5 Art Activities for Emotional Expression in Preschoolers

Art helps preschoolers express emotions they can’t always put into words. From painting with colours to creating with clay, these activities offer safe, engaging ways for young children to explore feelings like happiness, anger, or anxiety. Here’s a quick look at five activities that support emotional growth and self-expression for tamariki aged 2–5:

• Colour Painting for Feelings: Links emotions to colours; great for group sessions; cost: NZ$5–15.

• Drawing Different Emotions: Simple and affordable; helps build emotional vocabulary; cost: NZ$2–8.

• Clay Work: Hands-on and calming; ideal for small groups; cost: NZ$10–25.

• Daily Experience Collages: Reflects daily emotions through mixed materials; cost: NZ$3–12.

• Nature-Based Process Art: Combines outdoor exploration with art; cost: free–NZ$5.

Each activity aligns with New Zealand’s Te Whāriki curriculum, focusing on emotional awareness, communication, and connection with the natural world. Whether it’s painting bold strokes or gathering natural materials, these activities help tamariki navigate their emotions while building skills for the future.

How to DIY playful activities to help kids learn about feelings & emotions

1. Colour Painting for Feelings

Colour painting transforms emotions into visual expressions, giving children a creative outlet to explore and communicate feelings they might not yet have the words to describe. Imagine a 3-year-old using a bright yellow brushstroke to show happiness or a deep blue to capture sadness. This activity becomes a powerful tool for emotional expression, helping children connect their inner experiences with the world around them.

Supports Emotional Expression

One of the greatest strengths of colour painting is its flexibility. It allows children to freely explore and express their emotions. As one early childhood expert notes:

"Colour-based art helps children express feelings, reduce stress, boost confidence, and improve emotional awareness."

Kids naturally link colours to emotions. For instance, red might stand for anger or excitement, while soft pastels could evoke calm or tenderness. When educators guide children to associate specific colours with their feelings, they help them build a bridge between what they feel inside and how they express it outwardly.

The conversations that follow painting are just as valuable. Talking about the colours, shapes, and textures used in their artwork encourages children to articulate their emotions. A child might explain why they used bold black scribbles to show anger or swirling green patterns to represent peace.

Uses Locally Available or Sustainable Materials

In New Zealand, eco-conscious painting options align creativity with environmental responsibility. Honeysticks Natural Watercolour Paints, handmade locally with food-grade ingredients, are available for around NZ$20. For more variety, Natural Earth Paint kits range from NZ$39.90 to NZ$67.90. For centres on a budget, homemade eco-friendly paints crafted from natural pigments like fruits, vegetables, or grains offer an affordable and sustainable alternative.

To complement these paints, Fabriano Eco White drawing paper provides a 100% recycled canvas, saving one tree for every 80 pads produced. Natural Paint Brushes, priced at NZ$9.43 for a set of three, complete the eco-friendly toolkit. These materials not only encourage creativity but also instil a sense of environmental responsibility in young learners.

Aligns with Te Whāriki Curriculum

Colour painting fits seamlessly into the Te Whāriki curriculum, which emphasises learning through individual exploration. This activity promotes emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and communication skills - key areas of development outlined in Te Whāriki.

It supports multiple strands of the curriculum, such as Mana Atua (well-being) by fostering emotional expression and Mana Reo (communication) by encouraging children to discuss their artistic choices. The open-ended nature of the activity allows each child to work at their own pace, offering them the freedom to express their unique perspective.

At centres like Little Dinosaurs Childcare, this approach creates opportunities for meaningful conversations about emotions during painting sessions. Small group settings enable educators to engage closely with each child's artistic and emotional journey, building the responsive relationships that Te Whāriki values. This not only nurtures creativity but also helps children grow in their ability to understand and share their feelings.

