Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi ladies and gentlemen ,

I am having trouble with a few of the children that I have to do portfolios for . I look after 10 children's portfolios , and most of them are just 3 years old and do not do craft .

Then we have other three year old's who draw and paint like 6 year old's . I know each child is at a different level , but I am struggling to get a portfolio together if they refuse to do anything , or just scribble .

Today I sat with a boy who is 3 and helped him cut out shapes and stick them onto a piece of paper and draw . I was also thinking of letting him do printing using paint and stamps etc .

So my question is , does anyone have any ideas what I could do with children who hate craft or who just can't do it ?

Hi. I guess the most important question is to ask you what your purpose for the portfolio is for?? Is it a record of the art work they complete or is it a record of their learning journey while they are in your care? If it is the later, then it is important to identify the areas of play that are of interest to your children and focus on documenting their learning in those areas. This can all be added into their portfolio and then from here you could reflect and perhaps find ways of incorporating arts into their area of interest. It's also important to add that 'scribble' is a very important part of their pre-literacy skills with their fine motor skill development and their attempt of representing their ideas on paper. This is just my opinion of course, but following their interests and documenting this will reduce the stress you feel trying to make them do artwork when they are not interested in it. Let me know how it all goes!

Sometimes it is a matter of finding craft and artwork the children enjoy doing. Perhaps if they do not like painting/colouring they may enjoy moulding clay so you can take pics of them doing this.... get out charcoal or some different mediums to get their attention....I have used balloons, golf balls etc to excite the children and get them to paint with these.
Ask the children what art/craft they would like to do. Maybe they want to make a car with a box or a robot or something that you are not thinking of.
My portfolios are a combined collection of art & pics of the children doing craft as well as learning stories that show their development in other areas that are not necessarily art/craft related.

Hi Bubuella,
In my Preschool room, each child has a " Learning Journal". All their arts, writing, painting, photos of learning is pasted in this scrapbook, etc. I have 3 children who didin't like cutting, what i did, i gave them magasines with colourful pictures and encourage to cut what picture they like and i provide a ziplock bag to collect their cuttings and label with their names. It was so amazing, the two 3 years old girls have so much fun in cutting talking to each other what pictures they like to cut, and this turned into sharing ideas and socialising with peers and the rest of the children would like to cut also. I recorded what i observe and wrote in their "Learning Journal" attached the pieces of their cuttings. You don't need to be serious, you can do your intentional teaching by game. I have also 1 girl and 1 boy that don't have scissor's grip. What i did i gave them a piece of paper and let them practice cutting. They cut into tiny pieces, this practice continously for 2 weeks and now they can can cut pictures in the magasines and pasted on their "Learning Lournal". The same thing with arts and painting. One day we agreed that we are going to use the kitchen gadgets to do painting and children has so much fun while painting and they created patterns as well.
Try my cutting skill technique, you will find it will work and you don't need to force them to do cutting. Good luck.

Thank you very much ladies , my inspired now

Sometimes you just need to think outside of the box