If you’re looking to inspire the young artists in your classroom, try any (or all!) of these awesome first grade art projects! Grade 1 art skills serve as building blocks for numerous foundational developmental skills. They introduce both strategic and creative planning, patterning, cause and effect concepts, as well as critical thinking and spatial awareness. These crucial learning opportunities provide hands-on exploration of new materials, processes, and concepts—all things that first graders are learning at this age and stage.
Table of Contents
- What Do 1st Graders Learn in Art?
- The Best 1st Grade Cut-and-Create Art Projects
- First Grade Manipulative Art Projects
- First Grade Arts & Crafts Worksheets & Workbooks
- First Grade Painting Projects
- First Grade Playdough Art Projects
- Check Out These Additional 1st Grade Resources
What Do 1st Graders Learn in Art?
Grade 1 art curriculum covers the fundamental basics:
- Color recognition
- Fine motor development
- Spatial awareness
- Pattern recognition
- … and so much more
Kids at this age are exploring new materials and honing their sense of touch to learn through experience and make-believe. They tend to be prideful yet sensitive about their artistic creations, and children respond especially well to project topics around families or animals.
In partnership with Teach Simple, whose marketplace is full of educational materials created by actual teachers (plus 50% of all revenues go to them), I’ve gathered 49 totally-awesome Grade 1 art projects to help inspire your students and liven up your classroom art routine!
The Best 1st Grade Cut-and-Create Art Projects
- Make Believe Projects Volume 1 By Twin Sisters Digital Media
This versatile art activity gets kids moving and grooving! Have them cut, color, and collaborate to create their own fishing game! This project comes with two other cut-and-color activities that are sure to engage every 1st grade kid in your classroom.
- Cut And Create! Fairy Tales By Classroom Complete Press
Engage your students and work on their fine motor skills with this cut-and-create activity. They can use the easy step-by-step directions to create projects, bulletin boards, gifts, and more!
- Build A Monster By Teacher’s Clipart
Students will adore this clever cut-and-create monster project! Have them practice body part recognition by cutting, coloring, and pasting to create a unique monster face!
- Cut And Create! Spring & Summer By Classroom Complete Press
Boost self-directed learning skills by providing students with this easy-peasy cut-and-create art activity. Watch your students light up as their creations come to life in 3-D form with each step of the process!
- Paper-Bag Puppet & Royal Crown By Twin Sisters Digital Media
There is something timeless about an adorable paper bag puppet and royal crown! Teach Simple’s activity kit provides tips and tricks for creating the coolest puppets and accessories right in the classroom.
- Cut And Create! Transportation By Classroom Complete Press
Boost your students’ grouping, ordering, spatial relationships, and planning skills with this super-fun transportation project including buses, airplanes, and more! Finished works can serve as excellent gifts or classroom decor too.
- Earth Day Cut & Glue Activity By Lets Go To Learn
Celebrate Earth Day with an extra-special cut-and-create art project! Students will use their scissors skills and their spatial awareness to cut and place pieces of Earth onto a space-themed backdrop. It’s also perfect for display or take-home gifts!
- Cutting Skills – What’s In My Pencil Case? By Cherry Workshop
This school-themed cut-and-create activity is perfect for practicing crucial fine motor and order processing skills! Have your 1st graders identify, cut, color, and paste these familiar school supplies into a pencil case. You can reinforce spelling and reading the words for these objects while they cut and paste too.
- Rainbow Mobile Printable Craft From Wainbough
This adorable rainbow art craft will keep kids busy and entertained! Print the activity page and have your students color and cut the raindrops. Supply a bit of string or twine and then ask them to glue the drops to make their super-cute rainbows!
- Build A Spaceship By Scrap It Sideways
Enhance your space-based science lesson with this hands-on spaceship art project! Kids can cut, color, and paste pieces of the ship to create their own version of a mission-bound ship!
- Cut And Create! At the Zoo By Classroom Complete Press
Your first grade class is sure to enjoy this adorable zoo-themed cut-and-create activity. Simply print, model, and send your aspiring artists on their way with whichever animal they choose!
- Animal Puzzle From Wuffyland
Help extend your first graders’ understanding of animal parts with these perfect cut-and-create critters in puzzle form. A step up from the animal cut-and-create project above, these critters have no guidance or number instructions for putting them together.
- Strawberry Paper Craft From Krokotak
This adorable strawberry art project will help to develop kids’ imagination, motor skills, and color identification!
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Classroom Complete Press
This craft is well suited to accompany the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and this book companion activity packet, as well.