2. Drawing Different Emotions

For preschoolers, drawing emotions becomes a powerful way to express feelings that might be too overwhelming or complex to put into words. Imagine a 4-year-old scribbling bold red lines to show anger or carefully sketching a bright, smiling sun to represent happiness. Through art, children turn abstract emotions into something visible and tangible, making it easier for them to understand and share their inner world. This process not only helps them communicate but also fosters a deeper awareness of their feelings.

Supports Emotional Expression

Drawing acts as a bridge between a child's emotions and their ability to express them. By translating feelings into clear images - like grey clouds for sadness or colourful flowers for joy - children begin to understand and manage their emotions better. Studies suggest that art activities, including drawing feelings, can help reduce stress and anxiety, especially for preschoolers who might not yet have the words to describe emotions like frustration or excitement. This visual form of expression gives them a sense of control over their emotions, helping them feel understood and supported.

Encourages Creativity

Beyond emotional expression, drawing emotions sparks creativity and allows children to explore their individuality. It gives them the freedom to represent feelings in ways that are uniquely theirs. Some might show happiness with dancing stick figures, while others use abstract shapes or bold colours. A study from Stanford University highlighted that children who regularly engage in art activities report higher levels of confidence and pride. This sense of accomplishment comes from the open-ended nature of emotional drawing, where there’s no "right" or "wrong" way to create. When combined with positive feedback from teachers or caregivers, it encourages children to explore their creativity even further.

Uses Locally Available or Sustainable Materials

One of the best parts about drawing emotions is that it doesn’t require expensive supplies. Simple, everyday materials like recycled paper, natural crayons, or locally sourced art tools are more than enough. In New Zealand, digital resources such as the "Draw Your Feelings Activity" printable (NZ$4.39) or "Blank Face Printable" emotion cards (NZ$3.31) offer structured ways to get started. Kids can also experiment with natural materials - like charcoal from the garden, flower petals, or even sand mixed with glue - to create art that reflects their feelings while promoting environmental awareness.

Aligns with Te Whāriki Curriculum

Drawing emotions fits seamlessly into the Te Whāriki curriculum, which emphasises a holistic approach to emotional and creative development. Te Whāriki views visual art as a language that helps children develop "increasing competence in symbolic, abstract, imaginative, and creative thinking". This activity is particularly helpful for children learning English as a second language, as it offers a way to communicate ideas without relying solely on words. At centres like Little Dinosaurs Childcare, educators use drawing activities to help children transition into their day or work through challenging experiences. These activities not only build emotional vocabulary but also strengthen artistic skills, making them a valuable part of early learning.

3. Clay Work for Emotional Learning

Clay work builds on the expressive nature of painting and drawing, offering a tactile, hands-on way to explore emotions. Every squeeze, push, and roll of the clay gives immediate feedback, helping children process their feelings. Its cool texture and earthy scent not only engage fine motor skills but also provide a calming sensory experience. Like other art forms, working with clay allows for a deeper connection to emotions.

Supports Emotional Expression

Clay’s flexibility makes it an ideal medium for preschoolers to express emotions like frustration, anger, or excitement. Actions such as squeezing or shaping clay provide a physical outlet for these feelings. Research from Iran highlights the benefits of clay therapy, showing that anxiety levels in preschool children significantly decreased, with mean anxiety scores dropping to 3.63 compared to -0.71 in the control group.

Paul R. White, a clinical social worker with decades of experience in clay therapy, has demonstrated how clay can naturally bridge communication between children and adults. He explains:

"Through mutual clay play, a conversation between child and counselor automatically emerges. Dialogue doesn't have to be forced or fabricated, but happens naturally when the counselor is revealing, demonstrating and teaching this dynamic and engaging clay process and the child is asking, learning and experiencing his or her own trial and error. This manner of interaction links the adult with the child through a hands-on, verbal, nonintrusive, problem-solving counselling process."

Beyond emotional expression, working with clay helps children regulate stress and provides a safe, supportive space to explore complex emotions.

