Art & Paint Games for Kids

National Gallery of Art̵7;s NGA Kids Art Zone

• The National Gallery of Art has dedicated an entire website to providing art activities for kids. The interactive games on the NGA Kids Art Zone page provide more structure and educational value than most free online games. Using each game̵7;s individual design tools, kids can create their own images in the style of French painter Henri Rousseau, old master still life painters, Dutch genre painters, folk artists and more. This site also offers a collage-making program. Children will have fun experimenting with these interactive design workshops while they learn about art history.

The Getty Museum̵7;s Games for Kids

• The J. Paul Getty Museum also provides a website devoted to free interactive games for kids. In the ̶0;Detail Detective̶1; game, players have to quickly choose which detail comes from a given painting. Players will be exposed to famous works from the Getty collection as they learn to look closely at images. In the ̶0;Match Madness̶1; game, players must match pairs of identical images or different halves of the same image. This game requires concentration and a good memory, as players can turn over only two cards at once. The ̶0;Switch̶1; game requires players to find the differences between two seemingly identical reproductions of famous paintings.

Free Coloring Pages and Other Printables

• You can find free printable coloring pages and other art activities online for children of all ages. Look at crayola.com, uptoten.com or kinderart.com or follow the links in the Resources section of this article. You can find coloring pages in a wide variety of categories and for almost any holiday. The ̶0;Coloring̶1; section of uptoten.com provides printable coloring page activities. Children can color their own snowflakes, kites and more, and you can help them cut out the finished product.

The Impressionist Art Game

• Look for the Impressionist Art Game at your local bookstore or toy store, or at large online retail stores. The set comes with a card game and an illustrated book. Kids will become familiar with famous Impressionist paintings when they play the go-fish style card game, and they can find more information about individual paintings and artists in the book.