How to Decorate Dream Boxes and Learn about Joseph Cornell

How to Decorate Dream Boxes and Learn about Joseph Cornell: Joseph Cornell created Dream Boxes, and they are easy to recreate with toddlers and preschoolers. Plus, your little ones can practice fine motor skills and hand eye coordination while learning about a famous artist! All you need is a t-shirt gift box (we got ours from Dollar Tree – not available online) and decorating materials (we used stickers, markers, glue, feathers, and pom-poms).

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How to: The Artwork

The instructions are pretty self-explanatory. First, put the box together. And second, decorate the box. That’s it!

*Optional: fill the box with fun things you find on a walk or in the house or from your junk toy bin.

How To: The Program

My Young Artists class allows 2-5 year olds to explore art and engage the senses to help them understand the world around them. Exploring famous artists and their work allows kids to see that they are capable of making beautiful, creative artwork. Plus, exploring famous artists provides a unique way to teach children about basic art techniques.

Group Activity:

Our group project was so easy and so much fun. I put out a whole bunch of big shipping boxes that I had and let the kids paint them however they wanted. They could’ve painted way longer than the 15 minutes I gave them! They were painting the outsides of the boxes and the insides of the boxes. Some of them switched to different boxes, others were passionate about covering their box entirely with paint. It was great fun! Joseph Cornell used boxes in his art, so we did too!

Group Story:

I picked out two really cute Joseph Cornell picture books. The group was feeling antsy though, so I only explained Cornell’s story and showed the illustrations in The Amazing Collection of Joey Cornell by Candace Fleming. I thought it was important to tell the kids that Joseph started collecting treasures when he was a young boy. And he thought really carefully about which treasures he put together in his dream boxes. They were fascinated! A couple of the kids told me what special things they had collected and wanted to put in their boxes. The other book I had picked out but didn’t read is also very cute and it’s a little bit simpler: Mr. Cornell’s Dream Boxes by Jeanette Winter. 

Individual Art:

Time for the main event, yay! I put a bunch of small toys like bubbles, notepads, mini decks of cards, bead necklaces, etc. on the floor and the kids were able to pick up a few “treasures” to start off their dream box collections.

Then, they got to work decorating their Joseph Cornell inspired Dream Boxes!

And that was that! A successful morning in Young Artists!

We all need some more art inspired by important artists! Try these!

• Georges Seurat Inspired Process Art (Painting with Bricks)
• How to Paint with Blocks and Learn About Paul Klee
• Fireworks Painting Inspired by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
• Shapes and Colors with Sonia Delaunay
• Da Vinci’s Kid-Friendly Frescoes

Comment below with other ideas you have for teaching littles about art!