🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🎨 Creativity & Self-Expression — Making freely chosen creative decisions — which colors, shapes, and materials to use — develops a child's personal artistic voice and the confidence to express original ideas across all areas of life.
- 💬 Vocabulary Expansion — Craft activities introduce rich domain-specific vocabulary: fold, crease, overlap, layer, press, symmetrical, transparent. Children who acquire craft vocabulary develop stronger descriptive language across all contexts.
- 🖐️ Fine Motor Skills — Cutting, gluing, folding, and manipulating craft materials directly exercises the small hand muscles and finger precision required for handwriting and other fine-detail tasks.
- 📋 Planning & Sequencing — Multi-step craft projects require children to think about what comes first, next, and last — building the procedural sequencing skills that underlie reading comprehension, mathematics, and everyday problem solving.
In Cleo’s Color Book, Cleo challenges young readers to mix their own colors and share them with her. The Preschool Color Palette is an excellent craft to stimulate your preschooler’s creativity. They can combine various colors in different proportions to make an infinite number of hues and shades. Let your preschooler delight themselves with the power of their own creativity by making the Preschool Color Palette.
Materials you will Need
Cleo's Color Book
1 ice tray or plastic egg carton
Paint in primary colors; red, blue, yellow
White, textured art paper
Several paint brushes
Plastic teaspoons
An art apron
Plastic cover for table
How to Make It
Step 1: Parent Step
Cover the surface with the plastic cover. Pour a small amount of red, blue, and yellow into three different sections. Leave one section between the filled sections.
Step 2:
Have your preschooler paint a little bit with each of the primary colors. If they should happen to overlap and create a new color, point it out.
Step 3:
Give your preschooler three plastic spoons. Have them spoon red and yellow into one section, blue and yellow into another, and blue and red into a third. Be sure the same spoon doesn’t dip into two different colors.
Step 4:
Have your preschooler mix the colors. Talk about the result.
Step 5:
Let your preschooler paint with the colors for a while.
Step 6:
Change papers and let your preschooler make a color chart similar to Cleo’s.
Make it More Challenging
Add black and white paint to the tray. Refresh the other colors if needed. Encourage your preschooler to mix and try as many colors as they like.
Helpful Tips for Parents
Tip 1:
Make sure your preschooler paints in an area with a washable floor.
Tip 2:
If possible, your preschooler should paint in clothing you no longer care about.
Tip 3:
It’s best to use undiluted washable tempera paint. It’s thick enough not to drip and it contains soap for easy clean up, but it will stain clothing so you still need to be sure your preschooler wears an apron.
Tip 4:
The best way to clean up paint is with a spray bottle and paper towels. If you use a sponge or a rag, you will need a way to rinse it out periodically.
Tip 5:
Be sure to check your preschooler’s shoes before leaving the paint table or easel. You’d be surprised how easily a missed drop of paint can end up tracked through the house.
I'm
Margaret Studer, the Preschool Crafts writer for PreschoolRock.com. In addition to crafts, I enjoy writing, children, cooking, and cats. I love to hear from my readers, so please share your preschool craft ideas with me. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or questions about this site, please
contact me.
The essential preschool craft supply kit: washable crayons and markers, child-safe scissors, a glue stick (plus liquid glue for older preschoolers), white and colored construction paper, tape (painter's tape and clear tape), watercolor paints and brushes, playdough (homemade or store-bought), and a smock or dedicated art shirt. With just these supplies, hundreds of craft projects are possible. Secondary additions: natural materials (leaves, sticks, pinecones), recycled materials (toilet rolls, egg cartons, cardboard boxes), and foam sheets.
Establish a rotating gallery system: a designated wall space with clips, a clothesline, or frames with removable backs where new work regularly replaces old. Photograph all work before rotating it out — a digital photo album of a year's artwork shows remarkable development and stores without physical space. Send particularly meaningful work to grandparents and relatives, who often display it prominently. The key principle: everything gets acknowledged and displayed briefly; the best pieces are kept for longer; photographs preserve everything.
