30 Dec Dot & Draw: Process Art
It’s valuable for children to draw and scribble from a young age, because it helps develop fine motor skills. Process art, which is often included in early literacy programs at PGTPL, can help children develop those skills.
Process Art Experiences
Although children enjoy many kinds of art, process art is child-directed and especially helps to expand their creative instincts. The end result may or may not look wonderful. Regardless, the child has had the enjoyable experience of creating something. If you’d like to learn more, early childhood expert Laurel Bongiorno describes the difference between process-focused and product-focused art experiences in How Process-Focused Art Experiences Support Preschoolers. Projects at the library might include drawing, gluing, painting, dot dabbing, and other creative forms.
It’s very interesting to watch the transformation of a young child’s art from scribbles to creative drawing and writing. These two very different projects started with the same supplies and instructions. Children drew many dots on paper, connected the dots, and then used markers to fill in the shapes.
A very young child, just learning how to hold a pencil and marker, created the first drawing. We forget that this is actually very hard work when you are learning! The result of this project looks more like scribbles than dots, but that’s fine.
In the second project, the older preschooler started with dots, but the project went another direction. These projects are intentionally open-ended. Another child might draw angular shapes in different colors.
Early Literacy at the Library
As children create process art, they are learning important early literacy skills. At PGTPL, we value the American Library Association’s Every Child Ready to Read initiative. We incorporate the five early literacy practices—Read, Write, Sing, Talk, and Play—into our programs and activities for young children.
