Why Fun Outdoor Art Activities Are Important
Young children are not always capable of expressing themselves using words and actions. As art is a simpler form of communication, it gives toddlers and young children a means to let what they feel deep down be known. Allowing parents to gain insights into their child’s thinking which otherwise would have been left bottled up and unattended.
Fun outdoor art activities work well with children of all ages, from toddlers and preschoolers right up to much older children who already attend school. Apart from this, open communication helps boost a child’s emotional intelligence as well.
Taking art outdoors means children can step out of a circle and get to work on a much larger scale freely. So be imaginative and inspire young children to go out into parks where nature thrives and enjoy lots of fresh air and have great fun being with nature and painting!
Here are a few fun outdoor art activities that focus more on the process rather than on the end results. Simple ideas that encourage children to experiment and express themselves in ways they may not have imagined before.
Take young children for a walk outside, while there ask them to collect lots of interesting pieces of nature. Small twigs with leaves and flowers still on them. Once you and the children have collected enough of them, use them as paintbrushes to paint!
Toddlers, preschoolers and older kids will all love experimenting with painting to see what kind of marks nature makes! This fun outdoor art activity is such an interesting process art idea for children that they will enjoy being outdoors and exploring the opportunity to experiment with nature!
It is through process art activities such as these that children learn so much more than trying to achieve a specific end result from what they do.
Make paint from nature
By teaching young children how to make their own paint using natural ingredients, you not only unlock their imagination but will introduce them to a fun and creative way to give a new twist to their art.
Find enough natural ingredients to ensure the entire process of making paint goes smooth. If you don’t have the following vegetables and fruit in stock at home, you could head over to your grocery store and pick them up — carrots, blueberries, spinach and strawberries! You can also think of food items such as coffee, vanilla flavouring and turmeric powder for creating deeper and darker shades of colours.
Once you have collected the natural food items, puree the vegetables and fruits and mix them with water and leave them overnight. For the spices, however, be sure to add very little water and mix thoroughly. Lesser the water, the richer the colour. This art activity idea will be a gold mine that will trigger endless creativity and fun times for children.
Children already have a natural ability for everything and anything art-related, so, as you can imagine, making their own homemade paint from nature and then using it to paint will give them immense joy, and perhaps even let their creativity run wild!
Make funny faces with rocks
Rounded and oval-shaped rocks found on river beds can be a source of great inspiring ideas for creating hilarious faces. Everyone will have a mind-blowing time working on this outdoor art activity!
Another big benefit will be an opportunity that doubles up as an outlet for expressing feelings and emotions for toddlers and preschoolers, as well as older children.
Encouraging them to work on creating enigmatic facial features, in a way that will make the jaws of adults drop. And like always, it is the process that is more important than the end result.
Messy masterpieces
Pour painting is not just messy, but also so much fun and an activity that is meant for the outdoors! Toddlers, preschoolers and older children will be able to create some really cool artworks using this art process and create one-of-a-kind gifts!
You start by plugging the holes of the terracotta planting pots from the inside. Use masking tape. Turn the pot upside down and place it on a flattened cardboard box and begin to pour the paint and watch the paint flow down slowly and steadily.
This painting technique is really simple and delivers loads of fun. Squeezing the paint out of those plastic bottles is great for working those hand muscles as well.
Choose one colour, pour, then fill another plastic bottle with a different colour and pour again. Keep doing this again and again, but remember to fill different colours each time. Wait for the paint to flow and settle and dry in the sun. The total effect when the paint dries will be stunning, to say the least. Rest assured, it will be always surprising!
Using water to paint!
If you don’t want the mess usually associated with using paint, you could have as much fun using just water. It is a simple and easy outdoor art activity idea to set up and allows young children to get as creative as they like without the mess! It also enables toddlers and preschoolers to work on developing their fine motor skills as they work using a paintbrush and water on a chalk background.
Begin by covering a chalkboard completely by using the flat side of the jumbo-sized chalks found in art shops. It helps in covering the entire chalkboard quickly.
This is a fun activity that can be left outside for children to come and go as they please. Leave a damp cloth next to the chalkboard, along with the water in a container and paintbrushes so that a child can wipe off the design once they are through with it, and are ready to start another!
Pistol painting with watercolours
Fill a water pistol with colour, take aim at a large sheet of paper and shoot! Every child will love this fantastic new way of creating a painting. The masterpieces children create end up looking unique and amazing. Water gun painting also helps young children build their fine motor skills.
Experiment with different colours. Water Pistol painting is such a fun outdoor art activity for children of all ages. It really is the best hot weather art idea ever! They will have so much fun that you will find it difficult to stop children squirting colour at everything they see, including you!
About Abrakadoodle
This is the kind of process art learning experience that inspires children to think different, be innovative, and devise ways that teach interesting things found in the real world. Changing the way they discover and imagine. Igniting their minds to think, play and learn like never before.
If you like to enrol your child in our children’s art classes or participate in cognitive learning activities, give Abrakadoodle a call. Or better still, make an appointment with the head of a centre near you.
Get hands-on exposure to an experience that will make you see art in a way that adds value to a child’s life.
Please note: Abrakadoodle classrooms are thoroughly sanitized every day — the tables, the chairs, the children’s activity stations and everything else the child might touch is made safe and clean. They also wear a mask, wash their hands frequently, and practice social distancing.
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