The coronavirus—COVID-19—has sprung up and disrupted our lives in so many ways. From no toilet paper at the stores and lost vacations all the way to illness and the loss of lives. Now the search for remote learning activities for our kids has been thrust upon us—ready or not!
I have put together a big collection of fun art activities that you can do at home with simple supplies. They are easy for parents and fun for kids! If your school district has closed, and you are now responsible for remote learning activities for your children (or students), this post is designed specifically for you.
YOU don’t have to be an art teacher to do fun art activities with your children. It just helps to KNOW one! And you do—ME—so you are all set!
Teachers—please feel free to send a link to this post to your parents as a resource to help them provide art-themed remote learning activities for their kids while they’re at home.
Parents—please feel free to share this with other parents looking for remote learning activities they can do with their children while schools are closed.
In this post, I have curated a large collection of my art and art integration projects, activities, and resources that could be helpful to your children (and to you) over the next few weeks.
There are two sections to this post to make it helpful to you.
-
-
- The first is a collection of projects that I have available on my blog. I will briefly describe them to you and then send you to the place on my blog to get the full details you need to do each project.Â
- The last section will tell you how you can use Teachers Pay Teachers to help you with remote learning activities. Millions of people worldwide use the Teachers Pay Teachers site. It isn’t just for teachers. In fact, many parents use it to homeschool their children and supplement their children’s learning. You can set up a free account and start gathering resources (both free and paid) right away.Â
-
Here you will find a collection of projects and activities that are available on my blog. I have curated a list of projects that use a minimal amount of supplies (that you probably already have) and can be readily modified for home use.
I briefly describe each activity below to help you decide if you are interested. To get to the meat (and complete instructions), you need to follow the link provided (the link takes you to another post on my blog dedicated to that activity).
Emoji Agamographs
First, let’s lighten the mood a little for our kids. Try using my easy emoji agamograph project with your children. An agamograph is a picture that morphs into another when you look at it from a different angle. Kids love them! In this activity, they can create emoji faces that express how they feel about everything going on.
You can easily modify this lesson and use basic supplies you have around the home. You will find all the details HERE.
Have older children? Give them a more advanced way of making my agamographs and let them practice some math as they measure and figure this project out. You will find all the details HERE.
How to draw an owl on black paper!
How-to-Draw an Owl (and Paint It, too!)
This is a fun step-by-step, directed drawing activity, and then some! All the steps to drawing (and, if you want, painting) a cute owl are in the post. Your children can follow along. You’ll find the details HERE.
Owl Art Project Using Tissue Paper
If you have tissue paper and glue at home, you could easily do a fun variation of my owl art project–“painting” with tissue paper. The details about how to do that project are available HERE.
How-to-Draw a Bunny (and Paint It, too!)
Speaking of “how-to” instructions, I also have one for how to paint a bunny. Since Easter is fast approaching, your children could do this fun activity while they are home from school. It’s always good to have children work on sequencing and following step-by-step instructions. If you don’t have supplies to paint, have your children do the same steps with paper and pencil. The instructions are HERE.
Spring-themed “Pop Art” bee with my daughter and me!
Join my daughter and me as we turn one of my popular spring-themed coloring pages into a masterpiece. This is a complete teaching video designed with children in mind. Just hit play and let me do the teaching. You will need paper, a pencil and something to color with. You will find the complete video on Facebook HERE and YouTube Here.
Andy Warhol Soup Cans
You can use this time at home for some special projects that your children might not usually do. Art activities are always on the agenda, but art history doesn’t always make the cut. This project combines a little of both! On YouTube HERE.Â
I take you step-by-step through drawing soup cans—artwork like Andy Warhol did. Your kids are certain to think this is an unusual subject, but a brief history of Pop Art will help explain it all! All the instructions are available HERE.
Make Fish from Water Bottles
One way to approach this unexpected time at home is to look around at what you already have in your home and see what kind of art you can make using the things you have.For example, I wrote a blog post HERE about making rainbow fish from recycled water bottles. HERE is a project you could use to find objects around your house and teach your children about the artist Louise Nevelson. This is especially good for very young children.
Bleezer’s Ice Cream Cone Art Project
This is a very “sweet” activity—kids get to invent their own (virtual) ice cream flavors—and it will teach your children about making connections between art and poetry. It will also throw in some learning about alliterations. Check it out HERE.
Imaginary Playgrounds
It can’t get any easier—or more creative—than my imaginary playground project. You can see this video as a complete teaching video – just hit play! This was designed with the little ones in mind, but just about any grade can do this. Since this project uses scrap paper, it’s easy to put together with very few resources. You can read all about it HERE.
Celtic Knots
For some reason, children love to draw Celtic knots! This activity taps into that love (or helps to discover it!). Kids learn to draw (and then, if they want, paint) Celtic knots. They can even try creating a Celtic knot design that features the initial of their name–a fun, personalized project! I have details about how to do all of that HERE.
Dots, Dots, and More Dots
If you have the book “The Dot,” you can use it with the ideas in THIS POST. If you don’t have the book, don’t worry. The ideas in the post can be done without the book and are an introduction to fun art techniques that your children will like no matter what. They will especially like the watercolor and salt “trick,” and the crayon resist technique.ous artist sheets, and a whole lot more. I am sure you won’t be disappointed!
REMOTE LEARNING ACTIVITIES—TPT
I also have a storefront on the Teachers Pay Teacher (TPT) site. The resources I have available there make learning fun for kids and easy for parents and teachers!
I have over 400 resources (both free and paid) that I have put together in a way that I can easily share with others. The format of the resources on Teachers Pay Teachers is digital—this means the resources are mostly downloadable PDF files that you can print and use right away.
