Who says learning has to stop when the school day ends? Help your child learn, grow, and explore their creativity at home with these fun educational art projects.
Simple Art Projects for Kids
These handprint pigeons by Simple Everyday Mom are easy craft for kindergartners inspired by the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. To create these adorable handprint pigeons, you’ll need light blue, black, or yellow card stock, white card stock, a black marker, a pencil, a one-inch moveable eye, a glue stick, and scissors.
How to Make Handprint Pigeons:
Trace your hand on the light blue card stock. Then, cut out the hand shape.
Position the handprint with the thumb up and the fingers facing to the right. Draw a simple wing in the middle of the handprint with the black marker.
Cut out a long skinny rectangle of blue card stock (about four inches long by .75 inches wide) for the pigeon’s neck. Glue the neck behind the handprint, close to the base of the hand.
Use a circle punch or scissors to cut out a 1.5-inch circle of blue card stock for the pigeon’s head. Glue the head to the top of the neck.
Cut a small rectangle (about .5 inches tall by 1.5 inches wide) from the white card stock. Glue the white rectangle slightly below the pigeon’s head. Trim off the excess on each side.
Cut out a small beak shape from the yellow card stock. Glue the beak to the left side of the pigeon’s head.
Cut two skinny rectangles, about .25 inches wide by two inches tall, out of the black card stock for the legs. Glue the legs to the bottom of the handprint.
These CD suncatchers by CBC Parents are great for kids of all ages. This beautiful craft uses old CDs and DVDs that you might have lying around the house. To create CD suncatchers, you’ll need CDs or DVDs, permanent markers in various colors, a fishing line, two sticks, and yarn.
How to Make a CD Suncatcher:
Wash your CD or DVD in warm, soapy water to remove any dust and residue. Dry it well.
Put down a plastic table cloth or a thick layer of newspaper to protect your work surface.
Color both sides of the CD or DVD. Make sure that the entire surface is covered.
Once the CD or DVD is colored, it’s time to hang it up! Thread a length of fishing line through the middle of the CD or DVD, knot the ends together tightly, and hang your suncatcher from a tree branch.
3. God’s Eye
These God’s eyes by The Activity Mom are an easy craft that originates from the Ojo de Dios (Eye of God) cultural symbol made by the Huichol Indians of Mexico. To create a God's eye, you’ll need two chopsticks and embroidery thread or yarn.
How tTo Make aA God's Eye:
Cross one chopstick over the middle of the other. Depending on your child’s age, it might be helpful to tape or glue the sticks together to get started. Then, tie the chopsticks together around the middle with your first color.
Wrap the string around the top chopstick once, and then lead your yarn over to the next chopstick and wrap it around. Repeat this process, moving clockwise to each of the chopsticks.
Once you have reached the end of the yarn, tie the second color of yarn to the end of the first and continue wrapping.
Continue wrapping as many different colors of yarn as you would like until you are happy with the size and color combination.
To finish, tie the end of the string in a knot around the closest chopstick to secure it.
These beautiful soap foam prints by Mess For Less are great for young kids. To create soap foam prints, you’ll need dish soap, liquid watercolors, a large container, water, a straw, a spoon, and white paper.
How to Make Soap Foam Prints:
Fill the container three-quarters full with water and add a few squirts of laundry detergent to create a fluffy soap foam. While making your prints, the soap foam will start to go down. To bring back the foam to its state,revive it, use a straw to blow the bubbles higher and then stir with a spoon to create more soap foam. Supervise kids when they blow bubbles into the soap foam.
Squeeze some drops of liquid watercolors onto the soap foam. Then, you can use the spoon to swirl the colors and create a tie-dye rainbow effect.
When you have your desired colors, press a piece of paper on the soap foam.
Pull the paper up gently. As the paper dries, the foam will disappear, leaving behind a beautiful print.
This foil-printed moon artwork by A Dab of Glue Will Do is great for kids who love outer space. Using foil to paint creates an interesting texture that mimics the moon's craters. To make a foil-printed moon, you'll need foil, a measuring cup (or another small cup), white paper, something round to trace, a marker, black paper, gray, white, and black paint, scissors, and glue.
How to Make a Foil-Printed Moon:
Create foil stamps by pushing foil into the bottom of the measuring cup until it forms a round base.
Use a plate or lid to trace a circle onto a white piece of paper.
Dip the bottom of the foil stamp into the gray paint. If you use white paint, dip part of the stamp into the white paint as well.
