100+ of the Best Art Supplies: Must Haves For Preschool, Kindergarten, & Early Elementary
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Whether you’re stocking your classroom art supply cabinet or your homeschool art shelf, this guide is you ultimate supply list for kindergarten and preschool art supplies!
Doing arts and crafts with kids is a great way for them to learn, after all. But where do you start to have on hand the art supplies you’ll want when you need them? Here’s a list of 100 awesome art supplies for preschool and kindergarten aged children, so you can craft to your heart’s content.
The Best Art Supplies for Preschool, Kindergarten, & Beyond Craft Cabinets
Arts and crafts help children express their creativity, problem solve, hone fine motor skills…and have fun.
Doing crafts with your kids? A priceless way to create memories, strengthen bonds, and have lots of interesting conversations over sticky fingers, glittery messes, and unique creations.
With 8 kids at home, we always have a little one (and someday I’ll have grandkids!). That means my art cabinets are always full and ready for use because my favorite subject to delight kids with is art (along with language arts, history, and science…okay, okay, you caught me — anything but math!).
But sometimes you just don’t know what to have on hand for creativity to flow. Plans are great, but inspiration often strikes little minds, and you want to be ready. Creating art with kids is so much fun!
Here are more than 100 of the best art supplies and art tools you’ll want to have in your closet, for whenever that burst of artistic whimsy strikes the heart of your little one or you have a rainy day of crafting at the table.
More than 100 Art Supplies for Preschool and Kindergarten Children
Whether you have a day care, a classroom, or a home ripe with learning opportunities, art materials are a must. Here are the top 100+ art supplies for kids to have on hand – be they for preschool, kindergarten, or early elementary aged kids.
What are the Basic Art Supplies?
If the following list overwhelms you, start out with these easy art supplies for preschool children:
Paper
Washable markers
Crayons
Glue
Pom Poms
Child safe scissors
Paper Crafting Art Supplies
Colorful Construction Paper for backgrounds, shapes cutting, and all sorts of projects
Copy Paper for printing worksheets, coloring pages, and to use as drawing paper
Watercolor Paper for the more serious art lessons
Newspaper (or craft rolls of paper) to cover tabletops during messy projects, and for art and craft projects
Contact Paper for sun catchers
Tissue Paper (for too many crafts to list!)
Index Cards for making small crafts and flash cards
Scrapbook Paper for crafting
10. Graphing Paper for counting, mosaic creation, and block coloring
If you’re looking for some fun paper craft ideas, check out this paper shape train for toddlers, these fun paper ladybugs, or this quilled paper space wreath.
Art Supplies for Painting
Dish Cloth for cleaning brush between colors
Paper towels for cleaning brush between colors and clean up.
Cut Kitchen Sponges for Painting
Canvas for the more serious art lessons
Large Paint Brushes for Small Hands
Tempera paint sticks (they come in so many vibrant colors!)
Sponge Painting Brushes and Rollers
Paint Pens for painting rocks, wood, and other surfaces
Clothes Pins to hold the cotton balls.
Q Tips for dot painting
For a fun painting craft, try one of these apple musical instruments or this absolutely “yummy” ice cream painting craft.
Drawing and Coloring Art Supply List
Kids love to color – whether it’s on a sketch pad, post it notes, or (let’s be real) the hallway wall. And coloring is a fantastic activity that can help strengthen their pencil grip, build fine motor skills, and teach kids to pay attention to details.
Thick Markers (washable markers are always the best with little children)
Gel crayons (these are awesome – another alternative to traditional crayons and colored pencils that have awesome vibrant colors)
Be sure to check out all of our free, fun printables for kids as well as the The Moments At Home Shop where you can find seasonal printables, geography and science pages, and so much more!
