Process Art In Kindergarten

This year one of my professional goals has been to add to the loose parts in the classroom and  inspire the children to experience process art. They often use the loose parts to create and then put the materials back in the containers. The biggest challenge has been finding space in the room to create an art studio. 
The smaller art materials are stored in different three sizes of glass jars depending on their size. The shelf is only 24 inches tall.  I have added some muffin tins so that the children can carry and sort the materials. 
Small loose parts:

• pony beads
• wooden beads (from an old car chair rest)
• coloured pasta
• goggly eyes (different sizes)
• stones (gray, white, black)
• string
• feathers (coloured and natural)
• sticks (nature, plain and coloured)
• cotton balls
• pom pom (large and mini)
• acorns
• beans
• q-tips
• ribbon

The tall jars are wide rimmed pickle quart jars from the recycling centre (.10 cents each) and the middle jars are an assortment of jam jars . The front jars are our old painting jars that I repurposed for the art studio. You have to be careful not to load up the quart jars with heavy materials like stones, or the bottom may break when the children put materials back into the jar. (and yes that did happen to me when I experimented with heavy objects into the jars).
Drawing tools:

• fine tip and ultra fine sharpies 
• pencils
• pencil crayons
• oil pastels
• water colour marker (chisel and fine tip)
• acrylic pens

The larger loose parts for the art studio are stored in old plastic tubs, but I have been collecting salad boxes, which when stacked in pairs are strong enough to be carried around, hold a greater quantity and are transparent. Best of all they are free-just let everyone know and they are happy to donate their recycling to you :)
Large loose parts:

• wool
• pinecones
• sticks
• tiles
• fabric scraps
• foam
• buttons
• beach stones
• beach shells
• small driftwood
• beach bark

This is the paint area. The children have water colour paint, poster paint and acrylic paint as well as an assortment of brushes. It also includes small glass jars for water and muffin tins to serve as mini paint trays. I recently switched from jars because of the super easy clean up- the children just rinse the trays at the end of the day. I found that the dried up jars would just stack up by the end of the week and when I used little baggies, we wasted too much paint. The muffin tins are perfect and my new favourite! I don't have an easel so they just use a nearby table.
Tools:

• glue sticks
• white glue
• tacky glue
• wood glue
• glue gun (low temp)
• paint shirts
• scissors

Model materials:

• plastercine
• play doh
• air drying modelling clay
• foam
• wood 
• wire
• egg cartons

I found an old puzzle shelf and refinished it. The shelf makes a perfect paper shelf for construction paper. 

Paper:

• cardboard
• matt
• cartridge paper
• water colour paper
• recycled paper
• construction paper
• foam

My wish list includes air drying clay, wire, paper towel tubes, washi tape and wood scraps, more salad boxes and of course more loose parts.
Thanks for stopping by