25 Amazing 1st Grade Art Projects Kids Will Love

Keep the fun going all year long with this roundup of creative, simple, and fun 1st grade art projects. Whether you feel like diving into painting, mixed media, sculpture, or other art projects, there’s something for everyone on this list.

We partnered with one of our favorite art teachers on Instagram, Ms. D. (@art.party.with.ms.d), to bring you these incredible ideas. We love her theory of art education: “Beautiful art + happy students + teaching about a wide range of artists will always be a winner for me!” She creates projects inspired by all sorts of artists and illustrators, and also makes an effort to tie her projects into the season and what students are studying outside the art room. We definitely recommend you check out her page to get more details and photos for each of these projects, plus many more fantastic ideas for the primary art room!

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1st Grade Art Projects

Origami Animals

Ms. D often uses origami in her art projects. It adds a really cool textural element, plus gives kids a chance to brush up on their fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. You’ll see more of these animals featured in the projects on this list!

Learn more: Origami Animals

1st grade art project: colorful bookmarks — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Personalized Bookmarks

Need a quick project, or want to support your school’s readathon week? Ms. D’s 1st grade art students personalized their simple bookmarks with warm or cool colors and an initial. Quick, easy, and useful!

Learn more: Personalized Bookmarks

Origami butterflies on clay stands — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Origami Butterflies on Clay Flowers

Here’s some of that origami we promised, and doesn’t it look incredible suspended above these simple clay flowers? This is the kind of project kids will love to take home and show off.

Learn more: Origami Butterflies on Clay Flowers

1st grade art student drawings of chimpanzees — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Cheerful Chimps

Create the backgrounds with bleeding tissue paper and rubbing plates. Then, use a guided drawing session to help kids add these happy monkeys to the scene.

Learn more: Cheerful Chimps

3D paper cityscapes made by 1st grade art students — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

3D Cityscapes

Students learn a lot when they create these cityscapes inspired by the work of Okuda San Miguel, including foreground and background. They can create these as 3D pop-ups, or just leave them flat instead.

Learn more: 3D Cityscapes

Clay necklaces displayed on jewelry stands — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Clay Coil Necklaces

Yes, really, these were made by 1st grade art students! Ms. D shares that this is one of their favorite projects, with absolutely incredible results.

Learn more: Clay Coil Necklaces

Watercolor mice with origami mice below — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Monoprint Mice

Teach kids about printmaking with a project like this one, which also incorporates primary and secondary colors, color mixing, symmetry, and paper sculpture.

Learn more: Monoprint Mice

Dino silhouettes on colorful backgrounds — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Basquiat Dinos

Dinosaurs are always a big hit with kids, and they’ll love the bright colors and unique patterns in this project, inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat. It uses liquid watercolors and crayons for the backgrounds, with black construction paper and colored pencils for the dinos.

Learn more: Basquiat Dinos

Collage of doodle dogs drawn by 1st grade art students — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Night scene drawing in the forest with an owl highlighted by a flashlight — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Flashlight Scenes

Lizi Boyd’s picture book gave Ms. D the idea for this clever art project for 1st graders. Let each student choose an animal to highlight with their “flashlight” to bring their night scenes alive.

Learn more: Flashlight Scenes

Neon snake drawings on black construction paper — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Neon Snakes

This was a Lunar New Year project, but it’s terrific for any time of the year, especially if your students are studying reptiles in class. Kwik Stix paint pens help cut down on the mess too.

Learn more: Neon Snakes

Holi-inspired flower paintings by first grade art students — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Holi Flowers

Sprayed watercolors mix and blend to create the dreamy backgrounds for these painted paper flowers accented with metallic markers. So beautiful!

Learn more: Holi Flowers

Paper llama against a colorful geometric background — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Geometric Llamas

Llamas are always popular, and your students can learn to draw these by using basic shapes. There’s also a STEM connection here through the geometric backgrounds with their simple but striking patterns.

Learn more: Geometric Llamas

Minimalist self-portrait in paper cutouts — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Minimalist Self-Portraits

Looking for a project that families will treasure? Try these portraits inspired by the work of Reyna Noriega, a beautiful twist on traditional silhouettes. Be sure to provide a wide variety of construction paper hues so every student can see themselves accurately represented in their final masterpiece.

Learn more: Minimalist Self-Portraits

Origami owls against black forest backgrounds made with pastels — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Origami Snowy Owls

Here’s another origami project, this one featuring snowy owls against a pine tree background. The basic idea works well for other seasons and types of owls too, especially in fall foliage colors.

Learn more: Origami Snowy Owls

3D Paper Cubes

Graciela Hasper’s work influenced these colorful cubes. Students get a bit of a STEM challenge as they learn to cut out the middle of paper and construct their 3D shapes too.

Learn more: 3D Paper Cubes

Paper Chinese dragons on a black background — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Chinese Paper Dragons

These dragons are FIRE! This paper sculpture project is terrific for Lunar New Year but would also be perfect to tie in with a unit on Chinese culture.

Learn more: Chinese Paper Dragons

Ghosts on pop art backgrounds with the word — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Pop Art Ghosts

Save your bubble wrap—students can use it to create the texture on these cool ghosties! We absolutely love this unique take on Halloween art projects for 1st graders.

Learn more: Pop Art Ghosts

Black and white pastel nightscapes by first graders — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Snowy Night Landscapes

Show students that art isn’t just about bright colors—texture, lines, and light and shadow matter too. Kids will especially enjoy getting to spatter-paint the snow!

Learn more: Snowy Night Landscapes

Stained glass window painting by 1st graders — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Stained-Glass Windows

We’re constantly amazed by the detailed work Ms. D helps her young students produce. It’s all about taking things in steps: sponge painting the bricks; creating the windows separately with washable markers, water, and Sharpies; even laminating the windows for a bit of shine makes this project truly stand out.

Learn more: Stained-Glass Windows

Mixed media flower vase still life — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Floral Still Life

This is another one of those projects that will take some time and patience, but it gives young artists skills and confidence to create in and out of the art room. One of our favorite details? The vases are made from the messy mats students used to clean their brushes while they worked.

Learn more: Floral Still Life

Sunflower mixed media collage — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Spring Collage

There’s so much happening in this collage project! Scrapbook paper and oil pastels combine for impressive results inspired by student explorations of plants and gardening.

Learn more: Spring Collage

Colorful collage featuring skulls drawn with Sharpie and scratch art paper — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

Eddie Gangland Skulls

Mixed-media projects like this one (inspired by the contemporary street artist) help students learn to use a variety of materials. These skull collages use oil pastels, Kwik Stix paint sticks, Sharpies, and even rainbow scratch paper.

Learn more: Eddie Gangland Skulls

Pop Art Penguins

Focus on primary colors with these adorable penguins! Using chalk pastels to draw the penguins also gives students the opportunity to learn about shading.

Learn more: Pop Art Penguins

Paintings of an elementary school by first grade students — Courtesy of @art.party.with.ms.d

School Paintings

Kids spend a lot of time in the school building—why not make it the focus of a 1st grade art project? Ms. D’s students studied Harlem Renaissance artists like William Johnson, then painted their alma mater in a similar style.

Learn more: School Paintings

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