First Grade Manipulative Art Projects
- Craft Activity: Make A Paper Gingerbread House By Guinea Pig Education
Brighten up your classroom holiday spirit with these timeless paper-bag gingerbread houses! Add some more materials from the classroom like a white card, brown paint, felt tip pens, sequins, foam shapes, glitter, buttons, stickers, etc., glue, and scissors to let kids create their own versions of a gingerbread house.
- My First Origami Kit From Joel Stern
This awesome resource will help sharpen your first graders’ hand-eye coordination, fine motor, and cognitive skills! It’s great for both self-directed learning and collaborative groups to think about how to create unique shapes out of a piece of paper.
- Color Crowns Activity By Oh Boy Homeschool
With this activity, you can combine lessons by having students read, identify, and color accordingly. It’s great for make-believe or a group game! Then wear the crowns around to make it a regal type of day.
- Paper Weaving Kit From Hygloss
Paper weaving is an awesome open-ended art activity for first graders! This project will enhance pattern recognition, fine motor skills, and problem-solving skills. Have them select 2-3 colors and create their own patterns, using the weaving tool from this kit, if needed.
- Premium Wooden Drawing Stencils From Arimes
Stencil tracing is a great segue into freehand drawing! Have students flex their creative muscles by choosing their own stencils to trace while practicing sorting skills and pencil grip as they make a complete drawing or picture scene.
- Rainbow Scratch Paper Kit From ZMLM
Using a manipulative wooden stick and stencils, kids can create drawings and designs in surprising colors and learn about applying pressure and using different strokes.
- Hand Puppet Making Kit From WATINC
There’s always engagement with an open-ended puppet project! Each set in this kit comes with six blank hand puppet sleeves and a ton of glue-on materials. Have students create puppets ranging from dinosaurs to monsters, and anything in between! Then encourage some imaginative play when the puppets are done or put on a classroom show.
- Animal Finger Puppets From Oh My Fiesta In English
These silly finger puppets open the door for imaginative play. Have your first graders choose and color their animals and play with a friend!
- Happy Hedgehog Craft From Kidz Craft Corner
This colorful art project requires kids to paste construction paper spikes (provided by the teacher) onto a super-cool hedgehog to create a unique animal for each kid.
- Turtle Paper Craft From SriCraftz
This interactive project requires kids to paste construction paper strips (provided by teacher) to create a shell of their turtle. It requires some hand-eye coordination skills and critical thinking.
This craft is also a great supplement for a unit on marine life like this All About Turtles animal science unit.
First Grade Arts & Crafts Worksheets & Workbooks
- Doodles And Oodles Of Art Workbook By Classroom Complete Press
This art workbook is filled with over 100 inspiring ideas like plunger art and spiny ball art, all depending on the art stages your students are at! Have the whole class do one art project together or split them up into groups to tackle different projects and advance their artistic skills.
- Step-By-Step Art: Maneki-Neko (The Lucky Cat) By Brave Education
This awesome step-by-step drawing resource is perfect for enhancing self-directed learning and artistic skills. It comes complete with large images and written instructions that are easy-peasy for your first graders to follow and replicate to draw their own lucky cat!
- Art For All Seasons Workbook By Classroom Complete Press
Here’s a quick and easy workbook to pull out when you’re looking for a seasonal craft. Brighten your classroom spirit while sharpening your students’ visual-motor coordination and scissor skills with these seasonal coloring and simple cut-and-paste worksheets.
- Step-By-Step Art: Ice-Cream Sundae By Brave Education
Try another one of Teach Simple’s self-directed art projects! This one is perfect for kids who enjoy a sweet treat on a warm day. By the end of this guide, they’ll create their own sundae without the consequences of eating all that sugar.
- My Animal Coloring Book – 30 Pages By Classy Classroom VIP
Enhance reading, animal recognition, and creativity with this super-fun animal-themed coloring resource! With 30-pages total, this book will provide materials for the whole class for a quiet, coloring, creative time in the day.
- Solar System Planets Coloring Pages By Elle Madison Education
This adorable art activity is the perfect blend between academics and artistic expression. Just print and provide a sheet on each planet; your students can create solar system mini-books, banners, or even interactive notebooks individually or in groups!
- Mandala Gnomes Coloring Book By Classy Classroom VIP
This 26-page coloring book makes the perfect morning work or early finish activity! Students can practice and refine their fine motor skills while attempting to stay within the super-fine lines of the mandala designs. This is a great activity to teach shades of color by asking students to use only blues or greens to color in their gnomes too.
- Color By Sight Words First Grade Workbook From Abe Books
Combine language arts and arts and crafts with this workbook full of stand-alone sheets that allow students to color by sight word.
