Art at Home

Art at Home, Inquiry and Art Activities to Spark Imagination! These are extra resources
available for you. There is no expectation that you complete these. Perhaps you can do
some of these with your family!

Online Resources

These activities require only an internet connection and a computer.

■ Chrome Music Lab This is a fun and interactive tool that combines art and
music
■ Tinkercad This is a simplified version of CAD 3-D modeling software. There
are ample tutorials available, but this is designed for grades 5-12. You also
need to sign in using your gmail, but at no cost.
■ Scrapcoloring This is an online coloring book. No crayons needed!
■ Bomomo This is a free online mark making tool. Very experimental, the best
way to figure it out is to just try it!
■ Toytheater Another experimental art activity site with pictures to draw over
and simple 3D design tools among other things.
■ Make Your Own Comic Strip! This online tool lets anyone drag and drop
characters, objects, and editable word balloons to make your own comic
strip. Very fun! There are only a few tools on the top and bottom of the comic
panel, it may take a few minutes to get the hang of, but everyone can do it!
■ How to Think When You Draw Tutorial 300 free Drawing Tutorials
■ Art Class Slides powerpoints for a variety of projects!
■ Quick Draw with Google!
■ Art For Kids Hub! This website can provide you with a variety of drawing/art
tutorials!
 ■ Robot Week! Well- known art teacher Cassie Stephens is teaching several
online-lessons about robots! This is mostly geared toward K-4, but anyone
can participate!

Traditional Art Activities

These activities require supplies which are easily found at local stores like Wal Mart, Staples,
Micheals, Amazon, etc. Grade level suggestions are just suggestions, they may not align to
your child’s interests or current ability. All art activities require some level of supervision, but
there are some where we are asking you to use the stove or other ingredients that required
dedicated supervision, but should still be fun!

1. Cut and Glue (Grades K-2)

Using scissors is an activity that all children take some time to learn and is an important
motor skill too. This is one of the creative craft activities for kids which helps them build their
creativity and also create memorable pieces of art.

What You Will Need:

A pair of scissors

Colored paper with predetermined shapes

Glue

Drawing paper

How To Perform:

Encourage the child to cut through the predetermined shapes on the colored paper.

You can start with simple shapes and make them complex once your child gets a hang of it.

Let him stick the cutouts on the drawing paper to create an artwork.

2. Sticker Fun (Grades K-2)

Stickers were some of the best aspects of all our childhoods, and they also have beneficial
effects on the child. Stickers help build motor skills, as the child concentrates on peeling it
off without damaging the paper body, and it also teaches them to be patient.
What You Will Need:

Stickers

Drawing Paper/ or a book

How To Perform:

Give a wad of stickers to your child, and encourage them to peel them off and stick them the
way they like in a book or on a drawing paper.

This helps build their creativity, and the resulting artwork is sure to be one to keep for ages.

3. Raised Salt Painting (Grades K-6)

A tried and tested favorite among children, salt painting is ridiculously fun to do and also an
activity that helps improve the child’s creativity. Salt painting can bring out a real potential
for art among children, no matter how disinterested they seem at first.

What You Will Need:

Epsom Salt

Food color in varied colors

Glue

Drawing paper

Pencil

Paper plates

How To Perform:

On a paper plate, add a few drops of food color on some Epsom salt and mix. Repeat this
process for all the colors the child wants.

Let your child draw their favorite shapes and patterns on the drawing paper.

Help apply glue if needed on the designs and then pour the colored salt over the glued
areas.
Let it dry.

4. Drawing With Oil Pastel (Grades K-6)

Although it is not strictly an activity meant for children, oil pastel painting is highly
stimulating and also fun to do. Encourage your child to draw various shapes on a canvas,
and fill it in a variety of ways.

What You Will Need:

Oil pastels

Drawing paper

Baby oil

Cotton buds

How To Perform:

Let your kid draw their favorite things on a drawing paper with the oil pastels and fill in the
color. Encourage them to make as many shapes as they want.

For a fine, painting-like art effect, give them some baby oil and have them smear it on the
painting with a cotton bud.

