Preschool Art: Painting »

Award-winning author MaryAnn F. Kohl has written 14 books for Gryphon House, and is a regular featured columnist for Parenting Magazine. She has written the best-selling favorites Preschool Art, The Big Messy Art Book, Making Make-Believe, MathArts, and First Art. She is co-author of Global Art and Cooking Art with Jean Potter. MaryAnn lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Paint your way to fun with these 50 creative art experiences for young children.

Children's Literature

Here are fifty nifty ways to encourage enjoyable art experiences, concentrating on the materials involved, leaving the subjects to the creative choices of the children. Each activity has a list of materials and equipment, a detailed description of the art process, suggested variations, and helpful hints for the adult supervisors. Icons indicate the age level, difficulty of planning and preparation, and possible hazards (occurring in only four of the activities). Tempera in powdered or liquid form, watercolors, liquid starch, food coloring, colored chalk, dishwasher detergent, Epsom salts, cornstarch and egg yolks are among the wide variety of substances with which to create paints. Most of the equipment is simple¾various kinds of paper, brushes, cookie sheets, cups, baby food jars, cotton swabs, plastic food trays and so forth. Application methods include spattering, stamping, bubbling, swinging, spraying, blotting and more. Far from being suitable only for preschoolers, these activities would be fun for elementary school children, Sunday school classes, Cub Scouts and Brownies, and other craft-oriented groups. Illustrated with simple black-and-white drawings, the book is indexed by icon, activity, and materials for quick and easy reference. Part of the "Preschool Art" series. 2001, Gryphon House, $7.95. Ages 3 to 8. Reviewer:Patricia Dole