inspire the minds of young children and future oceanographers. This activity is a sure way to start engaging kids in photographic storytelling. The places, people, nature and colors captured in each of these photographs are a valuable instructional tool in your creative learning time. 

Enjoy this fun, open-ended block play prompt and remember there is no right or wrong way to build. Place blocks together randomly or in patterns. Identify colors, talk about the ocean or build an underwater castle.

photo credit: photographers @pixaby

MATERIALS

• Colored Blocks
• Access other pictures of the Great Barrier Reef or of interesting underwater landscapes .