The baby oil can make any art look vibrant and deserving of being hung on the wall.

5. The Back-And-Forth Drawing Game (Grades K-6)

Creative games for kids, such as this one, require active participation from the parent, and
can greatly help in bringing your child closer to you. This game involves drawing a common
image alternatively, so children are forced to think on their feet and make stuff up as the
game progresses. This stimulates creativity in your child, as the game becomes harder with
each step.

What You Will Need:

Colour pencils/ crayons

Drawing paper
How To Perform:

Start by drawing an unassuming picture on a paper, and pass it onto your child.

The child is to add something of their own accord to the image.

Both of you then proceed to build on the drawings of the previous person.

6. Playdough Modeling (Grades K-4)

Playdough has been a mainstay in toy stores for ages. Not only is it cheap, but it is also a
highly fun and creative item to play with. Creative art activities, like this one, are simple. Just
provide some playdough to your child, and let their imagination take over. Soon, the child
will be seen making shapes of increasing complexities. Playdough easily stimulates the
brain and makes the child think hard to make different shapes.

What You Will Need:

Playdough

Poke-ins

Playdough mats

How To Perform:

Give your child some playdough and let them make shapes of their choice.

You may sit next to them and assist or have fun making your own shapes.

Encourage them to use poke-ins, and playdough mats to make textures on their shapes.

7. Marble Painting (Grades K-6)

Marble paintings are fun to do and great to look at, so your child is sure to not get bored with
this activity any time soon.

What You Will Need:

Watercolor

Drawing paper
Some marbles

How To Perform:

Encourage your child to dip the marbles in the paint and draw shapes on the paper.

The child can roll the marbles to create interesting patterns or hold them in between their
fingers and carefully draw their favorite shapes.

8. Water Balloon Painting (Grades K-6) Adult Supervision required

Water balloon painting is another great way to add new textures and techniques in your
child’s activities. With this activity, your child can learn how to play with textures.

What You Will Need:

Some water balloons.

Watercolor

Paper plates

Drawing paper/ canvas

How to Perform:

Start with getting your child to fill some water in the water balloons. You may help them tie
the opening so that the water doesn’t spill while they are painting.

You can have them fill different amounts of water to give them more sizes to experiment
with.

Remove your child’s favorite colors on different disposable paper plates.

Let your child dip the water balloons in the color. They can dab the balloons or drag and roll
them as they please on the drawing paper.

9. Elephant Toothpaste (Grades K-6) Adult Supervision required

Elephant toothpaste fits the bill perfectly as one of the best creative thinking activities for
kids. Watch your child curiously play with jumbo-sized toothpaste-like substance, which is
created out of harmless ingredients.
What You Will Need:

Safety goggles

Dry Yeast

A plastic bottle

Liquid soap, preferably dish soap

6% peroxide

Edible food color

Warm water

How To Perform:

Help your child put on the safety goggles.

Take some 6% peroxide in the bottle.

Add dish soap and color.

Stir the bottle.

In another container, take some yeast and add warm water to it.

Add the yeast mix to the bottle with peroxide, dish soap and color.

Step back with your child and watch the mixture lather up and flow out of the bottle in
wonderful shapes and forms!

10. Shaving Cream Playdough (Grades K-6) Adult Supervision required

For a more interactive creative game for kids, you can choose to make dough out of
shaving cream along with your child. Color the dough in various colors, and watch your child
thrive creatively.

What You Will Need:

1/2 cup of cornstarch

1/2 cup of shaving cream

How To Perform:

Help your child mix and knead the cornstarch, shaving cream and edible color together.

The dough would still look crumbly after a while but will be able to hold shapes.

Let your child then create desired shapes and patterns with this dough.

11. Making Masks

Making masks can help kids truly think out of the box and use their imagination in creative
ways.

What You Will Need:

A construction plate

A pair of scissors

Glue

Watercolor/ crayons

A pencil

Two rubber bands

How To Perform:

Get your child to mark areas that need to be cut out on the construction plate (for your eyes,
nose and mouth). Help them cut the plate as per the markings. Now, let your child color the
mask their way. Poke two holes on opposite sides of the plate. Tie a rubber band on each
side, leaving a loop to put on the mask around the ears.

