Coloring and art are popular activities for kids. It seems like a simple pastime too. Just grab some paper, and crayons and color away! Did you know there is so much more to creating with crayons, though? Students can build brain power through the simple act of coloring and creating! Let’s take a look at the brain-building benefits of using drawing, coloring, and art in the classroom and see why it should become a staple in your lessons.
Effects of Brain Development with Coloring and Art
In basic terms, neuroscience researchers explain that brains develop when a person performs a task that stimulates a part of the brain to perform the task. The more a person does a skill, the more neurotransmitters there are.
Coloring and art target certain parts of the brain, so it makes sense the more a child does art, the more they use that part of the brain. Kids build their brain power in the following areas thanks to coloring and art:
- Cognition
- Emotion recognition and management
- Sensory input
- Verbal and communication skills
- Motor skill planning and execution
There are many brain-building benefits that come from coloring and art. Let’s look at more specifics
Benefits of Drawing
There are some amazing benefits of drawing. Your students are going to absolutely love when you add some coloring, drawing or art into your lessons.
Strengthen Fine Motor Skills
It takes fine motor skills to hold a crayon or marker properly. The more a child colors, the stronger their fine motor skills become! This then helps kiddos get better at gripping a pencil, cutting with scissors, tying shoes, or buttoning up their coat.
Who knew you could get all of that from coloring?
Promotes Self-Expression
It is known that art is a creative outlet. Giving students an opportunity to express themselves through coloring or art is a great way to be expressive.
Some children have difficulty with verbal or written expressions. Kids know what they think or feel but can’t find a way to say it. Art is an avenue they can use to communicate things like thoughts, feelings or interpretations of something.
Inviting kids to draw their responses instead of writing is a great outlet to demonstrate what they learned or what they are feeling.
Encourages Creative Thinking
Coloring and art are an opportunity to let imaginations flow. Combining color, shapes, and lines to form an image takes creativity!
Coloring and art let youngsters think outside the box and make things as wild and colorful as they wish. This skill can carry over into other areas of learning. With creative thinking, children learn how to do things like solve problems or find another way to do something.
Boosts Focus
It takes a lot of focus to create a picture. There is a lot of eye-hand coordination or attention to detail involved with coloring and art. The more kids create, the more they are stimulating the part of their brain to focus.
Art and coloring also calm the mind thanks to the focus it requires. There is something very soothing about blocking out the rest of the world to focus on making a masterpiece.
Handwriting Skills
As mentioned earlier, coloring and art strengthen fine motor skills. This is essential to learning handwriting.
Coloring and art also help kids get comfortable using a writing utensil from gripping crayons or markers. This is another step in writing letters and numbers with ease. Using that part of the brain builds executive functioning, which takes simple scribbles and lines and evolves into proper letter formation.
Makes Learning Regular Subject Interesting
There are foundational ways to teach and learn things like math or literacy. Using coloring and art makes learning these subjects more interesting!
Typically incorporating an art element into a lesson provides opportunities for hands-on learning. Kids also can apply the concepts they learned creatively or use art to experiment and make meaningful connections to what they studied.
Using art and coloring reinforces memory and recall, which boosts academic performance and success!
When you put together lessons for your class, don’t forget to include artistic elements. Your students will build their brains and gain many benefits from coloring and art. My favorite way is in science. Check out my science drawing packs here!
Looking for more information on the benefits of drawing?
Check out these blog posts:
Classroom Coloring And The Colorful Benefits For Every Student
The Advantages of Using Colorful Art as a Comprehension Strategy