Teacher-directed arts and crafts

[Anonymous]

Anyone else not into all the daycare and preschool crafts where each kid is doing identical “projects”? With the teacher basically directing every step. Glue here. Color this part brown and that part red. etc etc. This stuff is piling up in my house and I get annoyed.

It is what it is — I KNOW most schools are like this! — and teachers just either don’t have the resources, time, or train to do more open-ended explorations with some guidance/structure.

But gosh now and then I feel like a rant and I wish that a couple of times a week they’d just let them draw or paint whatever on a blank piece of paper. Now my kid gets mad when I color outside the lines for example…. 😂🫠

[Anonymous]

Agree. As a teacher this is not best practice. My own kids school did this and I did not like it. It’s fine once in a while but not all the time.

[Anonymous]

It makes me sad, though I’ve also resigned to “it is what it is.”

We keep a lot of kid-friendly art supplies out in our house, and every cardboard box from my online shopping would get some kind of treatment before it heads to recycling. Paint sticks, glue sticks, scrap paper, so on. My DC loved this for a couple of years until about 3.5yo, and to be honest it was one way I could get some peace to cook dinner efficiently. But in the fall he moved into a new class and within a month, that pre-dinner creating stopped. He still asks me to draw something for him from time to time, but he almost never uses the materials himself anymore unless I provide some kind of pre-printed image, like a coloring page.

Maybe next school year will be better…

[Anonymous]

Look into Reggio programs. It’s the opposite of what you describe and it’s amazing how the children really communicate through the 100 languages.

[Anonymous]

This doesn’t bother me at all. I love the little projects my kids do at preschool! At this age it’s more about developing fine motor skills than expressing creativity. Plus I have art supplies at home if they just want to draw something. Of all the things to worry about, this pretty low on my list.

[Anonymous]

I’m with you on not caring at all if it comes out as a snowman or whatever, but in the end they’re practicing fine motor skills and following instructions, which is important. There is probably more unguided art exploration too, like a painting easel.

[Anonymous]

Our preschool did both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This doesn’t bother me at all. I love the little projects my kids do at preschool! At this age it’s more about developing fine motor skills than expressing creativity. Plus I have art supplies at home if they just want to draw something. Of all the things to worry about, this pretty low on my list.

Right- the ones I see include specific cutting and taking small pieces and pasting them. I used to totally agree about the creativity, but my kid would literally just scribble for 15 seconds but needs additional fine motor work. Even with the OT he does very specific activities that focus on fine motor development

[Anonymous]

I hate crafting, I am so grateful someone else works on these fine motor skills with my kids.

I let them be more creative at home- lots of free play in the playroom or at the park.

[Anonymous]

Switch to a reggio preschool and you won't have any of that! Would drive me nuts too

[Anonymous]

From a language perspective crafts like this help kids learn concepts (color, size, location) and to follow directions.

-SLP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From a language perspective crafts like this help kids learn concepts (color, size, location) and to follow directions.

-SLP

but is that necessary? my 3 year old is great at following directions and knows all those concepts fine but no teacher directed crafts at her school-- tons of creative and interesting art that is very child led (reggio)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From a language perspective crafts like this help kids learn concepts (color, size, location) and to follow directions.

-SLP

They don’t help with those concepts more than process art does, and they slow down other skills like perseverance, ideation and problem solving which process art develops.

— Special Educator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From a language perspective crafts like this help kids learn concepts (color, size, location) and to follow directions.

-SLP

This. I feel like you are missing the point. They are looking for many ways to teach concepts and art and crafts are just one more tool in their bucket. These are not really art projects in the way you want them to be. They are just vehicles to teach concepts - and pretty great ones at that. Oh, and you don't have to save everything your kid ever made. If you want, take photos before you throw it away.

[Anonymous]

I throw away most projects after a few days.

Maybe talk to your daycare/preschool about incorporating more open ended art days? They may be receptive.

My kids have always been inspired after doing these types of identical crafts, but our provider did both, structured and unstructured arts and crafts.