Encourages Creativity

Clay work isn’t just about emotional release - it’s also a gateway to creativity. Unlike flat mediums like paper, clay’s three-dimensional nature allows children to build upwards, create hollow forms, and experiment with textures. This hands-on experience engages multiple senses - touch, sight, and even smell - offering diverse learning opportunities that appeal to different styles of learning.

At Rachel Keeling Nursery School, a collaborative three-week clay project showcased how clay can inspire creativity. Children practised pinching, twisting, rolling, and hammering clay while drawing ideas from sculptures by other artists. In the final week, they worked together to embellish a large collaborative sculpture, which they later painted. The open-ended approach of clay work ensures each child’s individuality and imagination come to life, as there’s no set outcome to follow.

Uses Locally Available Materials

Clay work is accessible and resource-friendly, making it perfect for early childhood settings. Whether using natural or commercial clay, the medium supports a wide range of creative activities. Teachers can incorporate locally sourced items like sticks, leaves, stones, and branches to enhance the experience. Clay is reusable when kept moist, and tools such as straws, buttons, and beads can be gathered from household items to keep costs low while expanding creative possibilities.

Aligns with Te Whāriki Curriculum

Clay work aligns perfectly with Te Whāriki, New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, which values hands-on learning and sees children as capable, active learners. Lisa Terreni, a senior lecturer in early childhood education, highlights its educational benefits:

"From many anecdotal observations of children using clay I feel strongly that, apart from teaching young children the physical skills required to use the medium successfully to create three dimensional artworks, using clay gives children another language for expressing their thoughts, ideas and emerging working theories about their world."

This hands-on process supports Te Whāriki by encouraging children to express themselves, solve problems, and communicate through art. Teachers can enrich the experience by using descriptive language to discuss the children’s creations, commenting on aspects like form, texture, and line. This not only validates their efforts but also helps make their thinking and creativity more visible.

4. Daily Experience Collages

Daily experience collages transform everyday moments into art, offering children a way to reflect on their day and express their emotions. Unlike traditional collages that focus on visual appeal, these creations encourage kids to process their feelings and tell stories using various materials. Much like painting or drawing, collage-making becomes a hands-on method for preschoolers to explore and share their emotions.

Supports Emotional Expression

Creating collages about daily experiences gives preschoolers a structured way to explore and communicate their feelings. By selecting colours and textures that reflect their emotions, children can visually express themselves while opening the door for meaningful conversations with adults. For instance, a bright yellow might represent the joy of a fun game, while rough paper could signal frustration with a tricky task. This approach not only helps children identify and name their emotions but also provides teachers and parents with a glimpse into their inner world.

The non-verbal nature of this activity often sparks dialogue. A child who felt overwhelmed during group activities might use darker shades or jagged shapes, while another who enjoyed outdoor play could choose smooth textures and green tones. These creative choices allow adults to validate the child’s feelings and help build an emotional vocabulary, fostering deeper understanding and communication.

Encourages Creativity

Daily experience collages combine art with storytelling, inspiring children to think symbolically. As they select materials to represent abstract ideas like happiness or disappointment, they develop the ability to link physical objects with the emotions they evoke. This skill plays a key role in nurturing creative thinking and problem-solving.

The open-ended nature of collage-making means there’s no single "right" way to depict an experience. One child might use photos and drawings to illustrate their morning routine, while another might rely on colours and textures to convey the emotional tone of their day. This flexibility encourages individuality and builds creative confidence, allowing each child to express themselves in their own unique way.

Uses Locally Available or Sustainable Materials

Daily experience collages naturally lend themselves to sustainable crafting by repurposing everyday items. As noted, > "Sustainable crafting and DIY refer to the practice of creating handmade items while prioritising environmental responsibility". This approach not only reduces waste but also teaches children about resourcefulness and caring for the environment.