12. Finger Painting (Grades K-2)

Finger painting has traditionally been one of the messiest activities a child can do, but also
one of the most creative.

What You Will Need:

Paint palette

Drawing paper or canvas

How To Perform:

Spread some newspaper on a table before your child starts painting.

Remove all the colors they want and let them paint shapes and patterns of their choice with
their fingers.

13. Playing School (Grades K-2)

Playing school at home may not seem appealing, but believe it or not, your child will turn out
to love it soon enough.

Things You Will Need:

Some stationary

A roll-up blackboard/ whiteboard

Some chalk/ whiteboard markers

How To Perform:

Let your child play the roles of whomever they like; let them choose if they want to be the
teacher or the student, or the principal or the school nurse.

Make them alternate various roles until they are satisfied with the dialogue and the
outcome.

14. Glowing Dough (Grades K-6) (Adult supervision required)

Children seem to have an attraction towards anything that glows, and glowing playdough is
no different. This activity is advisable for older children who can handle being around the
stovetop and are exposed to some amount of cooking. Nonetheless, you need to be around
them at all times to prevent any accidents.

What You Will Need:

5 cups of flour

2 cups of table salt

2/3rd cup of vegetable oil

2 tablespoon of cream of tartar

Edible color

Glow in the dark paint

Blacklight

How To Perform:

On a stovetop and on a medium flame, mix all the ingredients except the edible color and
the glow in the dark paint.

Let the mixture cook till it starts coming together like a gooey dough.

Get it off the stovetop and let it cool a bit.

While it is still a little warm, add the food color and the glow in the dark paint.

Knead the dough properly.

You can store in a ziplock, and whenever your child wants to play, they can have some fun
making shapes with the dough with some blacklight.

15. Toy Excavation (Grades K-4)

To make for a truly memorable evening for your child, excavating toys are a great idea. This
can improve their motor and reasoning skills.

What You Will Need:

Some plastic toys

Utensils

Water
A dropper

Some saltwater

Brushes

How To Perform:

Take enough water in the utensils and drop the toys in them. You may choose to drop one
toy in each utensil or all of them in one large utensil.

Keep the utensils in the freezer and let the water freeze.

Then, remove the utensils, loosen the ice and drop it in a tray.

Make your child excavate the toys carefully with the help of some saltwater, a dropper and
some brushes.

These creative activities will help you keep your energetic child happily engaged for long. By
trying out these creative activities, their motor skills, reasoning skills, and observational skills
will develop. If your child shows interest in craft activities, you can also get them craft kits
too. The activities in the craft kits can help your child nurture their talents.

16. Found Object Portraits (Self/Family) (Grades K-6)

Children love to make things from objects around the house or from a nature walk. This
activity really gets their imagination soaring.

What You Will Need:

A collection of objects in a range of size, color, shape, texture and weight.

A camera (if you’d like to document the creation)

How To Perform:

Encourage your child to go on a scavenger hunt (inside or outside) for things that could be
used to make a portrait. Remind them that this would include objects to represent hair,
eyes, ears, nose, mouth, face shape and any accessories such as glasses or bows. Once a
self portrait is complete, snap a photo and encourage them to make another of someone
else. They should find new objects for each portrait. Have even more fun and get the whole
family involved making portraits of each other, a guaranteed giggle!

17. How to draw video link (Grades K-6)

Students LOVE these how to draw videos! There are so many great choices and categories.
I encourage you to draw along, you’ll find you CAN do it, bring out your inner artist!

What You Will Need:

Paper

Pencil

Access to YouTube

Link: Art Hub For Kids Youtube Channel

18. Architecture with Cereal Boxes, Cans and Cups! (Grades K-6)

Children love to make things from objects around the house, creating a city scape
imagining these objects as buildings of all different shapes and sizes is a great way to use
your imagination! This activity can be done in a variety of ways and children should be
encouraged to stack, lean, and overlap the objects to create an interesting architectural
design.

What You Will Need:

A collection of objects (boxes, cans, bottles, cups, spices, etc) in a range of size, color,
shape, texture and weight.

