22 Art Projects for Preschoolers (Easy Ideas)

Start here: three art projects for preschoolers crafts that always work

Coffee filter butterflyThree supplies, a three year old does it aloneApple stampingOne apple, one paint color, done in ten minutesFold and squish butterfly paintingFold, press, open, and the wings match

22 art projects for preschoolers, with pictures

1. Coffee filter butterfly

The child colours a coffee filter with markers, sprays it with water, then pinches it in a clothespin or pipe cleaner body.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, pink, blue, purple and yellow washable marker, water spray bottle, 1 wooden clothespin, 2 small googly eyes, 1 black pipe cleaner piece, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the filter with all 4 colors.
2. Spray it with water so the colors bleed together. Leave it to dry.
3. You gather the filter in the middle and pinch it in the clothespin so it spreads into two wings.
4. Glue 2 eyes near the top of the clothespin. Bend the pipe cleaner into a V and clip it in the top.

2. Apple stamping

The child dips a halved apple in paint and presses it onto paper to make apple prints.

You need: white paper, 1 apple, red, green and yellow paint, brown marker, paper plates for paint

How to make it

1. You cut the apple in half across the middle and pat it dry.
2. Pour a little red paint on a plate. Your child dips the apple half and presses it on the paper.
3. Stamp 2 red, 2 green and 1 yellow print, spaced apart so they do not touch.
4. Let the paint dry, then draw a short brown stem on top of each print.

3. Coffee filter flowers

The child colours filters, wets them so the colours bleed, then scrunches them onto a pipe cleaner stem.

You need: 3 round white coffee filters, washable markers, spray bottle of water, 3 green pipe cleaners, clear tape

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles each filter with markers.
2. Spray with water so the colours bleed. Let them dry.
3. Pinch each filter in the middle and scrunch it into a ruffled flower.
4. Twist a green pipe cleaner around the pinched point as a stem, and hold it with a little clear tape.

4. Coffee filter turkey

The child colours a coffee filter with markers, sprays it so the colours blend, and it becomes the tail behind a paper body.

You need: 1 coffee filter, red, orange and yellow washable markers, water in a spray bottle, brown paper, 2 googly eyes, orange and red paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child colors the filter with marker and you spray it with water so the colors run. Let it dry flat as the tail.
2. Cut a large brown circle and a smaller one. Glue the large circle on the lower middle of the filter as the body.
3. Glue the smaller circle on top of it as the head.
4. Cut an orange triangle beak and a red teardrop wattle. Glue them on the head with the 2 googly eyes.

5. Coffee filter apple

The child colours a coffee filter red, green or yellow, wets it, and adds a stem and leaf.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, red washable marker, water spray bottle, brown and green paper, glue stick

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the filter with the red marker.
2. Spray it with water until the color bleeds, then leave it flat to dry.
3. You cut a small brown rectangle and a green leaf from paper.
4. Glue the stem at the top edge and the leaf next to it.

6. Coffee filter earth

The child scribbles blue and green on a coffee filter and sprays it so it blends into a planet Earth.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, blue washable marker, green washable marker, spray bottle of water, 1 sheet of black paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles large patches of blue and smaller patches of green on the filter.
2. Spray it with water so the colors bleed together.
3. Let it dry flat.
4. Glue the dry filter in the middle of the black paper.

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7. Pom pom painted bunny

The child dabs paint with a clipped pom pom all over or around a bunny shape; the bunny appears when it is lifted.

You need: white cardstock, scrap paper, pink, purple and light blue paint, pom poms, clothespin

How to make it

1. You cut a bunny head with 2 long ears from scrap paper and lay it in the middle of the cardstock.
2. Pinch a pom pom in a clothespin. Your child dips it in paint and dabs it over the whole sheet, edge to edge, right over the bunny paper. Keep your finger on the bunny to keep it in one place.
3. Lift the scrap paper off. A white bunny head shows in the middle of the color.

8. Painted mini pumpkin

The child paints a real mini pumpkin with brushes, squeeze bottles or dot stickers and tape.

You need: 1 real mini pumpkin, paint, brush

How to make it

1. Wash and dry the mini pumpkin.
2. Your child paints thick patches and stripes over the top and sides.
3. Leave the stem bare.
4. Let it dry before touching.

9. Coffee filter fall leaves

The child drips or sprays autumn colours onto coffee filters, which are then cut into leaf shapes for a garland or window.

