Want a bunch of art and craft activities for your kid that will last longer than 2 minutes? I know the feeling when you set up something insta-worthy (aka bring out the pom poms and hand cut templates) only to have your little one muck around for thirty seconds and loose interest. You feel like the effort of art activities and clean up isn’t even worth it. That’s right about the time that I teamed up with Castle and Kite to create SIX stunning art activities that your kids will actually finish.

The ladies over there have gone deep in the knowledge and wisdom of WHAT makes an art activity engaging, WHAT supplies is the perfect amount, WHAT skills are age appropriate and the best bit; making is SO EASY for busy Mum’s like you and me to set up. Castle and Kite deliver gorgeous craft boxes for kids 3-6 packed with just the right number of projects to keep them engaged from wo to go. They’ve hit the nail on th head when it comes to entertaining those pre-schooler in creative play.

So, you shoulda seen my face when we decided to put our heads together and design an ART WITH GEORGIE craft box.

I want to walk you through the SIX stunning art activities perfect for 3-6 year olds that you will find in the ART WITH GEORGIE box. The projects are designed to be completed with little or no help from you #mumhack. Inside your box you’ll find the project supplies brilliantly packaged making it super easy to pull one out at time. Everything is cute from the colour coded activities, the example instructions and the tiny pots of paint and glue for tiny hands. And I even included a bonus draw-along video lesson your Little Artist can complete at the kitchen table - scroll down to see our whale.

In this blog I also wanted to add something special to this post as we are moving into BOOK WEEK this August. Each of the projects I designed with a Children’s book in mind. Art and literacy go together like strawberries and cream - so I never want to miss an opportunity for my kids to create then deepen their understanding and interest with a go ol’ read aloud. You can find some of our favourite book titles to go with each project below.

1. PAPER PLATE SUN

Want to learn about the weather and create a super cute sun?! Everyone has a stray paper plate lying around. So grab it now and turn it into a sun! Your Little Artist will learn how to print with a bite sized piece of bubble wrap and orange paint. The bubble wrap printing part of this project ‘WOWs’ the kids and calls on lots of fine motor skills as they print a honeycomb texture over their paper plate. They’ll pull out their scissors to cut yellow triangles and glue them in place along with a smiley face. My daughters favourite part of this project was squeezing the glue and the goggle eyes. This activity comes with a yellow plate, strips of yellow paper with triangle cut lines, paint, bubble wrap, smiley face. Find a fun list of children’s books about the sun/weather to go with this activity here.

2. CARDBOARD EXPLORES CAMERA

You need a piece of cardboard, patty pan, stickers, paddle pop sticks, string, scissors and coloured markers (these are all inside your craft box!).

Grab the cardboard and start filling it with patterns, colours and shapes with markers. Inside the craft box you’ll find a pack of markers and I give the kids some pattern inspiration to draw. Kids LOVE stickers so place them out for them to add on as decoration. Use a cup cake patty pan or similar to glue in place for the lens. Create two holes and thread the ribbon through. You’re now all set to go exploring with a DIY camera.

We loved creating this, playing ‘explorers in the jungle’ and then reading jungle books or ‘Imagine’ by Alison Lester. It also came in handy when we went outside in the garden and ‘took pictures’ of pretty flowers.

Here is a list of amazing Jungle themed exploring books suggest by Teachers.

3. l LOVE YOU NECKLACE

Something children instinctively connect with; love, colour, hearts and a few hugs. This project goes along with the In My Heart A big book of feelings children’s book (you can also buy it from Target Aus here). In My Heart explores a full range of emotions, describing how we feel physically, inside.I love the lyrical but also direct language in this book.

“Sometimes my heart feels like a big yellow star, shiny and bright. I smile from ear to ear and twirl around so fast, I feel as if I could take off into the sky. This is when my heart is happy. Happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, shyness . . . our hearts can feel so many feelings!”

