Preschool Art Ideas for Fall: DIY Paintbrushes
Are you looking for some preschool art ideas to go with your fall or Halloween theme? Making your own paintbrushes can be an exciting way for kids to experiment with materials.
Sometimes art that is related to a thematic unit gets a bad rap because it’s too crafty. There are ways to incorporate seasonal themes while giving young children the ability to explore materials and use their imagination….without making a cookie-cutter craft project. The materials that I show here will work great for a fall or Halloween theme, but it would be really easy to adapt the ideas presented for any theme or any time of year. Now, let me show you how to make some unique paintbrushes with fall materials.
Gather Materials
I gathered a few materials including small dowels, pipe cleaners, straws, metallic mesh tube ribbon, raffia, and duct tape. I believe that I purchased everything except the duct tape at the Dollar Store.
The materials used in the examples would work great for a fall or Halloween-themed unit. Don’t limit yourself to the materials pictured. You can even let kids help you find materials to use and you can let them help you assemble the homemade paintbrushes. Here are some ideas for additional materials to use:
- colored hair from an old wig
- straw
- twigs
- string
- curling ribbon
- strips of felt
- leather shoe laces
- long grass
- fabric strips
- rubber bands
Assemble the Paintbrush
To create the pipe cleaner paintbrushes, we bent several pipe cleaners in half and taped them (at the bent end) to the end of the dowel. Pipe cleaners are fun because they can be bent, twisted, and/or curled allowing kids to experiment with them.
We made the other paintbrushes in a similar fashion. Duct tape is great because it can be stretched so that it really holds the material tightly to the dowel. This kind of remind me of witches’ brooms.
Experimenting with Paint
After the brushes are complete kids can try them out with paint. Let kids look at how the brushes make different marks on the paper. Let them experiment with several different brushes to see the differences.
I hope that you and your kids enjoy making paintbrushes…….and making process art with them. Do you have ideas for additional material to use for paintbrushes? I would love to hear about your preschool art ideas in the comments below.
Are you looking for additional Halloween activities for your kids? Check out the following resources in my TPT store:
