non-messy art

Cut the egg cartons in half so you have six cells (3x3). Not the long way or they won't stand up! Fill each cell with a bright color of tempera. Supply lots of q-tips, encourage the child to use both ends to limit the waste. When you're done the clean up is easy. Just toss it all.

materials:
an electric hors d'oeurve warming tray*
peeled crayons
a few craft sticks
paper cut into shapes (I've used: fruit shapes, fall leaves, hearts, stars, fish, cats, Pokemon characters,bookmark strips,butterflies,..on and on)

Cover the hot ray with foil. The paper shape is placed on the foil and the crayons are drawn and melted on the shape. The craft stick is to hold the paper so the kids won't use their fingers. Ouch! It doesn't get hot enough to cause a serious burn but kids will only touch it once! :) The kids LOVE this activity. I always have a hot tray set up in a corner of the studio. And it always has kids around it.

*These are a dime a dozen at yard sales. Ask your parents if anyone has one in their garage. You'll get a few!

materials:
a set of GOOD colored pencils (I use prismacolor with my kids)
black matte board cut into smallish pieces (4-6")
an assortment of fruit, or
one apple, or
one beautiful pear, or
different colored peppers...
(keep the subject simple)

The child carefully draws the outline of the subject and slowly fills in the color and shading with colored pencils. Kids don't need too much instruction with this. Except: "go slowly, take your time, try laying on different colors.."
These are beautiful!

materials:
a nice set of oil pastels (peeled)
fresh leaves in different shapes
soft paper

Tape the leaves to the table with a loop of tape under them. This is more important for the younger child who can't hold it in place and rub at the same time. Hold the paper over the leaf and rub with the side of the pastel. Keep changing leaf shapes and colors until the page is covered. This project is much nicer with oil pastels than with crayons.

note to teachers:
I've taught preschool for twenty+ years and know how difficult it can be to manage a classroom. Here are some things I've learned along the way about maintaining "order within chaos"!

balance messy and clean projects,if you're presenting fingerpainting keep all the other projects clean and simple
have lots of filler projects that don't need supervision like playdough and paperscraps
teach the children to negotiate the classroom by themselves. ie, label their art work, take it to the drying rack, put finished work in their cubbies
cover tables with newspaper and just throw it out when you're done
involve children in the cleanup
ask parents to do a lot of the prep work for you. When you finish your lesson plan make a list of prep jobs that need to be done and leave it for the parents to volunteer for. ie, make a batch of playdough, cut out paper shapes for the hot tray. I have found that parents are more than willing to do this if it means mre art in the classroom.
give each activity lots of TIME. If some children are finished direct them to the filler tables like playdough.
Don't let the fear of chaos prevent you from presenting lots of art! Learn to thrive in it! Let go of trying to maintain order and get into the joy of creating with the children.