You need: white coffee filters, red, orange and yellow liquid watercolour, dropper, brown twine, clear tape

How to make it

1. Your child drips watercolour onto each filter so the colours spread and blend. Leave them to dry.
2. You cut each filter into a leaf shape with a short stem.
3. Tape the leaves by their stems along the twine, spaced apart.
4. Hang it in a window.

10. Fall nature collage

The child collects leaves, seeds and twigs on a walk and sticks them onto cardboard or contact paper.

You need: 1 rectangle of brown cardboard, maple leaves, short twigs, acorns, white glue

How to make it

1. Your child glues maple leaves flat on the cardboard, spread out and partly overlapping.
2. Glue twigs between the leaves at different angles.
3. Glue acorns in the gaps.
4. Let it dry flat, with a book on top if the leaves curl.

11. Coffee filter jellyfish

The child colours and wets a coffee filter, then tapes ribbon or streamer tentacles underneath.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, blue and purple washable markers, water spray bottle, strips of crepe paper streamer, 2 googly eyes, clear tape, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the coffee filter with the markers.
2. Spray it with water so the colours bleed together. Let it dry.
3. Cut the filter in half, curved edge at the top.
4. Tape streamer strips behind the straight bottom edge so they hang down.
5. Glue the 2 googly eyes on the front.

12. Coffee filter monster

The child tie-dyes a coffee filter any colours, then adds as many googly eyes, pipe cleaner arms and paper teeth as they like.

You need: 1 round coffee filter, washable markers, water spray bottle, googly eyes, 2 pipe cleaners, white paper, tape and glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles all over the coffee filter with the markers.
2. Spray it with water so the colours bleed together. Leave it to dry flat.
3. Tape 1 pipe cleaner behind the filter on each side, sticking out as arms.
4. Glue different size googly eyes in the upper half.
5. Cut small white triangles and glue them in a row below the eyes, points down, as teeth.

13. Fork stamped tulips

The child dips the back of a fork in paint and presses it on paper to print tulip heads, then paints or draws stems and leaves.

You need: red, pink and yellow poster paint, 1 small plastic fork, white cardstock, 1 green marker, paper plate for the paint

How to make it

1. Dip the back of the fork in paint and press it on the upper half of the cardstock, leaving a small tulip head.
2. Wash the fork and press more tulips in other colors in the same row.
3. Your child draws a long green stem from each tulip down to the bottom of the page.
4. Add a leaf on each stem.

14. Pom pom painted shamrock

The child dabs green paint over a shamrock shape with pom poms or cotton balls; with a stencil the shamrock appears when lifted.

You need: white cardstock, dark green poster paint, light green poster paint, 1 pom pom, clothespin to hold the pom pom, paper plate for the paint

How to make it

1. You cut a shamrock from white cardstock, with 3 rounded leaves and a short stem.
2. Pinch the pom pom in the clothespin and pour both greens onto the plate.
3. Your child dabs the pom pom into dark green, then dots it all over the shamrock.
4. Switch to light green and dab over the first dots so they overlap.
5. Let it dry.

15. Acorn rolled squirrel painting

The child drops acorns and blobs of paint into a box over a squirrel shape and shakes it so the acorns paint tracks.

You need: white cardstock, brown, orange and yellow poster paint, acorns, 1 shallow box

How to make it

1. You cut a side-view squirrel with a big curled tail from white cardstock.
2. Put the squirrel in the box and drop blobs of paint on it.
3. Your child drops in the acorns and shakes the box back and forth in every direction.
4. Take the acorns out and leave the squirrel to dry.

16. Potato stamped Easter eggs

The child dips a halved potato in paint and stamps egg shapes, then decorates them with dots and stripes.

You need: 1 potato, pink, yellow, light blue and purple paint, 1 sheet of white paper, cotton swab

How to make it

1. You cut the potato in half and cut an egg shape in the flat face.
2. Your child presses it into paint and stamps eggs across the paper in different colors.
3. Let them dry, then your child dabs dots on each egg with a cotton swab.

17. Bubble wrap rain umbrella

The child prints blue bubble wrap rain all over a page, then glues a paper umbrella on top.

You need: bubble wrap, blue paint, white paper, red paper, black paper, glue stick

How to make it

1. Your child dips the bubble wrap in blue paint and presses it all over the white paper. Let it dry.
2. Cut a red half circle and a black hook-shaped handle from paper.
3. Your child rubs glue stick on the back of the half circle and presses it in the middle of the page, flat edge down.
4. Glue the handle below the middle of the flat edge.

