TIP #83: 36 Art-Related Early Finisher Activities
In a perfect world, kids would all finish their projects at the same time. But since that rarely happens, good early finisher activities can help you manage that extra time with ease.
Without a specific plan in place, students who finish early can become bored and disruptive. This makes it hard for others to finish well, and wastes an opportunity for creativity and continued learning.
What makes a good early finisher activity?
A good early finisher activity should:
?? be quiet (so it won’t distract others who are still working)
?? be highly engaging
?? be mostly self-explanatory
?? but should not feel like a “reward” for finishing fast, or it may encourage students to rush through their work.
Keep an early finisher file that students can access and choose from without your help. Briefly go over each activity to ensure that kids understand what to do and answer any questions they might have. Or assign a specific activity that works best for your students and the amount of time you have to fill.
You’ll find ideas for all ages in the list below. Whether you’re filling a few extra minutes or an entire class period, these early finisher activities might just save the day!
36 Art-Related Early Finisher Activities
1. Do some Echo Drawing
Echo Drawing is my favorite activity for those fast finishers, which is why I created this resource for my TPT store. You can print out a packet for each student from my “Intro to Echo Drawing” or “More! Echo Drawing“ resources for kids to keep in their desks. Then they can pull it out anytime they have a few extra minutes. Or keep a file where they can grab individual pages as needed.
When completed, these designs can also be colored in with colored pencils or fine tip markers. And kids love creating their own echo drawings to share with (and challenge!) their friends and family with the blank templates provided.
2. Make a Dot Monster
Kids of all ages love making Dot Monsters! Dot Monsters nurture imagination, creative thinking, and problem solving. They’re unpredictable, which makes them highly interesting… and FUN!
3. Work in a sketchbook – for free draw or with prompts
A sketchbook is one of the most versatile supplies for students to have. Have students keep a sketchbook in their desk for bonus free-drawing times, or for responding to a daily prompt with a quick drawing.
4. Write an “Artist Statement”
An artist statement is a short paragraph written to help viewers better understand an artist’s work. When relating to a specific work, it can include the title and why the artist chose it, along with how and why they created it. One sentence written per grade level is a great place to start.
5. Draw a self-portrait
Keep small, unbreakable mirrors accessible for kids to use for drawing self-portraits. Remind them to spend more time looking at their reflection in the mirror than at their paper!
6. Art-inspired journal writing
Use art-related prompts, like “If you could be really skilled with one art medium what would it be and what would you do with it?” or “What inspires you?” I like to use these composition notebooks for journaling. Kids can use markers to decorate the cover with colorful designs.
7. Read an art-themed book
Offer kids a Visual Art Encyclopedia, a book with inspiring stories about famous artists, or these fun “flashcards” of famous paintings. Let them choose what interests them and write notes in their journal about things they learn.
8. Work on an artist-designed jigsaw puzzle
My all-time favorite puzzles are from EeBoo. Created by some of today’s top illustrators, these puzzles are so fun to do and a feast for the eyes. They come in 64 piece (rectangular), 500 piece (round or square), and 1,000 piece (square) sizes.
9. Illustrate a scene from a poem or story
This could be from a favorite book, a story students are currently reading, or something they’ve written themselves. Colored pencils are the most convenient medium to use when kids have random opportunities to make progress on a drawing.
10. Make an acrostic with their name or an inspiring word
Have students write their name (or other word) vertically with large letters and then write related adjectives across beginning with each of those letters. Then add colorful illustrations to fill the page.
11. Make an embroidery sampler on burlap
To make a burlap sampler stitching project for kids, all you need is a small piece of burlap, some colorful yarn, and a large plastic needle for safe stitching. I found this to be a highly engaging (and quiet!) activity for my 5th grade classes.
12. Draw a map of a real or imagined place
Kids love to draw maps of their neighborhood and can usually add lots of fun details from memory. Graph paper (4×4) can be helpful but it’s not essential.
13. Make a collage with words and/or pictures from magazines
Ask parents for donations of their old magazines. Be sure to check for appropriateness before you set them out for students. Kids will need scissors, a glue stick, and paper to create their collage on. An envelope for saving the images they find before they glue them down is also helpful. Try a Surrealistic collage inspired by Rene Magritte!
14. Make blackout poetry
Collect some old books from yard sales to use for making Blackout Poetry. Be sure to check that the text is appropriate for your students. If you find an especially good source, you can photocopy some pages to have handy for students. It’s fun to see how even when working from the same text, everyone’s results will be different!
15. Finish the Squiggle
Draw a simple random squiggle on each piece of a stack of papers. Challenge your students to take the top piece of paper and use their imagination to turn that squiggle into a drawing of something!
16. Sharpen some pencils
There always seem to be pencils that need sharpening! Collect dull pencils for students to sharpen when they finish other work. Some kids really love to do this! It can be a little noisy but depending on what the rest of the class is working on, that’s not necessarily a problem. For colored pencils, follow these tips for less breakage.
17. Make a (zen)tangle drawing
The name “Zentangle” is a registered trademark, so I like to honor that and call these designs “Tangle Drawings”. They are meditative, relaxing, and fun! These “Name Tangles” offer another approach to this type of drawing. Be sure to check out Zentangle.com for inspiration and then have your students create some tangle drawings of their own!
18. Do a Blind Contour drawing
Blind Contour Drawing requires only paper and pencil (or pen)… and the self-control to not peek at your drawing until it’s finished! This is great practice for learning to “see like an artist” and notice details that your eyes would otherwise skim right over. It’s so fun and always full of surprises!