Stamp the paint onto the circle shape to create the moon texture. You can also add black paint to the moon to create craters.
When you’re finished stamping, put the moon aside to dry.
Meanwhile, make the background by painting gray or white dots onto a black piece of paper.
After all the paint dries, cut the moon out and glue it to the black paper.
Creative Art Projects for Kids
This cupcake liner jellyfish by A Little Pinch of Perfect can help young kids practice scissor skills while learning about ocean animals and making the room look like an underwater adventure. To make a cupcake liner jellyfish, you'll need paper bowls, cupcake liners, craft paint, tape, scissors, and a pen.
How to Make a Cupcake Liner Jellyfish:
Cut a bowl in half. Paint the outside to make the jellyfish's body and set the bowl aside to dry.
Flatten a cupcake liner. Cut it at the outside edge and spiral inwards to make the jellyfish tentacles.
Tape the tentacles to the inside of the bowl and draw a face on the jellyfish.
This pulled string painting project by TinkerLab creates beautiful art that's fun for kids of all ages. To make a pulled string painting, you'll need liquid watercolors, small jars or cups, string cut into 18-inch pieces, a book that you don't mind getting a few paint splatters on, and a printer paper.
How to Make a Pulled String Painting:
Pour your watercolors into the small jars and put one string in each jar, leaving about 2 inches hanging over the edge.
Fold the piece of printer paper in half and put it in the middle of the open book.
Pull the string with your desired color out of the jar. Then, drag the string through your finger and thumb to scrape off the excess watercolor.
Arrange the string on the paper in loops, squiggles, or another design.
Shut the book and, while pressing on the cover firmly with one hand, use the other to pull the string out of the book.
Open the book to the piece of printer paper and remove your pulled string painting.
This pointillism Q-Tip painting by Artful Parent is simple, easy project for young kids. To make a pointillism Q-Tip painting, you'll need liquid watercolors, watercolor paper, and Q-Tips.
How to Make a Pointillism Q-Tip Painting:
Place your liquid watercolors in individual dishes or cups with a Q-tip for each color.
Dip a Q-tip in one of the liquid watercolors, then press the tip to the paper. You can get several dots out of one paint dip. When the color starts to fade, dip the Q-tip in the paint again before pressing it to the paper.
Create dots with different colors of paint to create a work of art.
Allow your artwork to dry. Then, you can hang it up or use it as a card or gift for someone special.
This splat painting art by Taming Little Monsters is an excellent project for kids who like to get messy. To make a splat painting, you'll need acrylic paint, water, kitchen sponges, a wooden spoon or spatula, and thick paper or card stock.
How To Make A Splat Painting:
Mix equal quantities of water and paint.
Place the sponges onto the paper or cardstock.
Use a wooden spoon or a spatula to hit the sponges. The paint will splatter out of them and erupt all over the paper, creating a beautiful pattern of colors.
10. Chalk Ice
This chalk ice by The Best Ideas for Kids is a twist on sidewalk chalk. Chalk ice is great for warm summer days. The chalk will run together as the ice melts and create fun patterns. To make chalk ice, you'll need corn starch, water, sidewalk chalk, an ice cube tray, and mini craft sticks. This recipe will create up to 3 small ice cubes.
How to Make Chalk Ice:
Grate a piece of sidewalk chalk into a measuring cup.
Add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of water into the measuring cup.
Whisk together the chalk, water, and cornstarch.
Pour the mixture into an ice cube tray.
Repeat for each color you'd like to make. Double or triple the recipe to make a larger batch.
Add mini popsicle sticks to the ice cube trays.
Freeze the chalk.
Let the ice cube tray sit out for a few minutes so you can easily pull out the chalk ice.
Before painting with your chalk ice, wet the sidewalk with a hose so the paint will glide better on the sidewalk. Wetting the sidewalk will also make cleaning- up a little easier.
STEM Art Projects for Kids
This fall leaf scratch art by Pink Stripey Socks is a great craft to teach kids how the colors of the leaves leaves’ colors change in the fall. This scratch art explores how fall colors appear in leaves when the green pigment chlorophyll breaks down. To make fall leaf scratch art, you'll need paper, toothpicks, and red, orange, yellow, and green oil pastels.
How tTo Make Fall Leaf Scratch Art:
Color a sheet of paper with red, orange, and yellow oil pastels.
Color over the red, orange, and yellow oil pastels with a green oil pastel.
Cut the paper into leaf shapes.
Scratch the paper with a toothpick to remove the green oil pastel and reveal the lovely fall colors.
