I recently got a great compliment from a parent. At least I think it was a compliment. She said, “I love that you have these random art projects!” Now, as I said, I do believe she sincerely meant it as a complement, but it got me wondering. Certainly I can see how creating collages with seeds, fingerpainting with colored shaving cream , and dropping colored water on coffee filters may seem a little random, but random as compared to what? I think when most people envision preschool arts, they see the paper plate snowmen, the construction paper alphabet train, and woven paper place mats. These aren’t actually arts, they’re closer to crafts. Now I’m not saying crafts aren’t appropriate for preschoolers, I quite enjoy making paper plate snowmen and I think the children do to. I just hate to see crafts used at the exclusion of art. Let me explain how I see them as different.
Superhero play is a theme that appears to enter into the imaginative play of every child at one time or another. In fact, researchers French and Pena (1991) have found that the theme of superhero play has greatly increased since the advent of television, specifically for children in the early childhood years. Other researchers hypothesize that boys in particular have a natural inclination toward “weapon play” that may be genetically tied to the Y chromosome. Whether hero play is brought on by media influences or genetic inclinations, there are many ways children can benefit from this type of play with the proper guidance.