"Upcycling transforms discarded items into new products of higher quality or value". Materials like old magazines, fabric scraps, fallen leaves, flower petals, and twigs can be used to add seasonal relevance and texture to the artwork. According to New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment, > "upcycling helps mitigate the environmental footprint of consumerism and fosters a culture of sustainability". Op shops and community swap events provide affordable options for gathering materials, encouraging creative play while promoting sustainable practices.

Aligns with Te Whāriki Curriculum

This activity aligns closely with Te Whāriki, New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum, which emphasises storytelling and communication through various forms of expression. Collage-making naturally integrates these elements, as children explain their material choices and describe their daily experiences, fostering language development and narrative skills.

At Little Dinosaurs Childcare in Epsom, Auckland, daily experience collages are an essential part of their curriculum, which values responsive teaching and creative exploration. Educators document each child’s explanations of their collages, creating individual portfolios that track emotional and artistic growth over time. This practice ensures that every child’s unique perspective is celebrated and supported.

5. Nature-Based Process Art

Nature-based process art brings preschoolers closer to the natural world while giving them a creative way to express their emotions. By combining outdoor exploration with art-making, children gather natural materials and transform them into meaningful artistic expressions. This approach places more value on the creative journey than the finished product, allowing kids to explore their feelings freely through textures, colours, and shapes found in nature.

Supports Emotional Expression

Natural materials offer children a special way to express emotions that they might not yet have the words for. The textures of bark, smooth river stones, soft flower petals, and rugged twigs create a sensory "language" for exploring and sharing feelings. For instance, a child feeling frustrated might gravitate towards rough or jagged materials, while another feeling joyful might pick vibrant flowers or sun-warmed stones. Educators can guide this emotional exploration with simple questions like, "What does this stone remind you of?" or "How does this leaf make you feel?" These conversations help children develop emotional awareness and encourage them to share their feelings in a non-verbal way. At the same time, this activity fosters an appreciation for the natural materials found in New Zealand's unique landscapes.

Uses Locally Available or Sustainable Materials

New Zealand's rich and varied environment provides endless possibilities for nature-based art. Children might collect pōhutukawa leaves in summer, smooth beach stones, or driftwood from the coastline. In autumn, the vibrant colours of native leaves offer a natural palette, while spring brings fresh flowers for creative inspiration. This approach teaches children to use materials that are already part of the natural cycle, helping them understand concepts like sustainability and environmental care. Whether exploring local parks, beaches, or school grounds, these activities also allow children to observe seasonal changes, turning material collection into a hands-on lesson about nature's rhythms.

Encourages Creativity

Organic materials, with their unpredictable shapes and textures, inspire children to think outside the box. Unlike store-bought art supplies, which often behave predictably, natural items challenge kids to adapt and problem-solve. A piece of bark might resemble an animal, or a uniquely shaped stone could become the focal point of a landscape. These activities encourage children to experiment, adapt their ideas, and embrace the impermanence of their creations. By focusing on the process rather than the outcome, children learn to appreciate the beauty of creativity itself and the emotional release that comes with it.

Aligns with Te Whāriki Curriculum

Nature-based process art aligns closely with Te Whāriki, New Zealand's early childhood curriculum, which emphasises a strong connection between children, the natural world, and cultural heritage. Through these activities, children not only explore their emotions but also build an understanding of ecological systems and the importance of respecting nature. Collecting and crafting with natural materials reflects the curriculum's focus on environmental awareness and cultural respect, particularly through discussions about native plants and their role in Māori culture.

At Little Dinosaurs Childcare, nature-based process art is a regular part of the weekly schedule. Children are encouraged to connect with nature and express their feelings through these activities, while educators document their creations and the stories behind them. This reflective practice helps teachers understand how each child's material choices relate to their emotions and development. By weaving in discussions about native plants and their cultural significance, the programme also nurtures an understanding of Aotearoa's heritage, blending emotional growth with environmental and cultural learning.

Time estimates include both creative work and cleanup. As Katharine Phleglar notes, even small moments like misplacing a marker can teach valuable frustration tolerance skills.