Cut a heart shape from cardboard or a cereal box. Punch two holes in the top OR punch holes around the edge - this can be used to thread through a pipe-cleaner. Just like the camera activity start filling it with patterns, colours and shapes with markers. You can even have the book handy and colour in the same way as the illustrations. Inside the craft box I give the kids some pattern inspiration too. Use thread to tie one end to the hole, thread on some beads and tie off at the other hole. You have a DIY heart necklace which is made even cute with a love message on the back to someone special.

Find a full list of children’s book about LOVE here and here, plus another favourite title ‘Under the Love Umbrella’.

4. WALL HANGING

This is STUNNING and perfect to hang in your child’s playroom, bedroom or above their desk. Inside your craft box you’ll find a A4 colourful printed template with block colours for your child to add patterns, shapes and illustrations. I provide examples in the craft box. The template breaks up the page into sections and helps children focus on filling on area at a time with a designated pattern. If you’re doing this at home I would paint a piece of coloured card or watercolour paper with watercolour paints, when it is dry add your designs on top. Glue paddle pop sticks horizontally along the top and bottom edge of the paper and pop some stickers, pom poms or gems on top. The fun part about this wall hanging in adding some contrasting letters. We chose the word PLAY in big white letters to contrast against the colourful background. You could also cut out the word LOVE, FUN, COOL or even the child’s name. Glue the letters on top and finish by punching two holes to thread with a pipe cleaner for hanging.

This project was inspired by the techni-coloured blankets woven by women in Peru. Take a look at them below and some cool colourful Artist titles that are packed with pattern, shapes.

Henri’s Scissors - a book about famous artist Henri Matisse

Shapes at the Party - by Kat Mcleod

This is a book of Shapes - by Kenneth Kraegel

Shape Shift by Joyce Hesselberth

5. FLUFFY LLAMA (or Alpaca)

Sloths are so 2020, now all the rage is Llamas! Or Alpacas, I don’t know the difference. Kids love them, and this project works well for little hands to build fine motor skills with heaps of colouring, cutting and gluing. In your craft box you’ll find a A4 Llama/Alpaca template. If you don’t have it, draw your own simple animal outline with a scarf and beanie - just like character Macca the Alpaca. Colour in the beanie and scarf with markers and crayons. Squeeze glue onto the Llama’s body and place cotton wool balls on top. I like to pull apart each cotton ball first and add little bits at a time. Cut out your Llama and stick to a piece of coloured background paper so the fluffy wool ‘pops!’

Our favourite Llama books include; Macca the Alpaca series, Llamacorn Saves the Day or Bambi the Blind Alpaca by Jan Lummis

6. RAINBOWS WITH STICKERS

Sometimes the simplest projects are total winners! I have heaps of templates printed and ready to go in my craft cupboard for witching hour, first thing in the morning or afternoon energy slump. In your craft box you’ll find a rainbow template and the right amount of sticky coloured dots. Little Artists will simply stick their way to create a rainbow, ta-da! Follow this project up with some super cool rainbow children’s books like the ones below. Or if you don’t have a rainbow book handy, then the read aloud title ‘How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow’ or this ‘The World Made a Rainbow’ is gorgeous and engaging.

Rainbow of Emotions

Rainbow Colours By Juliana Perdomo

The Rainbow by Ross Moriarty

Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee

7. PATTERNED WHALE & BOOKS ABOUT WHALES

This project has been a crowd favourite inside my Online Art Club for kids. The draw-along video lesson comes FREE with any craft box purchase. I walk kids through drawing three different animal outlines. Then we dive into some fun colouring & pattern making with markers. For those who want to DIY it, you can find a full blog post about it with a downloadable printable over here.

And for accompanying books about Whales - I love the list at Fantastic Fun and Learning.

I hope you’ve liked this collection of easy art activities for kids 3-6. You can find everything you need to create these in the Art With Georgie craft box, jump on over and purchase it here.

I would LOVE to see if you give them a go. For your child to get featured on socials or the AWG newsletter please tag me @art_with _ georgie or send their creations to [email protected] - I always reply with a encouraging message to every Little Artist.