Recently, my mom contacted me and asked if I could help her with a few fun art ideas for my niece because she watches her all summer. In fact, my mom watches three of her grandchildren all summer. They are ages 2, 5, and 7. They are kids, so they love to color and draw, but my niece (the 7-year-old) is particularly interested in art – lucky auntie!!! Of course, I told my mom not to worry and that I’d put together some things for them to do this summer (I MIGHT have gone overboard, but I had a ton of fun!).

Since this is a pretty simple and easy thing for anyone to do – I thought I’d share it with you. Maybe something in this post will spark a creative idea to help get you through the rainy days, last-minute play dates, long, hot afternoons, etc. this summer.

It only took me one afternoon to assemble all of these packets. Some of the packets contain FREE ideas from this blog or my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Some ideas are paid resources from my TPT store. You can use some of my ideas and combine them with some from your favorite bloggers to create summer art packets that work for the age of children you have and their interests – the sky is the limit!!!

So, let’s take a look at the summer art packets I put together for my family…

Card Starters

This first activity is actually my Valentine’s Day Card StARTers. However, they work great for any time of the year. After printing the resource, I cut out the cover and glued it to the front of a large manila envelope. Then, I made copies of the card starter pages I wanted to include. Then, I included some smaller envelopes with a note to my niece to select four friends to write cards to this summer. This will help her with letter writing and addressing an envelope. On the back of the envelope, I attached the steps for this project. I have a free sample of my card starters in THIS BLOG POST.

Emoji Agamographs

Kids love emojis. So I made sure to include a set of my Emoji Agamographs in one of the summer art packets. To make this as easy as possible, I went ahead and attached the two pages to make the full-size art page. Then I put markers of the correct colors that are needed for this project into a small envelope. Along with the instructions, I put all of this in a large manila envelope. I then glued the cover of the resource to the front of the envelope! If you like my Emoji Agamographs, you can either purchase the full templates (writing activities included) HERE. You could also read my blog HERE and learn how you can make your own agamographs!

Imaginary Playgrounds

This is a lesson I’ve used countless times with my younger students. I selected this one so my younger niece (the 2-year-old) could make something, too. I knew that my older niece and nephew could help her, and they could all create their own imaginary playgrounds. My BLOG POST HERE explains all of the steps in detail, so I used those instructions for the packet. From there, I printed the details and glued them to the front and back of the manila envelope – I told you it wasn’t super pretty! Inside the envelope, I provided everything the kids needed to start creating.

LOVE Painting

This is another activity I pulled from my BLOG HERE. For this activity, the kids will learn about Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE symbol. For this activity, I printed off the steps from my blog. I also included the kids’ materials to do this project – watercolor paint, brushes, tape, and square paper. You could also do this with a different 4-letter word. This can easily be adapted for younger or older kids!

…here is the final collection of the three my mom made with my two nieces and my nephew!

Starry Night & Van Gogh

This is actually 2 activities! I wanted to include something this summer that the kids could do together – collaboratively – and my nephew (the 5-year-old) loves puzzles. So I included the pages of my Starry Night Collaboration poster and one of my Unscramble the Famous Faces of Art History pages of Vincent van Gogh himself.

I printed the pages of the poster with 2 pages to 1 sheet of paper so that the overall final size will be smaller. This will also help the kids color it a bit faster. Since there are 30 pieces, I didn’t want to lose their attention by making the pieces full-size. When the poster is complete, they can unscramble Van Gogh’s portrait to learn about the man who made Starry Night! If you are preparing summer art packets for older students (grades 5-8), you might like my Art Escape: Starry Night Grammar Edition.

I am _____ years old. 

You will find this freebie on my blog HERE. This is another project I thought would be good for multiple ages. There is a simple worksheet for the younger kiddos and a project for the older ones!

Degas Dancers

I wanted to incorporate some books into the summer art packets. So I decided to include my Degas Dancer collaboration poster. This is a fun lesson because it also will teach the kids all about monochromatic images. If you are working with older children, you can also use my FREE Degas Dancer resource available HERE. I also have a blog post with three Degas Dancer projects (including these two) and a link to the book I included in this packet HERE.

Take a look at the final poster my niece made. I love how my mom posted it in the window of her house to let the light shine in behind it. It’s hard to capture in a photograph but really beautiful in real life!

I hope a few of these summer art packet ideas have sparked an idea or two for you or inspired you to create some summer art packets for your own kids or small summer school groups! If you do make some summer packets and share them on social media, I’d love to see them – feel free to tag me @artwithjennyk on IG, Twitter, and Facebook!

Thanks for reading and for making art with your kids!

Jenny K.