Art Projects for Elementary School Students and Kindergarteners

Art Projects for Elementary School Students and Kindergarteners

And the Supplies You’ll Need for Them – Art Teachers

Art can have such a big impact on young kids; whether art is practiced at an after-school club, at home, or in school. It’s a tool for self-expression, a tool to develop and fine-tune their motor skills, a tool to inspire their creativity, but perhaps most importantly of all: it’s just plain fun! Art lets kids explore their creative kids and really lets their imaginations run wild. Even when younger kids are doing the same projects as each other in a group, they’re able to differentiate each of their individual pieces with their own unique styles. The art projects listed below are recommended by experienced art teachers!

It’s important, with any art project, to remember that there isn’t any ‘right’ way to make art. This is really important, especially for younger kids who can use art to explore their creative sides. There are so many areas, even in a child’s life, where their choices can be described as right and wrong, like math or sports. Art can give them a chance to be free and express themselves without judgment.

Art teachers can make a meaningful impact, especially on younger kids, like elementary school students and kindergartners. As an art teacher, an art project for kids might be helping them to explore their creative side, or you may have influenced them to pursue a future career! But while being an art teacher can be just as fun for you as it is for your students, it can also be really hard.

It’s important to plan out your lessons in advance just in case, and having backup ideas never hurts. There are tons of art projects for kids out there online, and it can be hard to pick between them. It can also be hard to come up with your own. So we put together these top 3 art projects for kids that are directly recommended by art teachers from their own art classes. They can help your younger art students explore their creativity, and they can even be recommended to parents as at-home projects!

Self Portraits

Self-portraits are an amazing art project for kids because the opportunities to get creative are endless! This art lesson for kids can also show a lot about how they see themselves. With self-portraits, you get an art lesson where a child not only has a chance to get creative, but can also explore their self-expression, and creativity, and develop their fine motor skills. Young art students can do self-portraits either using mirrors, photos of themselves, or just drawing what they believe they look like. This is a great art project for kids because it can also help reaffirm a child’s sense of self, which is really important for developing confidence!

You can also use this as a more technical lesson for younger kids interested in exploring art. They can use it to learn how facial anatomy works, for example.

For this art project, art teachers can also have kids use almost any medium, and it’ll give young art students a chance to figure out what tools they like using. If it’s drawing, students can use colored pencils, a mirror, and regular printer paper. Some great alternatives to colored pencils for drawing are markers and crayons! Kids can either all use the same materials, or they can choose their own.

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Collage

Collage art is super easy, and it allows children to explore textile materials in art. Collage art lessons can also encourage kids to build their fine motor skills with cutting and gluing, and it’ll help their awareness of colors and textures too. It’s important to have art lessons that let kids explore art outside of drawing and painting because art is meant to help children’s creative avenues blossom and grow.

Collage can be used to let kids represent real life, whether they’re making a flower, a frog, or a skyline! Collage art projects for kids can help them understand how to show patterns and cohesiveness in their work. Since kids can often end up sharing materials between themselves, collage is also a project that develops collaborative social skills for younger students.

For this project, you can use just about any materials! We highly recommend involving colors and varying textures. Some great examples of materials to include are corrugated cardboard, mulberry paper, tissue paper, and felt fabric sheets. This Funzbo Collage Materials Kit is also a great addition, as it includes items that can be used for detailing like googly eyes, buttons, glitter glue, stickers, and so much more!

Check out all the items in one place to buy or share them.

Stamping to make prints

Stamping to create prints is another awesome art lesson for kids that will help them develop fine motor skills, which can help with other skills like handwriting. Stamping can help kids find patterns in everyday objects, like making flower prints using old water bottles. Stamping is a great art lesson because it can even be as easy as having kids use their thumbprints to create pictures of butterflies! With stamping, kids can explore color and print combinations, all while creating brand new masterpieces. Every student’s painting will turn out different, which is a great way to aid them in finding their own unique style!

One of the best things about stamping is that really, you could do a whole lesson using just plain printer paper and tempera paint if your kids are using their thumbs as stamps. Alternatively, kids can get as complex as they want by using sponge stamps in tons of different shapes, like flowers, hearts, stars, and more! You can also have kids explore the patterns that different everyday objects create by applying paint to the bottom of items like plastic water bottles and using those as stamps.

The full shareable list of supplies is here.

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