Art is like a breath of fresh air during the homeschool routine. It allows your child to take a small break in the middle of the day and do something creative. There are so many creative projects kids can do for art, be it a structured art class at Outschool or through the Abeka Academy or something much more relaxed like art projects through DIY.org. Kids can also simply do art projects they come up with independently. If you have trouble coming up with art projects for your first grader to do for homeschool, check out these fun ideas.
1. Sisu The Dragon from Raya
Your child could practice their drawing skills by drawing Sisu the Dragon from the Disney movie Raya. This is a popular movie among first-grade girls. Sisu is a bright blue dragon with lots of fur, so there is the opportunity to work on drawing a lot of detail or simplifying the piece. One thing you can do is have your child work on drawing by sight. If your child has taken drawing classes before, try looking up some fun pictures of Sisu on google and picking out one to draw together. If not, then the Art Hub For Kids has a step-by-step tutorial on drawing Sisu and other characters from the movie Raya.
2. DIY Decal Puppets
Making sticker puppets is a simple art project that helps first graders perfect their scissor skills and work on color schemes. To start out, you will need at least 2 large decal stickers. We used stickers from a hamster sticker set. The complete supply list of things you will need for this project is:
- 2 Decals or large stickers
- 2 popsicle sticks
- 1 empty cereal box or piece of poster board
- Sharpies
Decorate the popsicle sticks with sharpies in fun patterns. Then cut out a square from your cereal box large enough to fit your entire sticker on. You can use the poster board for this step if you do not have a cereal box. Next, place your popsicle stick on top of your square. Then peel off the back of your decal and stick it on top of your popsicle stick and cardboard, catching both the stick and the cardboard to seal them together. Now you can cut the cardboard down further so that it is flush with the stickers. You don’t want to cut it to match the sticker shape before attaching it because putting it over the popsicle stick changes the edges a bit. This is a really simple homeschool art project that takes about 20 minutes to do.
3. Robots Made From Recycled Materials
You can make recycled materials robots out of wooden blocks or various things you have lying around your house destined for the trash can. Apple sauce packet lids, old beads, bottle caps, paper clips, keys, and more work great for this craft. Glue them together with hot glue, so they make a small figurine. The figurines can be painted with acrylic craft paints. Then add embellishments like buttons, glitter, tiny beads, or googly eyes. This project requires quite a bit of parental guidance because it uses a hot glue gun, but your homeschooler can find all of the pieces, lay them out, and paint.
4. Digital Graphics Design
If you want to branch out in your artistic teaching, you can work with a little bit of computer graphics design. For instance, if you have a Canva pro program, you can work with various designs, from making posters to digital illustration and painting. Digital illustration works best if you have a pen pad that hooks to a computer. This is a straightforward tool to use and pretty cheap to buy off of amazon. It is like a mouse in the shape of a pen to allow you to draw more naturally on a desktop. Canva has an illustration beta feature that you can test out to let your child draw on any size of paper you like.
5. Cardboard Puppets
The easiest cardboard for elementary-age students to cut out is cardboard from a cereal box. It is typically thin, flexible cardboard that will still hold its shape but won’t be too rough on little hands. To make cardboard puppets, you will need:
- A cereal box
- Acrylic craft paint
- Paintbrushes
- Pipe cleaners
- Wooden stick or popsicle stick
- Tape and Elmers Glue
- Optional Embellishments like sequence, googly eyes, or beads
Cut out a sizeable silly shape for the head out of the cardboard. Then cut out some silly shapes for the other facial features like eyebrows, a nose, lips, and ears. You can paint the stick and all of the cardboard pieces in bright, fun colors. Once all the details are dry, glue the face together with Elmer’s glue and add on any embellishments for style. Then shape the pipe cleaners like hair and tape them to the back of the puppet’s head to stick out on the top. Finally, tape the decorated stick on the bottom.
Free Unicorn Coloring Page Printable
If you need a quick and easy art project for your homeschool students, then you can also grab this free unicorn coloring page printable from the Mommy Daughter Love free printable library. It has a super cute unicorn and fun background that kids can color, or paint with watercolors. Check out more printable crafts for free in the printables library.
Sum Up The Homeschool Lesson
These art lessons incorporate various mixed media concepts to get little hands used to working with lots of fun supplies. These lessons can be modified to make your child’s favorite TV, movie, or book character. You can also allow your child to use their creativity. Often, when children look at an example of artwork, they can find supplies to make something similar. Another approach is to allow to give your child the supplies and let their creativity flow.
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