- 30 Feelings & Emotions Coloring Pages By Classy Classroom VIP
Jumpstart your students’ social-emotional awareness with this 30-page Feelings and Emotions coloring book. Have them identify the emotion, color accordingly, and use their sheet for think-pair-share time!
- Real-World Shape Identification By Life Beyond the Gradebook
This awesome life-based resource promotes kids’ shape awareness while simultaneously flexing their creative muscles. With a sheet for each shape, they’ll become geometry experts with an eye for color!
- I Like To Draw Funny Faces Volume 1 By Twin Sisters Digital Media
Introduce your students to the wonder of facial sketching with Teach Simple’s Draw Funny Faces activity! Kids will have a blast creating the perfect expressions for their figure’s face while learning spatial planning and how to draw realistic features.
- My End Of Year Memories! By Brave Education
This sentimental art project will have your whole class (and you!) nostalgic for school memories from the year. Students are free to draw, trace, color, or glue anything that comes to mind from their first grade year!
- Roll And Draw – A Candy Corn Bandit By Doodle Thinks
Engage your students in an interactive fall-themed roll-and-draw activity! They will roll a pair of dice (provided by teacher) and draw the corresponding features on a piece of paper or as a group on the board to create a super-unique candy corn.
First Grade Painting Projects
- First Day Of First Grade Handprint Art From Finger Prints And Paint
Parents will ogle over this sentimental art activity. It’s perfect for commemorating the first day of school; just provide paint and help your students to make an impression of their tiny hands on the first day of class.
- DIY Wind Chime Maker Kit From My Modern Met
Hop into spring with this adorable wooden wind chimes kit. Simply follow the instructions attached, and use them for classroom decor, gifts, and more!
- Paint Your Own Wooden Magnet From Joyin
Unleash your students’ creativity and enhance your animal science lesson with these adorable paintable magnets. This kit includes everything your students will need, making this art project easy and cost-effective.
- Paint And Peel Dinosaur From Pinnovate
This super-easy paint-and-peel project is a crowd favorite among educators. They come ready to use—just have your students paint and then peel the pieces off to create a beautifully unique horse!
- Easter Bunny Wood Blank From Rhondas Reborns
This Easter-themed art project opens the floodgates for your students’ creativity. Provide paint, markers, pompoms, cotton balls, and any other material and watch these bunnies take shape!
- Leaf Print Art From Fatema’s Art Show
Dive into fall with this classic leaf-print art activity. Have your students come to school with one leaf of their choice to paint and press onto construction paper. They can then add patterns or color to their leaf prints too.
- Q-Tip Painting: Letters & Numbers By Z Is For Zebra
This awesome art project promotes pencil grip skills and reinforces letter formation. Have your students dip q-tips into paint (provided by teacher) and dab each dot in the letter or number they choose, individually or as a group!
First Grade Playdough Art Projects
- Christmas Playdough Mats By Oh Boy Homeschool
These holiday-themed playdough mats help to hone language and math skills in an artistic and hands-on way. Students will roll playdough (provided by teacher) into thin snakes and manipulate them according to the prompts on each page .
- SPANISH: Playdough Mats By Teacher’s Clipart
Once laminated, students can use these playdough mats to form playdough (provided by teacher) into beginning word blends in Spanish.
- Crayola Air Dry Clay Bucket From Crayola
Air-Dry Clay might just be the best material for first grade pottery. Simply model how to morph the clay into any object or ceramic, and let it sit! This is great for a multi-day art project where students can paint their creations after letting them dry.
- Playdough Planets From IvIr TV
This playdough planet project is sure to wow your busy first-graders. Students work the playdough into models that reflect the planets! Mount their models onto a space-themed backdrop, and watch your kids marvel at their 3-D creations!
- Create Fruits With Fruit Scents From Primo Playdough
Engage your students’ sense of smell with these fruit-scented playdough kits! Have them work their fine-motor muscles to construct a fruit-related model with their scent to see how realistic they can get it to look.
There you have it! 49 totally-awesome grade 1 art project ideas that you can implement in your classroom as soon as tomorrow. Any one of these first grade art projects is bound to please the group all while encouraging their physical and cognitive development!
Check Out These Additional 1st Grade Resources
About the Author
Shannon Morris is a thriving Chicago-based elementary teacher. Her background in Cognitive-Behavioral Science coupled with her Masters in Teaching and Instruction have well prepared her to support her group of high-needs 3rd graders. Through extensive coursework and experience in the field, Shannon has absorbed an in-depth understanding of the power behind integrating proper tools and practices into the common core curriculum. She believes that streamlined and adaptable educational resources are crucial for enriching the developing mind and enhancing the learning experience. Shannon strives to share her favorite tips and resources in hopes of supporting teachers and students in classrooms everywhere.