If TPT is new to you, this is a great time to become familiar with it! Set up a free account to download material from the site (but, of course, you can browse first all you want without an account). You can get started by visiting my store www.artwithjennyk.com.
The name Teachers Pay Teachers may imply that it’s only for teachers. Many parents use the site as well. Homeschool parents rely on the resources on the site when they are looking for ways to supplement their children’s learning. Even Sunday school teachers buy from TPT.
While many of the resources on TPT do cost a small amount of money, many are also free. In fact, I have a category in my TPT store that has all of my FREE art-infused resources in one convenient place. Many would make great remote learning activities for use at home. You can browse these resources HERE.
Below are some of my favorite activities to use this time of year. I think most of them could be useful as remote learning activities for you at home with your children. Many of them have teaching videos included—making them extra useful right now (in other words, I do the teaching of your kids)! [Note: these are activities you would have to purchase]
Shamrock Celtic Knot Paper Art Project
My shamrock Celtic knot project is a huge hit with children. I selected this resource specifically because it has very detailed instructions and a complete teaching video. This will allow your children to follow along independently as they do this fun project.
You can find this resource in my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE.
Emoji Agamographs
If you like the idea of my agamographs (from above), but you want it made a bit easier, you will find my emoji agamograph resource on TPT HERE.
Life Cycle Agamographs
Are you interested in a fun and creative way to integrate art and science?
If your children like my 2-way agamographs, these are going to blow their minds!!! My 3-way agamographs focus on the life cycles of various plants and animals. You can find the collection HERE.
Unscramble Famous Faces
Children love puzzles. This is why they love my unscramble portrait pages. These pages include options for younger children (cut and paste) and older children (grid drawing), making them an especially great remote learning activity if you have multiple-age children at home during this time. You can see all of them HERE. There are quite a few!
Coloring Pages
I have coloring pages for just about everything. My newest set is a set of different owls. If you have never used my coloring pages before, you are in for a treat! These are not just ordinary coloring pages where the sky is blue and the grass is green.
These are Pop Art coloring pages full of patterns and designs where children are encouraged to color creatively.
Each of my coloring page resources comes with pattern-filled designs for younger children and interactive designs where children draw in their own patterns and designs onto the pages before they color them. You can see my owl coloring pages HERE.
Also, if you click HERE, you can see all the coloring pages I have to offer. There are too many to list. I have coloring pages for Easter, Earth Day, Spring, Cowboys, Dinosaurs, Mermaids—basically whatever you can think of, I probably have! And, in case you don’t want to miss out on the coloring fun, I have a (free) set of adult coloring sheets available, as well as a whole book dedicated to adult coloring that is available from Amazon!
Table Posters
I have some XL coloring projects available as well—what I call “Table Posters.” You put 4 pieces of paper together to create a large coloring page that your child(ren) can then work on. This is a great way to get everyone in the family to cooperate and have fun together—because everyone is working on the same project. I have them available for St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day (but you can use these lovable themes anytime).
Art History
If art history is important to you like it is to me, I have many resources to introduce some art history to little learners. For example, HERE, you will find my set of famous artwork coloring pages.
I also have a large set of my popular “Famous Faces®” historical figure collaboration posters, including famous artists.
My Famous Faces® posters were designed as inspirational activities that involved contributions from an entire classroom of students, containing about 36 individual pieces. But, if you have a couple of kids at home, and they are at home for a couple of weeks, perhaps these posters may work out for you. And at the end, you have a great piece of art to hang in the family room or the kids’ bedroom. Check out my complete set of Famous Faces® posters HERE.
But if 30+ pages seem like too many, then I have one with only 4—my Andy Warhol collaboration poster. This makes it a great project to do with your children at home, and if you did or plan to do, the Andy Warhol soup can project up above—this is a perfect pairing!
Click HERE to see my Andy Warhol portrait collaboration poster.
Measuring Masterpieces
If you’d like your children to work on some math & learn art history at the same time, I’ve got you covered there, too. Last year I worked really hard on a project that I call “Measuring Masterpieces,” where children get to discover the true size of some of the most iconic works of art (that are in the public domain, of course).
I mention this resource because it’s educational—but also because it has a complete teaching video, which I think would be very helpful to you now. The video teaches how to do the project AND teaches some art history about each artist. You can find my measuring masterpiece resource HERE.
Brain Waves Instruction Collaboration
I don’t just talk about collaboration with my students. I have been collaborating with Brain Waves Instruction for years. She lives in New York, and I live in Arizona.
Together we have collaborated on a large catalog of English Language Arts resources that teachers, parents, and most importantly, children absolutely love.
Just the other day, a teacher wrote me about one of our Art Escape resources that focus on grammar skills. She said that for the first time, her children were excited to work on grammar skills. This is the kind of feedback from teachers that Brain Waves Instruction and I live for!
We have a HUGE collection of art-infused resources for topics like parts of speech, homophones, place value, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and more.
If you would like to try one of our resources for FREE, we have a Parts of Speech sample that is a great one to try! You can find it HERE.
There you have it—a pretty substantial list of art-infused remote learning activities that should keep your kids happy and engaged during those days at home.
I hope you can find something that will work for your unique situation!
I post a lot of ideas on my social media channels as well. If you’d like to connect over there, you can find me in the following places; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I also have a TON of ideas on my Pinterest page, and you can also find some of my ideas on YouTube.
Hopefully, we’ll all be back to our normal lives very soon. In the meantime, thanks for taking the time to make art with your kids!
Jenny K.
