Classroom art and craft supplies makes teaching art to young students a joy, not a hassle. Art and craft supplies can act as tools for capturing student interest and imagination. These supplies can also be used to develop fine motor skills, help students envision concepts, and encourage active participation.

Fine Motor Skills

The creation of art and craft projects demands movement. Students must interact with supplies in order to achieve goals. The actions they perform can develop fine motor skills. For example, threading Fancy Stringing Rings onto a string to create a necklace requires a series of actions: sorting beads by color and shape, placing the rings in an attractive arrangement, knotting a ring onto the end of the string, slipping the beads onto the string in the proper arrangement, and securing the ends of the string together.

Understanding Concepts

When threading rings, asking students to spell out their names or other words with Lowercase Manuscript Letter Beads can add another level of complexity to the project. Students engage in identifying letters and using them to spell. They then take pride when others view their necklaces and recognize the words that the students spelled. Asking students to create patterns with the rings or beads engages them with math and they can visualize concepts such as single numbers, pairs, and groups. This is just one example of an art and craft project that can help students understand basic concepts in various subject areas.

Art Activity Kits

Art Activity Kits target certain topics with preplanned activities that are easy to put into action. Try using the Culturally Diverse 24 People Tag K kit as part of a unit about community and diversity or using the series of Scene-a-Rama diorama kits to teach students about the natural landscape. There’s a kit for every topic and activity – for example, the Mosaica kit is a great addition to a unit about patterns. Teachers who are interested in a general all-purpose kit will find many of their art and craft supply needs met by The Colossal Art Kit by Chenille Kraft.

Supplies and Arts and Crafts Resource Books

Basic supplies such as craft sticks, beads, sponges, Sculptamold, and Styrofoam balls, can be used for many activities. Arts and Crafts Resource Books can help teachers develop effective educational activities using these and other supplies. Art and Craft Resource Books for Teachers and Home Use cover a wide variety of topics and grade levels. Fine Motor Projects by Carson Dellosa contains activities, tips and ideas for developing motor skills and can be used in conjunction with art supplies, including stamps, play dough, paint, and crayons. Art with Anything by Gryphon House contains activity ideas that can be implemented with everyday objects, including buttons, cardboard, and junk mail.

Encourage Active Participation

Arts and crafts capture the interest of students because they must interact with supplies in order to create something. Physical action requires attention and gets students involved. Students must perform actions to complete their project, such as picking up chalk to form letters, applying adhesive or paint, and organizing objects to form patterns. Art and craft projects require students to strategize in order to achieve their goal and to think analytically about each task they encounter, such as arranging objects. When their art and craft projects are finished, students are often left with meaningful visual interpretations of academic topics -- the creation of which has developed fine motor skills and brought a new understanding.