If you want to hang the leaves up, spray them with a fixative to prevent the oil pastels from smearing.
12. Fizzy Painting
This fizzy painting project by Taming Little Monsters turns a chemical reaction into a beautiful work of art. Fizzy paintings demonstrate how baking soda and vinegar react to create fizzing bubbles. Baking soda also helps prevent the colors from mixing, creating interesting patterns. To make a fizzy painting, you'll need watercolor paper, food coloring, baking soda, vinegar, and pipettes or droppers.
How tTo Make aA Fizzy Painting:
Sprinkle the baking soda onto your watercolor paper.
Mix a few drops of food coloring with a tablespoon of vinegar.
Use the pipettes to drop the colored vinegar onto the baking soda and watch it fizz.
Let the vinegar dry.
Scrape off the leftover baking soda once the paper has absorbed all of the colored vinegar.
The STEM Laboratory's walking water rainbow painting project teaches kids about capillary action and color mixing. To make a walking water rainbow painting, you'll need 6 wide-mouth glasses or jars, paper towels, and food coloring or liquid watercolors.
How to Make a Walking Water Rainbow:
Rip off six sheets of paper towel and fold each sheet in thirds, lengthwise.
Line up the glasses and fill the first one with a squirt of red watercolor, the third with yellow, and the fifth glass with blue. Leave the other glasses empty.
Add water to the glasses with food coloring until the colored water has almost reached the top.
Arrange the glasses into a circle so that an empty glass follows each filled glass.
Place one end of a paper towel in the glass of red water and the other end in the empty glass next to it.
Continue around the circle until the last paper towel is placed in the red glass.
The water from each colored glass will travel up the paper towel and into an empty glass. The primary colors will mix in the empty glasses to create secondary colors.
Gently squeeze the water out of the paper towels and let them dry in a heap on a baking sheet to create gorgeous tie-dyed paper towels.
14. Sugar Crystals
Grow sugar crystals for rock candy with this fun and tasty project by Little Bins for Little Hands that teaches kids how crystals form. To make sugar crystals, you'll need 1 cup of water, 4 cups of sugar, mason jars, string, edible glitter, food coloring, and straws.
How tTo Make Sugar Crystals:
The day before starting your sugar crystal experiment cut a piece of string a little longer than your jars. Tie one end of the string to the middle of a straw and tie a knot in the other end.
Wet the strings and coat them in sugar. Let them dry overnight.
The following day, add 4 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water to a saucepan. Heat the solution until it boils. Keep the temperature at 210 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stir the water and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Be careful not to heat the sugar so much that it turns into candy.
Remove the sugar from the heat and pour your sugar mixture into the jars.
Add edible food coloring and edible glitter to each jar.
Lower each string into a jar.
Place the jars in a safe place. Let the sugar crystals form for at least a week.
Remove them from the sugar solution once the sugar crystals are as big as you would like. Next, lay the sugar crystals on a paper towel or plate and let them dry for several hours.
These exploding paint bombs by Kids Activities Blog are a great way to teach kids about the physical effects of chemical reactions. To make exploding paint bombs, you'll need film canisters, Alka-Seltzer tablets, water-based paint, and watercolor paper.
How tTo Make Exploding Paint Bombs:
Pour some paint into a film canister and add half an Alka-Seltzer tablet. Put the lid on the canister and shake it well.
Place the film canister on your paper with the lid facing down. Now, stand back and wait for it to explode!
The Alka-Seltzer will mix with the paint and build pressure inside the canister. Once the pressure releases and the reaction happens, you can remove the lids and let the paint dry for a fun and unique piece of art.
Historical Art Projects for Kids
16. Pre-historic Cave Paintings
Pre-historic paint was created by mixing dirt, ground-up rocks, and animal fat. Sometimes, bits of burned wood were ground up, mixed with animal fat, and used for painting.
You can make prehistoric paint and create your own cave paintings with this recipe by KinderArt. To make pre-historic paint, you'll need small bags, an old spoon, old bowls or paper plates, stiff-bristled house painting brushes or old toothbrushes, mural or fingerpainting paper, masking tape, dirt, and optionally, tempura paint and vegetable shortening or lard.
How tTo Make Pre-historic Cave Paint:
Go for a walk outside. Use an old spoon or a garden trowel to scoop up some dirt and place it in a bag.
Scoop up some more dirt and put it in a different bag. Look for different colors of dirt.
