How can I make coloring more exciting for kids without coloring pages?

Question

I am a preschool teacher and my students always make the choice to color, usually on construction paper. We aren't permitted to use coloring pages in our classroom. We've cut the paper into strips to make bookmarks and have created masks and puppets many times. I don't mind the coloring, it's just that I feel they're recreating the same images over and over. Are there any ideas to make the coloring a little bit more exciting?

Answer 1

I feel your pain. Sometimes kids can get into a rut, wanting the same thing all the time. It takes away my creativity to have to do something over and over again. And I know what you mean. They make the same shapes, the same pictures, it seems like it never changes.



Can you use different mediums for the coloring? How about chalk, multicultural crayons, colored pencils or felt tip markers? Even if you have to buy them yourself, it would help get the kids thinking about something besides coloring the same way.



What if you gave them a large piece of construction paper that you have already cut into a shape; such as a square, circle, triangle, flower or leaf? They could use a square for the base of a house and put a triangle on top. Or just color a circle. Set out the new shapes and see what they say.



Take the class outside and observe a tree with green leaves, or look at pictures in books or magazines. Give them a large leaf shape cut from green construction paper. (Maybe light green, if you have it). Then give them several shades of green crayons to color the leaf with. Put the pictures of the trees near the students while they are coloring their leaf.



I like the book "Can You Say Peace?" by Karen Katz. It has lots of cute illustrations of children from different countries. Maybe it would be a starting point for some of the kids to draw pictures of international children. Depending on the age of your class, this might be too advanced.



Cut out a basic "person" shape from a piece of paper. I have one I made that fits perfectly on to a 81/2 x 11 piece of paper with minimal cutting. I like to use manilla colored cardstock paper or multicultural construction paper, so they have some color. You could also just use white paper. Cut out several of them, and place them where the stack of coloring paper usually is. Let the kids discover them and have fun. If you want to, you could add a stack of T-shirts and pants cut from construction paper or wallpaper. If you use plain white paper, you could let them color with colored pencils, just for something different.



Depending on their age, you could draw a line on a piece of paper and tell them to make a picture out of it. A straight line could be made into the stem of a flower, the side of a house, or part of a car. Draw a curved line, and perhaps they will think of a cat's tail, a bunny's ear, or a boat. This idea would work best for older preschoolers.

Answer 2

1. Change the paper. Use wallpaper samples, corrugated cardboard, adding machine tape or anything else you can think of.

2. Peel the paper off some crayons and encourage the kids to use the sides.

3. Add markers, chalk and colored pencils to the area.

Remember, the goal is the process, not the product. They don't have to "make" anything. If a child is drawing and coloring the same thing over and over, and is enjoying it, she is learning from the experience and needs the experience to be able to move on to more complex artwork.

Answer 3

Don't forget that children learn through repetition - from babyhood through the early childhood years they will do some things over and over again, from shaking and dropping toys as infants, to dumping out all the toys as toddlers, to building block towers and crashing them down before building them back again in the preschool room.



To some degree, the endless stream of crayoned self portraits and sunshine and rainbows drawings you see at the art center are a continuation of this style of learning! As such, you probably don't want to let the children know that you are getting bored with their drawings. :)



With that said, there are some things you could do to "jazz up" their coloring/drawing experiences:



-Try decorating cardboard boxes or other 3-D items. Cardboard tubes can be fun to decorate.



-Tape paper under the table and let kids lie on their backs to color "upside down".



-Use masking tape to tape bundles of crayons together, allowing children to draw with several colors at once.



-Draw on long strips of paper adding machine tape. Fun by itself, or introduce some adhesive tape and watch the kids create bracelets, belts, headbands, and more!



-Punch a hole in a paper plate and place on a record player; kids can draw on the plate as it spins round and round!



-Decorated paper plates can also be cut is a spiral to make "snakes". Kind of crafty, but the kids love it!



-If you can find an old low-temperature warming tray, these are AMAZING with crayons. They get warm enough to melt the crayons, without getting hot enough to burn the children.



-Try drawing with white crayons on white paper, then brushing over the entire page with watercolor paints (or a cotton ball dipped in a little tinted water) to reveal your "invisible" pictures.



-When you're feeling especially silly, try taking off shoes and socks and drawing with your feet!

Answer 4

Looks like you have some great suggestions. I didn't read through all of them completely so sorry if I repeat.



Our job is to provide the materials and let them go. They are going to repeat and that's okay. (It does make us feel bad as a teacher to be sending home the same stuff...but it's okay).



* Bundle crayons together and suggest "rainbow writing". Various colors together or shades of one color.

* Put large bulletin board paper up on the walls and various writing tools.

* If you have a window low enough, washable markers wipe right off. My students loved this! You can always take pictures since they won't have an "ending product".

* Have them draw with white crayon on white paper and then give them watercolors to paint over top and see their design.

* Create booklets out of paper to have available. Can even do different shapes.

* Have the color directly onto textured items such as sand paper, cardboard etc or have them place the textured item underneath their paper.

* Provide "imagination paper". This works well for collages and painting as well. Provide a paper that has a shape drawn on it or different colored shapes glued on it or the center cut out etc. It's amazing what they do with it!

* Change out the crayons with chalk. This gets them going! One day explore with chalk on construction paper (spraying with aersol hairspray keeps it from smearing too much). Then provide black paper, then white paper. Another day put out small cups of water and encourage them to dip the chalk first. Then on another day encourage them to "paint" their paper with water and then draw on the paper with chalk. Of course, take chalk outside!

* Have their name written clearly with black marker and encourage them to trace around their name over and over and over. I've done this with block letters encouraging them to use different colors to trace inside the block letters.

* Make mobiles...provide shades of one color one day and another color another day. Draw a simple shape on the back of each paper and encourage them to cut them out and attach to hanger, pipe cleaner etc.



Have fun!

Answer 5

Mandala Coloring

Answer 6

I have a few ideas... and i didnt look at the lame answer below.. SWEAR TO GOODNESS!



Make circles of construction paper, divide it into little triangles, like a pizza, and let kids make toppings



Make "dolls" with a head, and a body and let kids make a face and clothes