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I shared this post years ago, when my children were young. I love looking back at the fun things we did to fill our days as I taught my kids the alphabet! I highly recommend doing sensory, art, and fine motor activities with your preschooler simply because it’s fun. These activities also provide opportunities to develop oral language and other early literacy skills. However, please note that research tells us that direct instruction in letters and sounds is the most efficient way to teach and learn the alphabet. Find our full alphabet curriculum here.
11 Crafts for Letter W
Paper Plate Watermelon Craft
My kidslovedthis craft from Lil’ Miss Smartypants. I gave them each half a paper plate, construction paper squares, and watered down glue. Using a paintbrush they painted glue on their plates and applied the squares. My Four was obsessed with leavingnot a single bit of white. I won’t pretend I don’t know where his perfectionist streak comes from!
Water Bead Painting
This was our first experience with water beads. Have you ever used them? I bought mine at Michaels, and they were already hydrated. I think you typically buy them as tiny little balls and then let them soak for a day or so before you can play with them. Each of my kids had a piece of white paper inside a box lid. We got out a bunch of plastic cups and put a handful of water beads in each. Then I squirted washable tempera paint in each cup, and the kidshad a blast dumping the cups and rolling the water beads over their paper. They had even more fun playing with the water beads when they were done with their paintings. (This was an outdoor activity.)Baths followed! For more about this fun art idea, see Growing a Jeweled Rose.
Paper Weaving
It was immediately obvious that this was beyond my Three, but my Four and Six loved the challenge and caught on quickly. I cut slits down the black paper and gave them each construction paper strips an inch wide. They wove the paper in and out. Then they glued down the loose edges and trimmed the ends. A great fine motor activity which yielded a beautiful result!
W is for Weather
This was a simple craft to show four types of weather: sunny, windy (the green paper is blowing leaves), snowy, and rainy.
Windmill Toilet Paper Roll Craft
My Four and Six had fun making these simple windmills. Save a toilet paper tube and get the pattern from DLTK-kids.com.
Little Red Wagon
I gave my Three the pieces for this craft, and he was able to figure out the puzzle and make a wagon. A simple and fun craft for a young preschooler.
Printable Wolf Craft
The kids all loved painting these wolf patterns from Learn Create Love. After painting the patterns, we let them dry. The next day we cut out the pieces and assembled the wolves. It was also a lesson in color mixing, as each of the kids chose a basic color and mixed it with white to get a new shade. If you’re looking for more printable crafts, Learn Create Love has a giant collection of them!
Salty Watercolor Art
This was too challenging for my Three, but my Four and Six loved it. They each squirted school glue all over a piece of paper set inside a large baking dish. Then they sprinkled salt on the picture. We shook it off. Finally, they each took a paintbrush and painted watercolor along the salty glue. It was fun to see how the paint spread all by itself as they worked. For a detailed tutorial, check out the lovely website The Artful Parent.
Whale Craft
My personal opinion is that it’s good to mix open-ended art (like the water bead painting and salty watercolor art) with crafts like this one. For my Three, especially, they’re just the thing. He loves putting glue on pieces and placing them just so on his paper. It may not allow for a lot of creativity, but it allows for some basic skills practice. He’s also very proud of the result! Don’t you love the whale’s smile?
Window Box Flowers
When I saw this window box art on Pinterest, I knew we had to try it. The kids used finger paint to paint flowers on large sheets of white paper. Later they cut around the flowers. After gluing white strips on blue paper to make windows, they added the flowers. We glued on the black window boxes to complete the projects.
W is for Watermelon
Finally, my Four and Six glued tissue paper on W shapes to create a watermelon. Since we had watermelon for lunch, they glued on real seeds! For this and other fun watermelon ideas, visit Simply Sprout.
Alphabet Curriculum for Preschool
$29.00
Our curriculum includes lessons for teaching both upper and lowercase letter names and sounds. You’ll get three lessons per letter, built-in review, simple handwriting practice, rhyming, syllable counting, phonemic awareness, and a whole lot more!
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