Nature-based art often stands out as an economical choice, using materials readily available outdoors. On the other hand, clay work may require a moderate investment but offers hands-on benefits for managing emotions.

The emotional focus of each activity is particularly important. Research highlights that "different art mediums and techniques can be used to express specific emotions". For example, clay work is effective for children dealing with anger or frustration, offering a safe outlet for intense feelings. Meanwhile, drawing provides a way to externalise worries tied to fear or anxiety.

Practical considerations vary. Nature-based art relies on good weather and outdoor access, while daily experience collages require a variety of materials to stay engaging.

At Little Dinosaurs Childcare, educators thoughtfully combine activities to suit each child's emotional needs.

Conclusion

Engaging tamariki (children) in art activities helps them navigate their emotions while building creative skills. According to research from the National Endowment for the Arts, early childhood participation in the arts offers powerful benefits for social-emotional development, such as improved emotion regulation and stronger social skills. For example, toddlers involved in arts integration programmes have demonstrated noticeable improvements in managing both positive and negative emotions compared to their peers. This early exposure sets the stage for further emotional and academic growth.

Art also provides tamariki with a way to express complex feelings. Art therapist Katharine Phleglar explains:

"When children transform internal emotion into an external work of art and expression, it helps them see the emotion as being separate. They aren't their anger or their fear".

By externalising emotions, children can process challenging feelings in a safe way, building resilience and self-awareness along the way.

The benefits of early art experiences extend beyond emotional development. Studies show that these activities can enhance academic performance by up to 16% while fostering neural connections that support learning across various domains. The creative process activates multiple areas of the brain, encouraging connections that benefit overall cognitive growth.

At Little Dinosaurs Childcare, these principles are woven into daily life through process and sensory art experiences for tamariki aged 2–5. By making creativity a central value, Little Dinosaurs nurtures an environment where emotional expression and artistic exploration thrive.

Through activities like painting with vibrant colours, working with clay, creating collages, or engaging in nature-inspired art, tamariki learn that their feelings matter, their voices are important, and their perspectives enrich the world around them. These experiences show that art is far more than a pastime - it’s a lifelong tool for expression and connection.

FAQs

How do art activities support preschoolers in understanding and managing their emotions?

Art activities give preschoolers a fun and safe outlet to express their feelings, helping them make sense of their emotions. Whether it's painting, drawing, or crafting, these creative tasks allow children to bring their thoughts and experiences to life, encouraging self-awareness and helping them learn to manage their emotions.

Beyond self-expression, art also helps children develop empathy. As they explore various emotions and viewpoints through their creations, they start to understand their own feelings better and connect with the emotions of others. This builds key emotional skills that contribute to their social and emotional development.

What materials are needed for the art activities, and are they easy to find in New Zealand?

For painting activities, you’ll want to have washable paints, tempera sticks, or watercolours on hand. These are easy to pick up at local shops or online stores across New Zealand. If drawing is on the agenda, stock up on crayons, markers, coloured pencils, and plenty of paper - all of which you can find at most stationery or craft stores. For crafting, you’ll need glue, child-safe scissors, recycled materials, and perhaps some basic craft kits, all readily available.

These supplies are budget-friendly and easy to find, making it simple for parents and teachers to organise engaging and creative art activities for preschoolers, like those at Little Dinosaurs Childcare.

How do these art activities support Te Whāriki and benefit preschoolers in New Zealand?

These art activities tie into the Contribution strand of Te Whāriki, which focuses on encouraging tamariki to share ideas, express their emotions, and develop social skills through creativity. Activities like painting, drawing, and crafting offer children a positive way to express their feelings, build self-awareness, and connect with others.

Within the New Zealand context, these creative experiences also promote a sense of belonging and an appreciation for diversity - core values of Te Whāriki. They create an environment where children feel safe, valued, and confident as they explore their emotions and identities in a supportive setting.