Process-Based Art

A blank piece of paper can become almost anything in the hands of a toddler.

At Little Land, children will have access to a variety of art and craft materials that invite them to paint, draw, build, mix, create, and explore.
Our approach focuses on process-based art. That means the experience of creating is more important than making every child’s artwork look the same.

Instead of showing children exactly what their finished picture should look like, we provide open-ended materials and give them room to make their own choices.

Why Is Process-Based Art Important?

When children decide what to create and how to create it, they are doing much more than making art.

They are experimenting with ideas, making decisions, solving problems, developing fine-motor skills, expressing themselves, and discovering that there can be more than one way to do something.

Research with preschool-aged children has also found that encouraging divergent thinking (the ability to imagine different possibilities and solutions) can support children's reasoning and problem-solving abilities.

A blue sun, a purple tree, ten pieces of paper taped together, or a painting that simply became an exploration of mixing colours are all part of the learning process.

The masterpiece isn't what comes home. It's everything your child discovered while making it.

Further Reading

• de Chantal et al. (2020), Child Development — Divergent Thinking Promotes Deductive Reasoning in Preschoolers. A study of 120 children aged 4–5 found that activities encouraging children to generate their own ideas improved performance on subsequent reasoning tasks.
  Read the study

• Kukkonen, Chang-Kredl & Bolden (2020), The Journal of Creative Behavior — Creative Collaboration in Young Children’s Playful Group Drawing. The study examined preschool children given freedom to use varied drawing materials during open-ended art experiences and explored how drawing supported creative expression, communication, and collaboration.
  Read the study

• Smith-Gilman (2018), Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies — The Arts, Loose Parts and Conversations. Examines how open-ended materials—or “loose parts”—can provide opportunities for divergent thinking, creativity, questioning, reflection, and problem-solving in early childhood education.
  Read the article