Looking for some creative activities for young children? Here is one that I did recently.

The kids were mucking around with the white board, so I decided to give them a bit of creative focus. I asked them to draw me dinosaurs of their own creation. Since they are dinosaur fans, they were game for it. Here is their list of dinosaurs:

  • Packasaur
  • Transaur
  • Ponaisaur - biggest pony in the world
  • Tranmopsaurs
  • Nampsalamsaur - biggest banana in the world (dinosaur was in the shape of a banana)
  • Lamanasalamonsaurs - biggest egg in the world

Those are some pretty weird names huh? Well, to me that’s a healthy sign of imagination at work.
Children Drawing

Besides dinosaurs, you could do a similar activity with your children on the following topics:
1. If your girl is into princesses, why not ask her to design a range of dresses and accessories. You could further guide her creativeness by discussing the topic of appropriate dressing e.g. “what should she wear to go running?”, “how about some office clothes?”, “Ken is having a birthday party, what kind of dress is she going to wear?”

2. If your child likes automobiles, have them create their own line of cars, trucks etc… You could introduce the activity by saying “draw me a car you would like to have when you grow up”, “what kind of car would you buy for me,” and “how about grandpa, what car do you think he will like?”

3. One of the first preschool themes we teach our children is ‘animals’. How about having them create their own kind of animal? what would they call it? What do they eat? Where does it stay?

I find the best way to successfully carry out preschool activities, is to tune in to your children’s interest. The activity I did with my children would not have gone as well if it were about trucks or insects. So pay attention to your children’s play and get ideas from there.

Another important factor to note is the benefits of reading to your children. When doing the “create-your-dinosaur” activity with my children, I realized that their creativity was spurred on by knowledge they had gained from past reading. For example, how did they come up with those fantastic dinosaur names? Why didn’t they just name their dinosaur Tom or Alice? It’s because they’ve learned that dinosaurs have funny names, it usually ends with “saur” and the names are usually pretty long. So, put “enhance creativity” in your list of “ten reasons to read to your children.”

So have fun with this activity. And while you are laughing at their silliness, also know that this kinds of preschool activities not only encourage creative thinking, but also is a rehearsal for writing or other forms of self expression like art and drama.