We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission when you use one of the links. The company pays us for referral link sharing, which helps us run this blog and give our in-depth content to our readers for free.
Elementary school isn’t all spelling, reading, and arithmetic. If you only teach young kids these sorts of things they will be remarkably bored at school. Even the most studious of children will start to hate learning if it is not broken up with something much more interesting and creative. Your job as a teacher or a parent is to teach critical skills and information to the young students, but it is also to make learning fun. The best way to do this is to get the students involved in some fun, creative products. If you find that your kids are getting bored and looking at you with long faces, consider some fun coloring crafts. This might seem little juvenile for the older students, but you will be surprised to see what you can do with little more than some paper, coloring books, and colored pencils or markers. Described below are some of my favorite coloring crafts for elementary school kids. Give one a try-I promise that you will enjoy the results.
1. Coloring a house or building. Assign the class to make a house or building out of paper. Provide a cardboard box for the main structure. It will be the job of each student or a group of students to design the different sides and architectural features of the building. Once they have drawn their parts and cut them out, have them color each part in whatever fashion they choose. Finally, assemble the house. You will get a funky and unique home with all sorts of cool colors.
2. Coloring the teacher’s clothes. Most kids love to make fun of their teacher. If you are a teacher or parent who is willing to let the class have a good time at your expense, consider the following activity. The kids need to draw a full sized suit of clothes. Each child gets some part of the clothing to design and color. When they are finished with the coloring the class needs to cut out the clothing. Teacher then pins the clothing onto their real clothing and walks around the classroom. This one should produce laughter and excitement very quickly.
3. Coloring to music. I have found that children have a natural understanding of the connection between music and colors. They know that red means anger or passion, that green means life, and that blue means contemplation. When a piece of distinct music is played (preferably a piece of music without lyrics) and the children are asked to color what they hear, some surprising results can appear.
4. Coloring a great work of art. Obtain a coloring book with line drawings of great works of art. Provide each child with a separate work to color and a picture of the original. Instruct them to color the coloring book image as close to the original as possible. This activity teaches the students some important things about fine art and how it is made. It might ignite a passion for artwork in one of the young students.
These are just a few of the many coloring craft activities that you can try with any group of elementary school kids. Use coloring crafts to amplify the natural creative abilities that so many students already have. With some time and effort you will find that students will ask you if they can do a coloring project. Encourage your class or child to come up with their own ideas for fun coloring crafts. Try different projects and see what holds the children’s interest.