A camera (if you’d like to document the creation)

How To Perform:

Encourage your child to explore your cabinets and pantry for objects that have a variety of
shapes and sizes. Let them imagine they are building a city. Which objects would be tall
skyscrapers, museums, schools, stores, libraries, train stations, and more! Objects can be
stacked to create different shapes and heights. Think about paths between buildings for
roads and the addition of cups or paper plates that could be bent or cut for more variety.
Could they even create people or cars from something? What a fun way to use common
household items to create art!

19. Paint A Backyard Landscape (Grades K-6)

Go outside and paint or draw what you see. Look at the space from different angles before
choosing where you'll set up your art area. For extra fun: Look at some Monet landscapes
for inspiration.

20. Pantry Pop Art (Grades 4-6)

Open the cabinet, pantry, or fridge, and choose an interesting item to paint or draw. Use
bold outlines and bright colors like Andy Warhol did in his Campbell's Soup Cans series. For
extra fun: Do a series of 4 all using the same composition, but varying the color palette.

21. Frida Kahlo Inspired Self Portraits (Grades 4-6)

Invite your kids to look in the mirror, and paint a self portrait. They can think about how they
see themselves vs. what they think others see. For extra fun: Read: Frida Kahlo: The Artist
Who Painted Herself by Margaret Frith.

22. Action Paintings Like Jackson Pollock (Grades K-6) Adult supervision required

If the weather is warm, you can go outside and set up your drip paintings in a place that will
be easy to hose down later. If you use washable tempera paint, it should be easy to clean
up. On rainy days, this is a great project to try in the bathtub (just make sure your kids know
the paint will make the tub slippery, so they should try to stay sitting, or kneel on their knees).
For extra fun: discuss how non-representational art (like splattering paint) can help you to
express your emotions.

23. Sketch A Cozy Memory (Grades K-4)

Take a look at the art of Mary Cassatt. She painted the same thing over and over again...
moms with their kids. Ask your kids to remember a cozy moment that the two of you shared,
and invite them to sketch it using chalk pastels. For extra fun: Invite your kids to keep their
color palette soft, pastel, and kind of dreamy feeling... just like Mary Cassatt and the
Impressionists did.

24. Draw The Great Wave (Grades K-6)

25. Make A Chalk Mural (Grades K-6)

Check out some of the murals Diego Rivera painted, and then invite your kids to go outside
and create their own with sidewalk chalk on the patio. They may want to make a quick
sketch of their idea, to make translating their ideas onto a large art area a little easier. This is
a great spatial exercise, and is extra fun if multiple kids work on the mural together. For
extra fun: Ask your kids to have their mural tell a story of something they recently read
about or learned.

26. Sculpt A Tiny Dancer (Grades K-6)

Look at some of Degas' sculptures of ballerinas. There are LOTS to see. Then, give your kids
a piece of modeling clay, and ask them to sculpt a dancer. It doesn't have to be a ballerina!
If they like hip-hop, tap, ballroom, folk, or any other style of dance, they can sculpt a dancer
in any pose they choose. The main idea is for them to look at some sort of reference, and
use their observational skills to re-create the human body in that position. For extra fun:
Snap a selfie of your child and their sculpture together, with them making the same pose as
their art!

27. Paint Your Dreams (Grades K-6)

Invite your kids to paint a dream they've had recently. For extra fun: Look at some surrealist
artists like Magritte or Dali... they loved to paint their dreams!

28. Explore Color Interactions (Grades K-6)

Get out a bunch of construction paper, and cut them into 3 different size squares... small,
medium, and large. Start playing with them, and notice how the colors effects are altered
depending on the colors that surround them. Look at 'Homage to the Square' by Josef
Albers for inspiration. For extra fun: This project is even more fun if you use subtle color
variations not found in most construction paper packs. Have your kids paint some color
swatches with their own custom colors, or use some paint chip swatches from the
hardware store if your have them leftover from a home decorating project.

29. Math & Art! Students can explore the work of artist: Wayne Thiebaud, and create their
own yummy still life, by following the directions below.