Art activities for preschoolers: 22 easy ideas to try

These 22 art activities are for children aged 3 to 5, and most suit kindergarten too. They cover painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, sculpture, nature art and color mixing. Most use supplies you already have or can pick up cheaply.

There’s also a simple art center setup, help with mess and displays, and a five day art week you can copy. Where an activity is harder for three year olds, you’ll find a way to adjust it.

Process art vs craft

With a craft, the teacher has a finished product in mind. Every child copies the sample, using the glue stick mostly to follow steps. In process art, children get materials and time. What they make is up to them.

For 3 to 5 year olds, process art is easier to run. There’s no wrong result, nothing to fix and nobody to compare themselves with. If a child wants to cover the whole page in brown paint, let them. You spend your time watching instead of correcting.

Try changing what you say. “What is it?” puts pressure on a child who was just enjoying the squish of the paint. Say what you see instead: “You used a lot of blue.” “That line goes all the way across.” “Tell me about your picture” works too, and a child is free to say “it’s nothing, I just like it.”

Crafts still have a place. If you want a seasonal craft, our winter activities post has a set of them. This post is mostly about the open-ended kind.

Painting

Painting gets its own post, so this section is short. For easels, paint stations and getting the paint right, read how to set up painting. Here are three ideas to try once you have it running.

1. One color painting

Give each child a single color and a big sheet of paper. Offer two or three different brushes. One color can make thick lines or thin ones, dots or dragged marks. Next day, add a second color and see what happens where they meet. Use shallow cups so the paint doesn’t tip. If it’s too thick to flow, add a little water.

2. Painting with kitchen tools

Set out a potato masher, a fork, a whisk and a sponge, each with a tray of paint. Children dab and drag them across paper. Each tool leaves its own mark. Three year olds do well with a chunky tool they can grip in a fist. Wash the tools in a bucket afterward and they last for months.

3. Watercolor on coffee filters

Flatten a white coffee filter and let children paint it with watery paint or washable markers dipped in water. Watch the colors spread and bleed. Dry the filters flat, then hang them in a window. Use a spray bottle of water on a tray for children who find brushes fiddly.

Drawing

Drawing doesn’t have to start with a pencil and a blank white page. Change the paper or the tool and children draw differently.

4. Oil pastel scribbles

Oil pastels are soft, make bold marks and don’t break as easily as crayons. Give children a full sheet of paper and ask them to fill it with lines: straight, wavy, loopy, zigzag. They can press lightly or hard and see what changes. Tape the paper to the table so it stays put while small hands press down. Store the pastels by color in a tray. In a pile, they smear.

5. Chalk on black paper

Chalk looks bright and dramatic on black paper. Children can draw fireworks, rainbows, a night sky or just patterns. Dip the chalk in a little water first and the lines get thicker and brighter. The chalk dust can bother children with allergies or asthma, so pick dustless chalk if you can and wipe the table down afterward.

6. Drawing to music

Put on some calm music and ask children to let their crayon or pastel move with it. Slow music gives slow, curving lines. Faster music gives quick, jumpy ones. Play the calm classroom music player for a quiet version, then switch to something livelier and compare the drawings. Some children will close their eyes. Let them.

Collage

Collage uses up scraps and gives children fine motor practice. They tear the materials, sort them and stick them down. For advice on glue and trays, see setting up collage. A few ideas to start:

7. Scrap paper collage

Tear or cut leftover construction paper into pieces. Wrapping paper and old cards work too. Children glue them onto a sheet of cardboard in any pattern they like. Tearing is good practice by itself. Put the pieces in a muffin tin sorted by color so choosing is easy.

8. Color hunt collage

Pick one color for the day. Children find scraps of that color in the paper basket and glue them down. You end up with blue pictures, for example, or red or yellow ones. Use them to talk about shades. A dark red and a pale pink are both red, and children enjoy hearing that.

9. Texture collage

Offer fabric squares, ribbon, corrugated cardboard, tissue paper, foil and sandpaper. Children feel each one before they stick it down. Ask which feels rough or smooth. Which feels bumpy? Skip beads, pom-poms and googly eyes for children who still put things in their mouths. Those are choking hazards, so keep them for older children and stay close.

Printmaking

Printing is a favorite with this age group. Press something down and lift it up: a picture appears. That surprise never wears off.

10. Sponge prints

Cut a kitchen sponge into circles or squares. Try triangles too. Pour paint onto a damp paper towel in a tray so it works like a stamp pad. Children press the sponge into the paint, then onto paper. Repeating the same shape gives them patterns without you saying a word. Clothes pegs make good handles for little fingers.

11. Fruit and vegetable prints

Cut an apple in half across the middle to show the star shape inside. Try a pepper too, along with a potato and a piece of celery. Press each into paint and then onto paper. Pat the cut surface dry with a paper towel first, or the prints come out watery. Check for food allergies before you start, and wash hands afterward. Do not let children eat food that has had paint on it.

12. Bubble wrap prints

Paint a piece of bubble wrap with a brush, then press it paint side down onto paper and peel it away. The result looks like rain or bubbles. Wrap a piece around a rolling pin or a cardboard tube for a long rolled print. Bubble wrap with big bubbles gives bolder prints than the small kind.

13. Leaf rubbings

Put a leaf under a sheet of thin paper with the veins facing up. Children rub across it with the side of a peeled crayon, and the leaf shape appears. Try the same trick with coins or a textured wall. Corrugated cardboard works too. Tape the paper down so it does not slide. Three year olds may need an adult to hold the leaf in place.