18. Coffee filter rainbow fish

The child tie-dyes a coffee filter with markers and water, then adds a tail, an eye and punched foil scales.

You need: 1 round white coffee filter, washable markers, spray bottle of water, blue paper, foil, 1 googly eye, 1 sheet of light blue paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child scribbles the filter with markers and sprays it with water. Let it dry.
2. Glue the filter flat in the middle of the light blue sheet as the body.
3. You cut a blue triangle and glue it at one side, point touching the filter, as the tail.
4. Glue the googly eye at the other end and small foil dots across the body as scales.

19. Coffee filter sunflower

The child colours a coffee filter yellow and orange, wets it, then adds a dark centre and stem.

You need: 1 coffee filter, yellow and orange washable markers, water in a spray bottle, brown paper, green paper, light blue paper, glue

How to make it

1. Your child colors the coffee filter with yellow and orange marker.
2. Spray it with water so the colors run together. Let it dry.
3. Glue the filter flat near the top of the blue sheet. Cut a brown circle and glue it in the middle of the filter.
4. Cut a green strip and glue it below the filter as the stem.
5. Cut 2 leaves and glue one on each side of the stem.

20. Fork painted fireworks

The child stamps a fork dipped in bright paint outward from a centre on black paper to make bursting fireworks.

You need: 1 sheet of black paper, 1 fork, red, blue and yellow paint, gold glitter

How to make it

1. Dip the back of the fork in paint.
2. Your child presses it again and again on the black paper, prints pointing outward from one centre point, to make a round burst.
3. Make more bursts in the other colours.
4. Sprinkle gold glitter over the wet paint.

21. Salt painted snowflake

The child traces a snowflake in glue, covers it in salt and touches watercolour to the salt so the colour runs along the lines.

You need: 1 sheet of black cardstock, white school glue, table salt, blue and purple liquid watercolor, 1 paintbrush

How to make it

1. Your child traces a snowflake on the cardstock with a line of glue: 6 arms, as wobbly and uneven as they come.
2. Sprinkle salt generously over the wet glue, then tip off the extra.
3. Your child touches a brush loaded with watercolor to the salt and watches the color creep along the lines.
4. Let it dry flat.

22. Fold and squish butterfly painting

The child drops paint on one side of a folded butterfly shape, presses the fold shut and opens it to see matching wings.

You need: white cardstock, paint of choice, paper towel

How to make it

1. You cut a large butterfly from the cardstock and fold it down the middle.
2. Open it. Your child drops blobs of paint on one wing.
3. Fold it shut, then your child presses and rubs the fold.
4. Open it up and lay it flat to dry.

Nothing matches that filter. Clear it and try again.

Easy art projects for preschoolers: the 11 a young three can do

11 of these a young three can do almost alone: Coffee filter butterfly, Apple stamping, Coffee filter flowers, Coffee filter earth, Pom pom painted bunny, Painted mini pumpkin, Fork stamped tulips, Pom pom painted shamrock, Potato stamped Easter eggs, Fork painted fireworks, Fold and squish butterfly painting. No exact cutting, no small pieces, and the glue stick does the rest. For the others, you cut and they glue.

Setting up paint and process art with a 3 year old

Cover the table with a plastic cloth or a cut-open trash bag and give the child one color at a time. Coffee filter projects need markers, a spray bottle and something to catch the drips, so set the filter on a plate before spraying.

A three year old can stamp with an apple half, dab with a pom pom in a clothespin and color a coffee filter alone. Cutting the fall leaves into shapes, tracing the glue snowflake and adding the details to the jellyfish or rainbow fish are adult jobs.

Dried coffee filters make good window art because light comes through them. Tape the butterflies and flowers to a window, string the fall leaves as a garland, or set the painted mini pumpkin on the porch.

For the seasons, start with apple stamping in September, the coffee filter turkey in November, the salt painted snowflake in winter and fork stamped tulips in spring. Fork painted fireworks fit the Fourth of July.

More crafts for preschoolers

• Crafts for 3 year olds
• Coffee filter crafts
• Fall crafts for preschoolers
• April crafts for preschoolers
• September crafts for preschoolers
• Spring crafts for preschoolers
• Summer crafts for preschoolers
• May crafts for preschoolers
• All crafts for preschoolers, by theme, holiday and letter

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