Family Tree Invitation to Create Process Art Experience

As a Mother Goose Time blog ambassador, I receive the Mother Goose Time Preschool curriculum in exchange for my honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own. Keep in mind that all toddlers do things in their own time and on their own terms. What one is ready for, another might not be. Please use your best mama judgement when planning activities for your little kids.

Hello, hello!

We started working on the Me & My Family theme from Mother Goose Time last weekend and we’re seriously lovin’ the brand-spankin’-new “invitation to create” activities that are now included in each month’s curriculum kit.

It really wasn’t all that long ago that I wrote a post about why I think the process is almost always more important than the product. If you’re interested, you can check it out here. For what it’s worth, that’s still very much how I feel. Some things never change. Lol…

And long story short, the little guy is definitely all about no one telling him what to put where. He has his entire life to learn how to follow directions.

Right now, I’d much rather encourage creativity and problem-solving skills than worry about whether or not whatever it is that he’s working on looks exactly like the example.

I want nothing more than for him to explore the materials and that’s exactly what we did today. If you’re interested in playing along with us and making your own Family Tree Invitation to Create, keep reading.

What you’ll need

• Apple Tree Photo
• 2 Clear Cups
• Souffle Cup
• Paint
• Glue
• Markers
• Scissors
• Paper
• Leaves
• Sticks

Here’s how to do it

Set out a piece of blue paper for each child. Place the rest of the materials in the middle of the table with the Inspiration Photo.

It’s that simple, y’all!

The little guy of course didn’t waste any time grabbing the paint. What toddler doesn’t love getting messy? I think it’s just one of those things.

He mixed the red and the green paint and then brushed it onto his paper.

After that, he tried stamping with the clear cups.

And when that didn’t work out for him, he decided to try the souffle cup instead.

Needless to say, the little guy had a blast with this project. Isn’t his family tree awesome?

Being both a mama and an educator means looking at things from two different perspectives. While I love his artwork regardless of whether it’s product-based or process art, I prefer to create open-ended art experiences as often as possible both in the classroom and at home.

Yep, these “invitation to create” activities are definitely all kinds of awesome and I’m so excited to see what’s next.

If you’re interested in following along with what we’re up to each week, definitely sign up via email and/or follow The Keeper of the Memories on Facebook and Pinterest.

If you missed our preschool space post not too long ago, you can check it out here.

Looking for more insight & inspiration? Here are the top 10 most popular posts from The Keeper of the Memories. You’re definitely not going to want to miss these!

Thanks so much for visiting. See ya next week!