There is something about sitting down and drawing that can turn the day around. It doesn’t matter how old you are, once you get involved in a drawing your heart rate slows down, you become more mindful, and stress starts to melt away. It’s part of the reason that you see coloring books for adults everywhere right now.
For an activity that has so many benefits it’s surprising how hard it can be to convince kids to sit down with a pad and paper and draw. When they’re bored, or cranky, or anxious, or overexcited they just don’t always want to stop and draw–even if it would help them feel better. Let’s face it, many of us adults are the exact same way. That’s part of the reason I adore this cool catalog model drawing game for kids so much, they can’t resist a bit of silliness!
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The catalog drawing game is inspired by the book Tangle Art and Drawing Games for Kids. It’s by Jeanette Nyberg, the writer of Craftwhack, and full of crazy simple but totally cool drawing games and prompts your kids (and you!) will love. It’s the kind of book to leave on your coffee table for the kids to flip through when they’re bored or to pull out when you need a quick activity to change the mood of the day, like right before dinnertime.
Want to buy it too? Or see some of the pages inside? Click here–> Tangle Art and Drawing Games for Kids
Catalog Drawing Game for Kids
- paper
- clothing catalogs
- scissors
- glue
- pens, pencils, markers, etc
It’s a super simple art activity to prep! All you need to do is cut out outfits from a clothing catalog and glue to paper or in a notebook. Kids then use the markers to make a brand new model for the clothes. They can draw people, animals, monsters, anything they want.
There’s no wrong way to set this activity up for kids. I decided to do it with my kids as more of an invitation to create than a drawing game the first time we did it. I wanted to use the activity to help them de-stress after school so had the outfits glued to the pages before they got home. I left them on our kitchen table with markers for them to discover and do.
You can also give them total ownership of the game and let them choose and cut out their own outfits. They can create scenes with the different models and even put them together in their own new and wacky catalog. Or show them the activity in the book and let them decide what to do. It’s one they’ll want to do more than once so you can put a different spin on it each time!
Keep the fun going!
- After drawing the new catalog models kids can make it silly (or serious) by adding speech bubbles to convey what their models are thinking.
- They can also cut out the models and turn them into puppets by adding popsicle sticks to the bottom.
- They can even cut them out and stick them in silly places around the house for others to find.
And don’t be afraid to try it yourself–it’s a great way for grown-ups to turn they day around and have some fun too!
Quick note: We only had maternity and soccer catalogs at our house for some weird reason. It made it extra silly for the kids and hilarious for me, but any catalog outfit will do–baby bumps aren’t required for the fun! 😉
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