Sculpture and 3D art

Making something that stands up changes how children think about materials. It also gets them using both hands.

14. Playdough creations

Playdough is the all-purpose sculpture material. Give children a ball each and a few tools: a plastic knife, a rolling pin, a garlic press, some craft sticks. Nothing needs to look like anything. If you want to make your own, our play dough recipe takes about ten minutes. Dough dries out fast when left uncovered, so store it in a sealed container.

15. Clay

Air-dry clay is firmer than playdough. It feels more serious. Children pinch, roll and poke it into bowls, snakes and creatures, then leave it to dry for a day or two. Once it is hard, they can paint it. Keep the clay sealed in a bag between sessions. It is not edible, so keep a close eye on children who still mouth things.

16. Cardboard and tape construction

Collect cardboard boxes and tubes, and set out masking tape. Children build whatever they like. A robot or a house. A tower that falls over. Masking tape is easier for small fingers than clear tape, and you can tear it by hand. Pre-tear a few strips and stick them to the edge of the table for the youngest children.

17. Foil sculpture

Tear off squares of aluminum foil. Show children how to crumple and twist it, or pinch it into shapes. It holds its form without glue. They might make animals or people, or stick with abstract blobs. Check for sharp edges on torn foil, and keep it away from the mouth.

Nature art

A walk around the playground or yard turns into an art supply run. Bring a basket and collect what you find.

18. Leaves, sticks and stones

Spread out what you gathered on a tray or a large sheet of paper. Children arrange the leaves, sticks and stones into faces or patterns, including designs that repeat. Take a photo of each one before it gets taken apart. Stones can be painted too. Use smooth ones, large enough that they cannot be swallowed.

19. A nature collage

Stick a sheet of clear contact paper to the table with the sticky side up. Children press leaves, petals, grass and small twigs onto it. Cover it with a second sheet of contact paper and hang it in the window. Light comes through the leaves. Check for allergies and skip anything prickly. Wash hands afterward.

Color mixing art

Mixing is the most dramatic thing that happens at the art table. Two colors go in, and a third comes out.

20. Mixing the primary colors

Give each child red, yellow and blue paint in separate cups, plus a plate for mixing. Let children test what happens when red meets yellow, then try blue with yellow and red with blue. They can paint with the colors they make. A white paper plate shows the colors well. Use a small blob of each color. Pour in too much and all the mixing turns brown.

21. Ice painting

Fill an ice cube tray with water and a few drops of food coloring, add a craft stick to each cube and freeze. Children rub the colored ice across thick white paper. As the ice melts, the color spreads. Where two colors overlap, they mix. Do this on a warm day or near a sunny window, and keep a tray underneath for drips. Some three year olds find the cold surprising, so try one cube first.

Cutting and gluing art

Scissors and glue turn up in a lot of art, so let children practice on their own terms.

22. Snip and stick

Give each child strips of paper to snip into little pieces, then glue the pieces onto a page to make a picture or a pattern. Cutting a strip is easier than cutting a curve, so it suits children who are just starting. Use our free cutting practice worksheets for lines and shapes to cut, and read more about scissor skills for how to hold them. Always supervise scissors, and use child-safe ones with rounded tips.

Setting up an art center

A table and a shelf in a corner are enough, with a sink nearby. The aim is for children to get materials and put them away without asking.

A basic supplies list:

• paper in a few sizes and colors, including black and cardboard
• washable, non-toxic paint in the three primary colors, plus white and black
• brushes in different widths
• crayons, oil pastels and washable markers
• child-safe scissors
• white school glue and glue sticks
• masking tape
• playdough and air-dry clay
• sponges, cotton swabs and other found tools
• a basket for scraps and recycling

Look for the AP seal from the Art and Creative Materials Institute, or a non-toxic label, on art supplies. Washable paint and markers save you a lot of scrubbing. Keep the shelf tidy by putting out three or four materials at a time. Swap them every week or two.

Managing the mess

Mess is part of the deal. It doesn’t have to take over the room.

• Smocks: an old adult t-shirt works as well as a purpose-made smock. Hang them on hooks by the table.
• Trays: use them for paint cups and glue, and for playdough too. If something spills, only the tray needs cleaning.
• Drying rack: give wet paintings somewhere to go. Use a clothesline or a baking rack, or a box with a few shelves. Write the name on the back before the paper gets wet.
• Washable supplies only: it takes a lot of the stress out.
• Cover the table: a plastic tablecloth or a few sheets of newspaper.
• Clean up together: set the visual timer for five minutes and give each child a job. One can wipe a table while others stack paper or carry brushes to the sink.

Displaying children’s art

A piece on the wall tells a child their work matters. Hang pictures at their eye level, not the adult’s. Write each child’s name on the front, and add a line they dictate if they want one. Rotate the display every week so every child gets a turn. For layout and ideas, see our post on preschool bulletin boards. Keep a basket of finished work for children to take home on Friday.

An art week plan to copy

This plan runs for five days and uses ideas from above. Add your own favorites to the lesson plan template.

• Monday: one color painting (activity 1). Open the art center and go through the rules for scissors and glue.
• Tuesday: oil pastel scribbles (4), then drawing to music (6).
• Wednesday: scrap paper collage (7) and a texture collage (9).
• Thursday: sponge prints (10) and bubble wrap prints (12). Add leaf rubbings (13) if you have leaves.
• Friday: mixing primary colors (20), then ice painting (21). Hang everything up and invite another class to walk around.

For a seasonal twist, add crafts from our winter activities for preschoolers.

FAQ