* Teach the children how to use tools and manipulate the various materials. The children need to see art being modelled and to work alongside adults. There needs to be a balance of taught and self-initiated activities.
* Allow the children plenty of time to explore, experiment, repeat and practise ideas and skills that have been taught to them. This needs to be in a safe environment where they can make choices and take risks.
* Provide challenges and different stimuli to spark ideas and imagination. Stimulus materials can range from natural and manufactured objects to pictures, photographs and reproduction works of art, including some from different cultures.
* Talk, talk and keep talking! Adults need to talk to the children about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. They also need to be there to talk about crucial times of discovery, such as the time two colours run together and make a new colour, or when the head falls off the model. By engaging the children in conversation you can reinforce some learning (will those two colours make the same colour again?) and you can teach techniques (adding sawdust to the paint produces interesting textures). Children should also talk to each other about their work - the process of evaluation.
* Encourage parents and carers to play an active role in their child's art education. Ask them to encourage the children to paint, draw and model at home and to talk about their art. When they are out and about with the children, ask them to look out and draw the children's attention to works of art in the community - the mural on the side of a building, the sculptures in the town centre, a school's art display in the library.