Art activities let kids' creative imaginations flow.
Kids' art activities can provide many enjoyable hours of creativity. Teachers and parents appreciate the break in routine art projects provide. Kids can learn more than art by integrating the activities with content matter such as history, geography and culture.
Weaving
Cut a simple loom out of cardboard with quarter-inch notches equally spaced on each end. Wrap yarn or ribbon through the notches to create the bones of your weaving. Weave another length of yarn or ribbon alternatively over and under the strands until the piece is the desired size. Clip the end loops from the notches and tie off to complete the weaving. Make woven placemats, coasters or bookmarks. Fuzzy yarn, beads and multicolored ribbon add color and texture to your weaving. For a simpler but less permanent art project, cut long notches in a piece of construction paper, leaving one inch intact on one end. Weave colored paper strips over and under through the first piece of construction paper to create a woven mat or basket.
Mosaic
Kids can arrange torn or cut paper, wallpaper scraps, seeds, stone, pottery, glass, beads or faux jewels to create pictures as varied as their imaginations. With a cement-filled shallow box and some quick work, kids can design a mosaic stepping stone to beautify the yard or garden.
Line Drawings
Have kids make simple line drawings of animals, trees, flowers, insects or spiders, stringed instruments, buildings or free forms. Trace the lines with a black crayon or permanent marker and let the children paint or color their creations. Leonardo DaVinci's journals contain amazing line drawings of inventions far ahead of his time. Some kids may enjoy dreaming up future inventions and making pencil sketches of their useful machine. They can label their sketches in DaVinci's characteristic backward writing.
Printmaking
Recycle foam trays by etching designs in them with a pencil. Coat each tray lightly with paint using a small paint roller. Press the painted side of the etched tray onto paper to transfer the design. Alternatively, kids can print with leaves and other natural materials. Use the resulting print as a card or frame it for a gift.
Scratch Art
Cover a white sheet of paper completely with bright crayon colors, then cover the colors with a coat of black poster paint laced with dishsoap to help it adhere to the crayon. After it dries, let the kids use a tootpick or paperclip to etch a design; the hidden colors will come through in their designs.
Pictographs
Spray paint foam sheets tan, peach, gold or with textured stone paints. Etch a message or story using Native American or Egyptian symbolic pictograph writing. Trace each symbol in brown paint and let it dry. If desired, kids can fill in the open space in and around the symbols with other colors.
