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Drawing is a good chance for tamariki to:

• be creative and express themselves
• try out a variety of drawing materials and techniques
• grow their skills and confidence in drawing through practice — repetition of actions strengthens pathways in their brain
• strengthen the fine muscles in their hands and fingers, which will help them when they start writing letters and numbers.

How to do it — Te tikanga mō tēnei mahi

• Set up an area so that their drawing stays off surfaces you don’t want drawn on. Maybe they could use a table that’s wipe-able, or protect the table with a plastic mat. They could also draw on a sheet of newsprint or newspaper taped to the table or the floor.
• Have a range of things that they can draw on: cardboard, concrete, opened-out boxes, smooth stones, wood, or in the sand at the beach.
• Draw with pencils, crayons, pastels, felts, chalk, sticks or with stones to make marks.
• At the beach, draw in the sand with hands, sticks, shells and stones. Add seaweed and other things you find to make patterns or shapes.
• With crayons, pastels or chalk, draw with the ends and with the sides to get different effects.
• Drawings using crayons and pastels, which are greasy, can be painted over with diluted food colouring for interesting effects.
• Encourage them to experiment with mixing media — for example, using crayons or pastels with felts or gluing collage materials to a picture they’ve drawn.
• Display their drawings on the fridge with magnets.
• Turn their drawings into presents such as cards or calendars, or use them as gift wrapping paper.
• Try to remember that drawing is more about the process of doing it rather than the finished product.

Other ideas — Ētahi atu whakaaro

• Use open-ended questions like ‘What else would you like to try?’ or ‘What else could you add?’
• Notice and talk about the colours they’ve used, and the lines and shapes.
• They may tell you what the drawing is or they may not. Does it really matter?
• If they’re drawing a person, you could use a mirror to help them to notice their own face and body for ideas about what to draw.
• Put textured things like leaves or coins under paper and make ‘rubbings’ with the sides of crayons, chalks or pastels.
• Experiment with textured paper or card — for example, corrugated paper or cardboard.
• Have some different coloured paper — black is interesting.
• Try drawing with the other hand, or holding the felt in your mouth or using a foot.
• Hold two felt pens together when drawing to see what happens.
• Draw some patterns and talk about different patterns you might see at home or when you’re out and about.