Top 7 'History-Hopping' Art Styles to make with Curious Kids for a Time-Traveling Art Lesson - Goh Ling Yong
Ready to turn your kitchen table into a time machine? All you’ll need is some paper, paint, and a healthy dose of imagination. Forget dusty textbooks and long lectures; the best way to get kids excited about history is to let them create it with their own two hands. Art isn't just about making pretty pictures—it's a vibrant, living timeline of human thought, culture, and creativity.
Here on the Goh Ling Yong blog, we believe that art is one of the most powerful tools for learning and connection. By exploring different art styles, kids don't just learn about famous painters; they step into the shoes of people from another era. They get to see the world through the eyes of a prehistoric hunter, an Egyptian scribe, or a 20th-century rebel. This "history-hopping" approach makes learning feel less like a lesson and more like an adventure.
So, grab your smocks and prepare for a journey through the ages! We’ve curated seven iconic art styles that are not only historically significant but also incredibly fun to recreate with kids. Each project uses simple materials and offers a unique window into a different time and place. Let’s get messy and make some history!
1. Prehistoric Cave Painting: The Dawn of Storytelling
Way back in the Stone Age, long before paper or canvases existed, the very first artists used cave walls as their sketchpads. These weren't just doodles; they were powerful stories of daily life, depicting hunting scenes, majestic animals like bison and mammoths, and the mysterious outlines of human hands. Using charcoal from their fires and pigments made from ground-up rock and clay, they created art that has lasted for tens of thousands of years.
This art style is all about raw texture and earthy tones. The lines are simple yet expressive, capturing the movement and spirit of the animals. For kids, this is a fantastic opportunity to connect with their most primal creative instincts. It’s about telling a story with the simplest of tools and appreciating art in its most fundamental form.
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: A large sheet of brown kraft paper (or a flattened paper grocery bag), charcoal sticks or black/brown/red chalk pastels, and your hands!
- The Project: First, crumple the brown paper into a tight ball and then smooth it out again. This creates a wonderful, uneven, rock-like texture that mimics a cave wall. Tape it to a wall or lay it on the floor. Let your kids use charcoal or chalk to draw their own "prehistoric" animals. Encourage simple, bold outlines. The most iconic part? Hand stencils! Have them place a hand flat on the paper and use a piece of chalk to scribble all around the edges, leaving a perfect handprint outline when they lift it away—just like the ancient artists did.
2. Ancient Egyptian Art: Walking Like an Egyptian (and Painting Like One, Too!)
Jump forward in time to the land of pharaohs, pyramids, and the mighty Nile River. Ancient Egyptian art is instantly recognizable for its unique and orderly style. Everything was created with a purpose, often related to religion and the afterlife. They followed a strict set of rules, or a "canon," which is why their art looks so consistent over thousands of years.
The most famous rule is the one for depicting people: the head is in profile, but the eye is shown from the front. The torso faces forward, while the legs and feet are in profile, with both feet visible. This "composite view" might look strange to us, but the Egyptians did it to show each part of the body as clearly as possible. Their art is full of hieroglyphs (picture-writing), gods with animal heads, and rich colors like gold, turquoise, and terracotta.
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: Tan or light brown paper (you can even stain white paper with a tea bag for an "ancient papyrus" look), a pencil, a black marker, and colored markers or paint (especially gold!).
- The Project: Challenge your little artists to create a self-portrait in the Egyptian style. Have them stand sideways and trace the profile of their head, then draw in a forward-facing eye. Draw the shoulders from the front and the legs and feet from the side. It’s a fun puzzle that forces them to think about perspective differently. They can add an Egyptian-style collar (a wesekh) and headdress. Finish by outlining everything in black marker and filling in the colors. Don’t forget to add some hieroglyphs in the background!
3. Roman Mosaics: Piecing Together the Past
The ancient Romans were master builders and engineers, and their artistic flair is beautifully preserved in their intricate mosaics. These weren't paintings, but images made from thousands of tiny, colored squares of stone, glass, or ceramic called tesserae. They decorated floors, walls, and ceilings with everything from grand mythological scenes to geometric patterns and depictions of daily life.
Creating mosaics is a fantastic exercise in patience and planning. It teaches kids how to build a larger image from smaller parts, almost like a low-tech version of digital pixels. The process is methodical and meditative, and the result is always a stunning, textured piece of art.
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: A piece of thick cardboard or cardstock for the base, construction paper in various colors, kid-safe scissors, and a glue stick.
- The Project: Start by having your child draw a simple design on the cardboard—a fish, a flower, a heart, or a geometric pattern works well. Next, cut the colored construction paper into tiny squares (your tesserae). This is great scissor-skill practice! Then, piece by piece, glue the paper squares onto the design, leaving a tiny bit of space between each one to mimic the look of real grout. They can fill in the main image first, then the background.
4. Pointillism: The Art of the Dot
Let’s hop over to late 19th-century France, where a group of artists were experimenting with a radical new way of painting. Led by Georges Seurat, the Pointillists used tiny dots of pure color to build their images. Up close, it looks like a chaotic collection of spots. But when you step back, your eyes magically blend the dots together to see a solid, vibrant picture.
