Today is such a fun day. I get to share with you THREE different painting projects that use process art for preschoolers. Do you know about process art?

Process art is an art project that focuses on the actual creative making of the art – the process – not the end result. This makes process art completely ideal for young artists.

Get ready to see 3 awesome painting process art ideas that are perfect for preschoolers. You will love them!

Process Art for Preschoolers

When my kids were all toddlers, I used to pick up craft books for kids from the library with very good intentions to create (so-called) easy art projects together. I’d assemble the twelve different fabrics, four different paint colours, glitter, scissors, glue, ribbon, paper plates and all the materials required to make a “Simple Lion Mask”. When we finally met the glorious moment when the crafting would begin, it sounded a lot like this:

“Wait – don’t cut that. Hey! Stop squirting all that paint. Put the scissors down! Let mommy do that part. That’s the wrong colour. Wait. No. STOP.”

And as soon as I gave up commanding my tiny glitter covered army, they promptly took off crafting their own incredible, individual art pieces. And while they did, I made a lion mask that looked just like in the book.

Ever have this experience?

Well friends, the activity I’ve brought you today is the opposite of the Lion Mask. Through our early crafting experiences I’ve learned that kids don’t always need to make specific projects because they are so freely creative!

Nowadays, we mostly use Process Art to foster expression and creativity during art time. Process art is crafting in a way that is not tied to one desired outcome. It allows kids to express their creativity any way that they feel is best. Process art for preschoolers is open ended, free spirited and requires nothing but interest and exploration. And the best part – you can sit back and enjoy their exploration, or you and join right in on the creativity alongside them (without any stress or pressure!)

Introducing Process Pan Painting!

For this process art for preschoolers you will need:

– a pan or tray with a rimmed edge

– paper

– tape

– a strong magnet

– a variety of small magnetic objects (screws, nails, small magnets)

– 3-4 colours of squeezable paint

– a few marbles

– a small cup

– plastic wrap

This project can be done in multiple steps to create beautiful layers, or all at once. Like I said, it’s totally open ended and the possibilities are endless!

We began with magnet painting, moved onto plastic wrap painting and finished with marble rolling.

Start by taping a piece of paper to your pan and squirting a few blobs of paint on. Then your little ones can choose which magnetic items they’d like to put in the paint blobs.

Hold up their tray for them while they take the strong magnet underneath the tray and pull the different magnetic objects around, dragging and swirling the paint colours around on the page.

Guys, moving objects around with the power of magnetism is fun enough all on its own, but adding paint to this game is next level exciting! (Added bonus: choose a heavy tray for your child and as you hold it up for minutes on end, get a free arm workout!)

When the kids are finished with magic magnetism painting, you can add some texture to the swirly colours by plopping a piece of plastic wrap on top of their paper. Let those little fingers massage and smoosh the paint around until they are satisfied.

Lift to reveal the textured goodness. (Finger painting without any of the messy fingers? Um, yes please!)

For the final touch, use a contrasting colour for marble rolling on top of the design. Put a bit of paint in your small cup, drop a few marbles in and get them good and covered in paint.

Then, dump a marble onto the tray and roll it all around on top of the paper. Watch the tracks go every which way. Rolling these marbles around is also a really fun way for your kids to explore some basic physics principles like inclined planes as they watch the marble roll faster and slower, depending how tilted the pan gets, as well as the properties of viscosity as the marble slows down when it rolls through a big blob of paint, and speed up as the paint is rubbed off on the paper.