Kindergarten Drawing Activities
Kindergarten students may find they can draw a concept much more easily than they can read or write about it. This makes drawing an important skill for the kindergarten student. Teachers use drawing activities to engage the students in learning activities that help them master the skills necessary to achieve literacy.
Other People Are Reading
-
Shapes
-
Kindergarten students should recognize circles, squares and rectangles taught in pre-kindergarten. Kindergarten adds ovals and rectangles. Most students also recognize stars and hearts. Have the students use a different color to make each shape out of a piece of construction paper. They may overlap the shapes, link them and mix different shapes in a collage.
Dot-to-Dot
-
Use dot-to-dot worksheets to help students learn to form basic letter shapes. Use the shapes to reinforce left-to-right progression that students will use when reading. Help students move from one number to the next following the correct progression of numbers. Ask the students to identify the letter after they have completed the shape. Review the sound of the letter.
-
Sequencing
-
Read the students a short story or a nursery rhyme. Have the students draw three or four main events found in the story. Remind them to think about how the main character moved through events so the pictures will occur in the correct order.
Color, Line and Shape
-
Begin by asking the students to identify the basic eight colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, black and white). Next identify different kinds of lines: straight, crooked, thick, thin, wavy, curved and zigzag. Finally identify the basic shapes such as circle, square, triangle, heart, star, oval and rectangle.
Have the students use the components of color, line and shape to illustrate a familiar story or nursery rhyme.
My Community
-
Direct students to draw a representation of their family and home. Ask them to include family members, pets, and anyone else who lives in their home. After the students have completed their pictures, collect them and talk about the different people and animals that might make up a family. Discuss the different kinds of homes represented in the room, based on the pictures. Identify similarities and differences that make up a diverse neighborhood.
Contour Drawing
-
Challenge the students to draw an object without watching their hand. Use the eye to follow the shape of an object on the board. Instruct them to trace the object with the eye and follow the same movement with pencil in hand. Allow them to have fun and laugh when the drawing looks less like the object than they expect.
Cut a hole in the side of a shoe box large enough to insert a hand with a short pencil. Now try the same exercise again. Keep the shoe boxes and encourage students to repeat the exercise frequently to improve their ability to draw what they see.
-
References
- Photo Credit pencil image by vanillla from Fotolia.com
