Open-Ended Art Activities for Kindergarteners

Kindergartners possess a great deal of imagination perfectly suited to open-ended art projects. Art allows children to explore their creativity, hone their fine-motor skills and learn about the world around them. Open-ended art projects are especially useful because they teach children to use their own abilities to make a project unique to themselves. They can also be utilized to teach children about art tools and methods. A variety of different open-ended art projects can help kindergartners develop different skills.

Multimedia Self-portrait
Kindergartners learn a great deal about themselves during the school year, and an art project can let them explore their own image. Make simple directions for this open-ended art project: create a self-portrait. Give them a large piece of paper and art supplies such as crayons, markers and paints. Let them add embellishments such as beads to represent earrings, pipe cleaners for a mouth and yarn for hair. Give them scissors and glue to construct paper cutouts for their self-portrait.

Object in a Bottle
Most kindergartners have admired a ship in a glass bottle, marveling at its seemingly impossible presence. They can make their own object in a bottle, but it can be up to them to decide what. Give each child a 2-liter plastic soda bottle and cut off the back of the wide end. Students can use paper, markers, crayons and scissors to create a paper ship, miniature people or whatever else they desire. Alternatively, they can use clay to sculpt the objects. The children will then place these objects in the bottle and tape the bottom securely in its place.


Beading Project
A beading art project allows kindergartners to practice their fine-motor skills. Give them long pieces of string and allow them to choose how long they want the string to be and what they want to make. Give them many different types of beads such as acrylic beads, wooden beads, shaped beads and letter beads. They may choose to create a bracelet, necklace or bookmark, for instance. Help them finish up their projects to create a practical or decorative object.

Diorama
Kindergartners can make a shoe box diorama of a scene of their choosing. For instance, a kindergartner who likes astronomy may make a scene of the stars, while another may create a model of his bedroom. They can line the interior of the shoe box with construction paper or fabric and then use clay to create different characters. Give them other arts and crafts supplies such as pipe cleaners, cotton balls, sequins, rhinestones, string and clay and let them create their own masterpieces.