19. Do a Guided Contour drawing
Guided Contour Drawing will help kids break the habit of “looking at the world around you without really seeing it”, and begin to notice all the amazing details around them each day. Keep a variety of small objects available for kids to quietly practice drawing when their other work is done.
20. Do a “touch contour” drawing
Help students develop their observation skills even further using just their sense of touch! With touch contour drawing, kids draw what an object feels like, without actually looking at it. Rotate “secret” objects in closed paper bags to make it extra exciting!
21. Draw a freehand mandala
There are so many different ways kids can make mandalas. It can be relaxing and fun to just simply draw one freehand using graph paper and colored pencils. Just start in the center and work outward from there, repeating your design elements consistently around that central point (radial symmetry).
22. Color a mandala
Reinforce concepts of symmetry using color, with mandala coloring pages and colored pencils or fine tip markers.
23. Turn each letter of the alphabet into a drawing of something
Use upper case and/or lower case letters as a starting off point for a drawing of something. Bonus points if the name of what you’re drawing begins with the letter you started your drawing with! This book review will give you the general idea.
24. Make a paper weaving
Use two different rectangular or square papers (watercolor paintings or magazine photos) of the same size and shape. Cut them both into an equal number of strips. (If using rectangular papers, cut one of them into strips on the long edge and the other one into an equal number of strips on the short edge, keeping them in separate piles according to length.) Then weave them together to create a new design.
25. Make a grid drawing
Grid Drawing can be easy or challenging, depending on the drawing your students are copying. But it’s a great exercise in looking closely and noticing details. Have some drawings or photos available to copy, along with paper that’s pre-printed with a light grid to copy onto.
26. Add extra steps to the project they’re working on (for early finishers only)
The options for this depend on the project, but students could add a background to a simple drawing or painting. They could write a fictional story, song, or rap inspired by their artwork. They could write a poem or haiku about the process of creating their art, or a description of the steps they went through and decisions they made along the way. The options are limitless!
27. Make a simple flip book
Did you know you can use a 3″ x 3″ Post-It note pad to make a basic (but fun!) flip book? First draw a simple image on the top page. Then go over your lines pressing hard so that it leaves a slight impression on the page below it. Trace over those lines but make a slight change to illustrate the beginning of an action, like a ball bouncing or a stick figure waving a flag. Repeat until you’ve filled all the pages and completed your action.
28. Make some artist trading cards
Artist Trading Cards (or “ATCs”) are the same size as regular playing cards or baseball cards (2-½” x 3-½”). Kids can make, trade, and collect these miniature pieces of art with friends and family, at school, and even around the world. Lots of info can be found online for making and trading these tiny treasures.
29. Make bookmarks using skills learned from art class projects
Use Art Room scraps to make creative bookmarks and donate them to the school library to encourage reading!
30. Work on an art-themed word search
Make your own word search worksheet for your students using names of artists or other art-related words. Visit www.thewordsearch.com/maker and provide 10-30 words to create your own word search to print and enjoy.
31. Do a directed drawing from a “How to Draw” book
There are so many good “How to Draw” books out there! Look for ones that mirror the interests of your students and are geared to their age level and ability. I love all the books by Alli Koch, like this “How to Draw All the Animals” book for ages 5-7.
32. Make an origami creation
Origami projects vary in difficulty, so look for something appropriate for the level of your students. These two websites have been great resources for me in teaching lots of different origami lessons: origami-fun.com and origami-instructions.com.
33. Design a fancy monogram initial
An eraser is handy to have for this project so remind students to press lightly with their pencils as they draw a fancy outline letter with lots of details. Colored pencils are perfect for the fine details of this project.
34. Make a greeting card for an upcoming holiday or birthday
Any holiday or birthday can be a reason for creating a hand-made greeting card. And don’t forget the envelope!
35. Create an art-themed maze.
I like to use graph paper or dot grid paper for making mazes. Place your “destination” at the center and draw a path that takes you from there back to the starting point (one of the edges) in a roundabout way. Then add other paths off of this one that would dead-end before reaching the destination. Fill the whole space with paths like this. Then write a short title or description of the objective at the top, like “Help Van Gogh find his missing paintbrush”.
You can create your own maze online to print out for your students using this maze generator. You can choose from different shapes (rectangle, square, triangle, circle, or hexagon) and sizes for your maze. (Please note that the mazes you create on this site are free for personal use only. If you want to sell them, you’ll need a commercial license.)
36. Use “Pictionary” cards to practice making quick sketches
This compact Pictionary set includes a die that can be rolled to determine which category to draw from each card. Using Pictionary cards like a Solitaire game is a great way to practice making quick sketches. Students can later share their drawings with a friend or family member and earn points for each drawing that’s correctly guessed.
When it comes to activities for early finishers, there’s no end to the possibilities. Just don’t offer too many choices all at once. Instead, choose things they’ve had some experience with and can do without a lot of explaining.
The goal is for your early finishers to use their time in a way that continues their learning while allowing other students to continue theirs!
an inspiring quote:
“Speed is only useful if you’re running in the right direction.” ~ Joel Barker
Have you considered why your early finishers are finishing so fast? Is it always the same kids who finish ahead of the others?
Some students have skills above their grade level and just need some enrichment added to their projects. But if a student is rushing through their work just to be done with it, it’s worth investigating why.
Completing a project ahead of schedule should never be at the expense of quality and craftsmanship.