Preschooler creative and artistic development: what to expect

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Why creative play is important for preschoolers

This can be one of the most creative times in children’s lives. Drama, music, dance and visual art:

• foster creativity and imagination in preschoolers
• help preschoolers express feelings and develop motor skills
• give preschoolers a chance to try out their problem-solving and thinking skills
• shed new light on existing situations, and help preschoolers find new ways of looking at things.

Drama: what preschoolers are doing

Preschoolers use songs, dress-ups, art materials, language and movement to express feelings, experiences and ideas. Sometimes they prefer to tell stories alone. At other times, they enjoy it if grown-ups join in.

Preschooler imagination is still developing. They often use new songs and stories as the basis for their play. This might involve switching roles in an instant. One moment your child is a queen eating bread and honey. The next you’ve got a cow jumping over the moon.

Preschoolers often get completely involved in stories. For example, when you read your preschooler a story, you might notice that your child is moving arms, legs or face, mimicking what’s happening in the story.

Visual art: what preschoolers are doing

Preschoolers love to express themselves and their ideas using crayons, paints, playdough, clay, scissors, glue and paper.

They begin making basic shapes, and like to experiment with texture, space and colours in their art work. For example, preschoolers will often draw houses with shining suns above them. This is because this picture is made up of very basic shapes – a square house, a triangular roof, and a round sun.

As children develop, their artworks contain more and more detail. Drawings of people are usually basic figures to begin with. Realistic shape, scale and other characteristics come a little later.

Music: what preschoolers are doing

As with art materials, preschoolers use musical instruments (including their own voices) to express feelings and ideas.

They enjoy singing just for the sake of singing. They love songs with repetition and simple melodies. They can make up their own words to familiar songs, and words often come from events and people around them.

Preschoolers are usually able to recognise and name their favourite songs and sing parts of them fairly accurately. You’ll quickly come to learn their favourite nursery rhymes off by heart. Singing along also helps children understand the differences between fast and slow, long and short, and loud and soft.

Preschoolers might also enjoy group singing games and finger plays – for example, ‘Open Shut Them’ or ‘Where is Thumbkin?’

Dance: what preschoolers are doing

Preschoolers often show that they’re developing control of their bodies by moving spontaneously to music.

They might express feelings of sadness, happiness, joy or excitement through movement – not to mention a temper tantrum now and then!

You might find your child flying like a butterfly, creeping like a caterpillar, hopping like a frog, or tiptoeing so as not to wake the baby. These play movements are helping them understand more about the world. Encourage this activity by providing preschoolers with props. For example, your child could wave around a scarf to represent flight.

Dance is more than just a creative art form. It can play a critical role in the development of a child’s gross motor skills. And, like many kinds of play, it can help develop other skills too. 

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