Art Activity Books for Kids
Ed Emberley’s Complete Funprint Drawing Book
Drawing Book for Kids (Scratch Art)
Preschool Color and Activity Book
Cutting and Pasting Activity book
Melissa and Doug Scissor Skills and Tape Activity Books
Drawing Journal: Primary Writing and Drawing Journal for Kids
Paint by Stickers (we love these for mess free art projects!)
Paint by Stickers for Kids: Under the Sea
Paint by Sticker Kids: Beautiful Bugs
Melissa and Doug on the Go Colorblast! No Mess Marker Book
Books about Artists and Art Technique for Younger Kids
A well stocked art cabinet goes beyond having art supplies (and more art supplies!). Children enjoy learning about artists, art tools, and art techniques.
Psst…these are also great for quiet time!
It’s good for a child to appreciate creativity and talent from a young age by looking at well known art work as well as creating their own. Young learners can look at books for inspiration…and then you can take them to a local art museum!
13 Art Techniques Children Should Know
Recycled Craft Projects for Kids
Art Supplies for Developing Fine Motor Skills
These are some of the best art supplies for preschool because they help refine fine motor skills. Molding clay or dough helps fine motor muscles become strong and helps young learners become more adept at using them.
Another great addition is plastic canvas where children can use large, child safe needles to “cross stitch” with yarn. This is a step beyond lacing cards for your more advanced art-inclined little one. We’ve found even our kindergarteners enjoy this activity. This is fantastic fine motor development and kids are so proud!
Strong stretchy string for cutting and stringing beads.
Slime (or make your own – pink glitter slime and 2-ingredient pudding slime are huge hits here!)
Check out these fun clay, slime, and dough crafts for some hands on art time!
Large plastic needles for yarn
Yarn or thread for canvas embroidery
Miscellaneous Art Supplies
Children can have fun with just about anything, thanks to their delightful imaginations. Here are so other fun craft supplies your child may enjoy as they create their newest art project.
Cardboard Tubes (or toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, etc)
Canvas (for painting) or canvas bags (also for painting or early sewing)
Whew! That’s a lot of art supplies! There are so many more I could list, these are the ones we’ve used and enjoyed.
How do you store art supplies?
Now, don’t forget all these supplies need to go somewhere.
There are all kinds of way to store your art and craft supplies. This is something to consider as you purchase art supplies for kids (and students) — also purchase containers to host them!
Art is more fun when you have the right tools and can easily access them.
Plastic bins with snap lids
To avoid paint messes that come when curious little minds and eager little hands get into your watercolors, tempera paint, gel crayons and the like, check out plastic containers that have snap on lids.
These fit nicely on shelves or stack one on top of the other. They are sturdy enough for everyday use, too! This is our personal favorite way to organize everything from toys to art supplies!
We especially like them for pipe cleaners, pony beads, and the like because of the lids.
Baskets and Cups for Art Supplies
Pretty baskets and cups of all shapes and sizes can also be used to store art supplies.
We’ve got a basket for paper as well another one that holds our glue and glue sticks, scissors, and we put our paint sticks in cups.
Any open container you like the look of or is available can work for items like these.
Art supply cart
When we started to buy art supplies for kids to use in their free time and not just as a part of the homeschool day, we decided a simple art supply cart was the perfect play to store their craft supplies.
They could roll it to the table when they were crafting, and put it back in the corner when they were done.
Plastic Drawers for Homeschool Art Supplies & Other Subjects
If you’ve got several kids with differing interests, you may consider giving each one their own “locker” in the form of drawers they can use.
When we do this, one usually holds their books, another one or two their art supplies, one holds their art smock, and one is a miscellaneous drawer based on whatever we’re currently exploring or doing for science.
We’ve found our kids LOVE having their “own” supplies and the feeling of ownership contributes to keeping our art supplies and other school supplies more organized since everything has a clear place.
Dedicated shelf or cabinet
Having a specific shelf to place your in process art projects is also a great idea. If you’re using clay or paint, art projects will need to dry. Plus, it’s fun for the kids to look up and see what they’ve made (and show it off!).
