What You Need

Plastic shoebox size containers

Labels with each preschoolers name

Assorted art supplies:

Crayons

Safety scissors

Colored pencils

Markers

Scotch tape

Craft glue

What To Do

Step One:

Collect enough plastic containers that each preschooler can have their own. Many stores sell shoebox sized containers that are easy to store and fit most basic art supplies but any small plastic container will work. Label the plastic containers with each preschooler's name. Use a clear font that preschoolers can easily read. This will give preschoolers practice recognizing their name and the names of their preschool classmates and help to create a print rich preschool classroom.

Step Two:

Determine what art supplies each individual preschooler has mastered. You may want to start each preschooler off with a box of crayons and add art supplies as they prove they know how to use them responsibly. Safety scissors should be included in the art box once each preschooler has demonstrated that they understand basic safety rules that they need to follow when using scissors.

Let preschoolers know that if they do not follow the rules with a particular art material that it will be removed from their box. This is helpful for preschoolers to understand before being given free access to their art box. That gives you the opportunity to remove craft glue if preschoolers consistently make a mess by using excessive amounts or to remove markers if preschoolers draw on an inappropriate surface.

Step Three:

Organize the art boxes on a low shelf in your art center so that preschoolers can easily access their individual art supplies during free play or free art time. Preschoolers will have their own basic art supplies to use whenever they want to create their own work of art.

Like this article? Get more like it in your inbox. Subscribe today to our free weekly newsletter.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Choose toys that grow with the child: open-ended materials (blocks, clay, art supplies) remain valuable for years; single-use toys with one correct answer produce brief engagement.

• Avoid academic pressure before age 5. Preschool children's brains are not developmentally ready for formal academic instruction, and premature pressure backfires.

• Use mathematical language all day: "more than," "less than," "half," "equal," "twice as much." Incidental math vocabulary builds the conceptual foundation formal math builds on.

• Expose children to multiple languages early if possible. The preschool window is the most efficient period for language acquisition the brain will ever have.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should formal education begin for preschoolers?

Play-based learning is the developmentally appropriate educational mode for children from birth through age 6–7. Formal academic instruction (sitting at desks, worksheets, direct phonics drills) before age 6 consistently produces short-term knowledge gains but long-term motivation losses. The children with the richest preschool play experiences often outperform academically drilled peers by age 8, when the developmental advantage of play-based executive function development becomes apparent in school performance.

Should my preschooler be reading before kindergarten?

Reading before kindergarten is possible for some children and developmentally not expected of most. The literacy skills that predict reading success — phonological awareness (hearing sounds in words), letter knowledge, print awareness, and vocabulary — are the appropriate focus before age 5. These skills are built through: reading aloud daily, nursery rhymes and songs, alphabet activities, and rich conversation. A preschooler who loves books, knows their letters, and has a large vocabulary is fully reading-ready, whether or not they can decode words independently.

Related reading: See also our vocabulary building guide and our counting activities for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.
• 🧠 Memory & Recall — Remembering rules, retelling a story in sequence, and practicing skills to automaticity builds working memory and long-term recall — the cognitive foundation that learning in every subject depends on.
• ⚡ Executive Function — Planning, sequencing steps, holding rules in mind while acting, and stopping a prepotent response all build executive function — the cluster of cognitive skills most strongly predictive of long-term academic and life success.
• 🤔 Critical Thinking — Being asked "why do you think that?" and forming and defending an answer develops the analytical reasoning children need for reading comprehension, mathematics, and evidence-based argumentation.

Parents and teachers of preschoolers know how important it is to make basic art supplies available for preschoolers to use when they want to. Free art time helps preschoolers to explore their creative side and can be very relaxing for over stimulated preschoolers, but giving preschoolers free access to art supplies can create a huge mess. Simplify free art time by providing each preschooler with their own art box that contains only the art supplies that they have a proven mastery of.