This technique is a perfect blend of art and science. It teaches kids about optical mixing—how colors can be created by our eyes instead of on the palette. It’s a mind-bending concept that is incredibly simple to execute. There’s no need for fancy brushstrokes, just a steady hand and a lot of dots!
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: White paper or a small canvas, washable paint in a few primary colors, a paper plate for a palette, and Q-tips (or the back end of a paintbrush).
- The Project: Lightly sketch a simple scene, like a landscape with a tree and a sun, or a piece of fruit. Squeeze small puddles of paint onto your palette. Using a Q-tip, have your child fill in the shapes with dots of color. The key is not to mix the paint on the palette. To make the green leaves of a tree, for example, they should make dots of blue right next to dots of yellow. When they look from a distance, their brain will mix the colors into green. It’s a "wow" moment every time!
5. Cubism: Seeing from Every Angle at Once
Welcome to the early 20th century, where artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque decided to smash the rules of perspective. They wanted to show subjects not from a single viewpoint, but from multiple angles all at the same time. In Cubism, objects are broken down, analyzed, and reassembled in an abstracted form. A face might show both a profile and a frontal view simultaneously.
This might sound complicated, but for kids, it’s an invitation to be wonderfully weird and creative. It frees them from the pressure of making things look "realistic." Cubism is all about deconstruction and reconstruction, turning a familiar object into a fascinating puzzle of shapes and angles.
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: A large sheet of paper, a pencil, old magazines or colored construction paper, scissors, and a glue stick.
- The Project: Choose a simple subject, like a guitar, a face, or a bowl of fruit. First, create a "fractured" collage. Look through magazines for different textures and colors. Cut out geometric shapes—squares, triangles, rectangles—and glue them onto the paper to build a deconstructed version of your subject. For a drawing version, have your child draw the object, then use a ruler to draw straight lines through it, breaking it into different planes. Then, color each segment in a different shade or color to emphasize the fragmented look.
6. Abstract Expressionism: Painting with Feeling
Fast forward to 1940s New York City, a time of great energy and change. Artists like Jackson Pollock wanted to create art that was about pure emotion and the physical act of painting itself. This was not about painting a picture of something; it was about the experience. Pollock became famous for his "drip" or "action" paintings, where he would lay huge canvases on the floor and drip, pour, and spatter paint onto them as he moved around.
This style is pure, unadulterated fun for kids. It’s messy, energetic, and completely freeing. It teaches them that art can be about movement, feeling, and the process, not just the final product. It’s a chance to let go of control and see where the paint takes them.
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: A large canvas or a very large sheet of paper (an old bedsheet works too!), washable paint (slightly watered down to make it drippy), and various "tools" like spoons, sticks, and old brushes.
- The Project: This one is best done outside or in a well-protected area! Lay your "canvas" on the ground. Let your kids stand over it and experiment with dripping and splattering the paint. They can use a stick to fling it, a spoon to drizzle it, or even poke a hole in the bottom of a paper cup and swing it over the canvas. Encourage them to move around and use their whole body. Talk about how different movements create different kinds of lines and splatters.
7. Pop Art: Making the Everyday Extraordinary
Our final stop is the vibrant, buzzing world of the 1950s and 60s. Pop Art celebrated the everyday and the ordinary, taking inspiration from comic books, advertisements, and supermarket shelves. Artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein used bright, bold colors and commercial printing techniques to turn things like soup cans, Brillo boxes, and comic strips into high art.
Pop Art is accessible, colorful, and cool. It teaches kids to find beauty and interest in the world around them. The style is defined by its hard edges, vibrant, flat colors, and repetition. It’s a perfect way to end our history-hopping tour with a modern, graphic "POP!"
Time-Traveling Activity:
- What You'll Need: Several sheets of brightly colored paper, one sheet of white paper, a simple object to trace (like a cookie cutter, a toy animal, or even their own hand), scissors, and a glue stick.
- The Project: We’re going to make a Warhol-style repetitive print. Start by tracing your chosen object onto the white paper and cutting it out to create a stencil. Then, trace that stencil onto four different sheets of brightly colored paper and cut them out. Now, take four more sheets of colored paper for your backgrounds (choose contrasting colors!). Glue one object onto each of the four background sheets, creating a grid of four bold, high-contrast images. The simple repetition of an everyday object in unexpected, clashing colors is the essence of Pop Art.
Your Adventure Awaits
From the dusty walls of a prehistoric cave to a swinging 60s art studio, you and your little artist have officially time-traveled through thousands of years of human creativity. Each of these projects offers more than just a fun afternoon; it’s a hands-on history lesson that builds curiosity, empathy, and a deep appreciation for the many ways we tell our stories.
The best part is that there are no rules. Mix and match techniques, learn about more artists, and let these ideas be a launching pad for your own creative explorations. Art is a journey, not a destination.
Now it's your turn! Which art style are you most excited to try with your kids? Share your incredible creations with us on social media—we’d love to see your family’s masterpieces. Happy history-hopping
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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