Once you are happy with the amount of soil you have, take it back to a work table and take out any bits of stones or grass.
Using an old spoon, smooth the dirt in a bowl or tray. Keep the colors separated.
Add a spoonful of vegetable shortening to the dirt.
Add more dirt if the mixture is too light in color. Add more shortening if the mixture is too dry.
Once the pre-historic paint is mixed up, tape some mural paper or finger-painting paper on the wall or table.
Using old paint brushes or toothbrushes, start to paint!
17. Thaumatrope
A thaumatrope is an optical toy that was popular in the 19th century. A thaumatrope was a circular or rectangular card with a picture printed on each side. When the card was spun, the images on either side came together to form one complete image.
With this project by Rooted Childhood, you can create your own thaumatrope. To make a thaumatrope, you'll need cardstock, a black marker, scissors, colored pencils or markers, tape, and a paper straw, small wooden dowel, or pencil.
How to Make a Thaumatrope:
Cut two matching circles out of cardstock. Draw a design on each circle using a black marker. Color in the design if desired.
Tape the back of one circle to a paper straw, small wooden dowel, or a spare pencil. Tape the matching circle to the other side.
Spin the thaumatrope between your palms to reveal the optical illusion.
18. Nazca Lines Painting
This Nazca lines painting project by Spanish Mama is inspired by figures that were etched in the sand of a Peruvian desert over 2,000 years ago. With this craft, kids can create their own Nazca line paintings. To make a Nazca lines painting, you'll need sand, glue, cardstock, a thick, flat paintbrush, a watercolor paintbrush (or something with a fine, round tip), red paint, and brown paint.
How tTo Make aA Nazca Lines Painting:
Mix together the paint, sand, and glue. Use about half as much glue as paint.
Use a thick brush to spread the mixture on the paper to create your desert.
Etch drawings into the sand with the tip of the watercolor brush. Make sure to do this right away, before the sand and glue dry.
19. Stone Age Ax
This craft by Red Ted Art is inspired by axes used during the Stone Age. To make a Stone Age axe, you'll need newspaper, masking tape, homemade or store-bought papier-mâchépapiier-mache paste, paint, scissors, and twine or string.
How to Make aA Stone Age Ax:
Scrunch up 4 large sheets of newspaper to make your long wooden handle shape. Secure the shape with masking tape.
Cover the length of the handle in 3 or 4 layers of papier-mache. Leave the handle to dry overnight.
Scrunch 3 or 4 sheets of newspaper into a ball and tape it together to make a rough stone ax head shape. Papier-mâchéPapier-mache 3 or 4 layers of newspaper strips around the scrunched newspaper to help shape the ax head. Leave the ax head to dry overnight.
Use very sharp scissors to make a long cut down the middle of one end of your ax handle. The cut should be long enough to fit your ax head in the slot with some of the ax handle above it.
Wrap some more strips of newspaper around the cut parts of the handle.
Slot the papier-mâchépapier-mache ax head in place, squeeze the two pieces of the handle together, and wrap more papier-mâchépapier-mache strips around them to secure them. You may need to add more papier-mâchépapier-mache stripes beneath the ax head to hide the cut marks and neaten the handle.
Leave the ax to dry completely.
When the ax is dry, paint it, then tie household twine around the top of the handle where the handle and ax head meet.
20. Quill Pens
Quills began to spread as a popular method of writing around the 7th century. This quill pen craft by FunLittles is a great way to combine a history lesson with a fun art project. To make quill pens, you'll need cardstock paper, bamboo skewers, liquid watercolor paints, glue, and an old toothbrush.
How to Make Quill Pens:
Place a strip of cardstock in the middle of a clean sheet of cardstock paper.
Dip your toothbrush into the paint, then use it to gently and quickly make bristle marks along the right side of the strip of cardstock at an approximate 30 – 45 degrees angle. Don't press too hard, or the bristles will flatten the image.
Wait 20 seconds, and then move the strip of paper to cover the bristle marks that you have made. Next, make the same marks on the left side of the cardstock. Make sure you leave a tiny gap between the sets for the feather's shaft.
Once the paint has dried, cut out the feather and glue it to a bamboo skewer.
To create a more realistic quill pen, snip around the edges of the feather.
Dip your quill pen into a bottle of liquid watercolor and write or draw on a piece of cardstock.
Try these educational art projects with your child today.
Educational art projects are an excellent way for your child to learn about the world through hands-on activities. Use these art projects to supplement what your child is learning in school and keep their passion for learning strong all day long.
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