River Painting for Preschoolers
This River Painting is perfect for exploring collage while practicing creative thinking and fine motor skills with your preschoolers. Don’t forget to add this quick and easy painting for kids activity to your next river theme for preschoolers.
We’re definitely loving this month’s Fables & Folktales theme. Not only are the topics focused on storytelling, but there’s lots of wonderful process art too!
River activities for preschoolers are great for a variety of different preschool themes. We learned about rivers during our water preschool theme and again this month while exploring Fables & Folktales.
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A huge thanks to Experience Early Learning (formerly Mother Goose Time) for providing us with their Experience Preschool curriculum for free in exchange for sharing our honest and authentic stories resulting from our personal experiences. It’s been such a huge blessing to us! As always, my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own.
Collage is a wonderful way to learn about the elements of art with your little learners. Your preschoolers and kindergartners can get more familiar with concepts such as color, shape, and even texture while practicing fine motor skills with this river painting for kids.
One of my favorite things about these invitation to create process art experiences is that there’s no project example. Instead, I set out an inspiration photo along with the materials that were provided in our preschool curriculum kit and sometimes basic art supplies too. It’s as simple as that!
River Painting for Kids
What you’ll need
- Inspiration Photo
- Background Paper (green)
- Blue Paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Nature Items

Here’s how to do it
Set Up
- Set out all materials with the Inspiration Photo.
Prompts
- What colors or shapes do you notice in the photo?
- Will you draw animals or fish in the river?
- How can you use the nature items in your art?
- Will you tear the paper or cut it?
Observe
- Does the child tear or cut the paper?
- Does he or she explain how a log jam is created?
These painting for kids activities are not only quick and easy, but they’re also perfect for encouraging creativity, problem-solving, and of course fine motor skills.
Don’t forget to check back if you’re interested in seeing what we’re up to next week with our Friends & Feelings theme from Experience Preschool!