Preschool Racer Steve Racer Cap
🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 💪 Persistence & Resilience — Working through a craft that doesn't go as planned, fixing mistakes, and persisting to completion teaches children that effort — not talent — produces results, a mindset that predicts lifelong learning.
- 🌿 Sensory Exploration — Handling varied craft materials — soft fabric, rough sandpaper, smooth clay, scratchy burlap — builds sensory discrimination and supports the processing skills that some children need additional practice with.
- 🏆 Pride & Accomplishment — Completing a craft and displaying or giving it away gives children a concrete experience of accomplishment — building the relationship between effort, completion, and pride that motivates future creative risk-taking.
- ♻️ Environmental Thinking — Using natural or recycled materials in crafts begins to develop awareness that materials have a life beyond their original use — an early foundation for environmental stewardship and sustainable thinking.
Racer Steve plays the guitar while Princess Katie sings Songs for the Coolest Kids. Racer Steve is cool; he wears a green racer’s outfit and a red cap. Your preschool can be cool, too. In this preschool craft activity, your preschooler can make a cap like Racer Steve’s very easily with just a white cap and some red fabric paint.
Materials you will Need
1 white child-size cap
Red fabric paint
Paintbrush
Picture of Race Steve
How to Make It
Step 1:
Cover the work surface with newspaper to protect it.
Step 2:
Make sure your preschooler is wearing an art apron and clothing you don’t care about.
Step 3:
Have your preschooler look at the picture of Race Steve and point out his red cap.
Step 4:
Let your preschool paint the cap red, preferably leaving some white parts.
Step 5:
Let the paint dry completely.
Step 6:
Let your preschooler wear the Racer Steve Cap while listening to the Songs for the Coolest Kids CD.
Helpful Tips for Parents
Tip 1:
Make a Racer Steve Cap for yourself along with your preschooler.
Tip 2:
Print out the picture above to give your preschooler an example of what the cap looks like.
Tip 3:
If your preschooler paints the cap just a little bit red or leaves no white at all, that’s okay. The experience of painting the cap is the most important thing.
Tip 4:
This activity is so easy you can use it for a group of preschoolers in a classroom or at your Princess Katie and Racer Steve preschool party.
My name is
Shannon McMath and I am the Crafts writer at PreschoolRock.com. I live in California with my husband, Steve, and my daughter, Emily. Crafting is a passion of mine and I love to pass on the joy to preschoolers. Sharing quality time with your preschooler creating crafts will not only help him/her develop fine motor skills and creativity, it will create memories that will last a life time! If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments feel free to
contact me. Thanks!
Helpful Tips for Parents
- Process over product: the developmental value is in the making, not the thing made. Resist the urge to fix, redo, or "help" make it look better.
- Stock a craft supplies box that children can access independently: paper, tape, glue sticks, scissors, crayons. Open-ended materials produce the most creative work.
- Accept "failure" as part of craft learning. A collapsed structure, a ripped paper, or paint that ran off the page are all engineering and material science lessons.
- For groups, set out individual supplies trays so children aren't waiting for materials — transitions and waits are the enemy of preschool craft engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I display children's artwork without overwhelming our home?
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.
What's the best way to store craft supplies for preschoolers?
Clear bins or drawers labeled with pictures and words at child height allow preschoolers to access and return supplies independently. Separate categories: drawing materials, painting materials, cutting/gluing materials, three-dimensional materials. The best storage makes the child both able to get supplies without help and responsible for returning them after use. Inaccessible supplies require adult mediation for every craft session — this friction significantly reduces the frequency of child-initiated making.
Related reading: See also our salt dough projects and our paper plate crafts for more ideas on this topic.
