Animal Directed Drawings for Preschool, Pre-K, & Kindergarten

Looking for animal directed drawings for your preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students? This pack of directed drawings has 8 drawings that would work perfectly for a farm, camping, forest, zoo, ocean theme, or even MORE theme ideas below.

Grab the Animal Directed Drawing Unit for all the printables!

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Benefits of Directed Drawings In the Early Childhood Classroom

• strengthen students’ fine motor strength, including hand-eye coordination, fine motor muscles, pencil grasp, and practice shapes and drawing various types of lines
• teach young children how to draw by noticing shapes in objects and how to combine shapes to make new things.
• easy way to infuse art activities into the classroom.
• Art is very calming and relaxing for most students
• fun way to practice following directions
• Drawing is communicating! You will see growth and more details in your little learners’ illustrations.
• gorgeous bulletin boards and student art to decorate the classroom
• BUILD confidence and creativity even in your youngest students
• developing social skills and language development as you learn about your children’s interest

How to Implement Directed Drawings with Little Learners

When I first introduce directed drawings to my students, I take each step slowly and model, model, model! The first few directed drawing activities need to be a teacher-directed lesson to help all students be successful. You can even do them in small groups if that works better for your preschool children. Decide what is best for your children’s needs and roll with it. 

• You draw a step, model, and verbally explain how to draw each shape and the size (ex: “This shape looks like a small U shape, I’m going to make this small….down, curve, up”.) Then, students draw that step.
• Continue to model a step, and then students draw a step until the drawing is complete.
• Model creating the background options. Then, students create the background using various art media.
• Have young children sign their own names on the front of their drawings. If they can’t independently, use name cards to support them. 

In the animal directed drawing unit, you will find full page and half page directed drawing direction posters. These art projects make great independent work or a center activity once the process has been introduced and students know what to do. They are also a great way to teach following directions while working in fine motor journals. 

Animal Directed Drawings

Giraffe Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: black markers or Sharpie
• Media Used to Fill In: markers
• Background Pictured: tempera paint
• Other Details: Cut out the picture and glue it to the painted background.
• Theme Ideas: zoo animals, safari

Tiger Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: black markers or Sharpie
• Media Used to Fill In: markers
• Background Pictured: tempera paint and paper strips
• Other Details: Cut out the picture and glue it to the painted background.
• Theme Ideas: zoo, jungle

Owl Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: markers
• Media Used to Fill In: crayons
• Background Pictured: paint sticks
• Other Details: Add a background color or picture
• Theme Ideas: forest, camping, nocturnal animals, birds

Helpful Tips: If your elementary students are struggling to make a certain shape, have them practice on dry-erase boards until they are happy with that shape. This is something I do with my perfectionist students for a classroom drawing. 

Raccoon Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: black markers or Sharpie
• Media Used to Fill In: oil pastels
• Background Pictured: oil pastels
• Other Details: Add a background picture with various supplies (grass and sky)
• Theme Ideas: forest, camping, nocturnal animals

Pig Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: markers
• Media Used to Fill In: crayons
• Background Pictured: crayons
• Other Details: Add a background picture (mud and sky)
• Theme Ideas: farm

Sheep Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: black markers or Sharpie
• Media Used to Fill In: markers
• Background Pictured: markers and paint sticks
• Other Details: Add a background picture (grass and sky)
• Theme Ideas: farm

Jellyfish Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: oil pastels
• Media Used to Fill In: watercolors
• Background Pictured: watercolors
• Other Details: Add a background color
• Theme Ideas: ocean, beach

Helpful Tips: I break my oil pastels into 2-3 pieces, so there are more for multiple students; they are developing important skills like fine motor skills with small pieces, and they don’t waste them as quickly.

Pufferfish Directed Drawing!

• Drawing Utensil Used: black markers or Sharpie
• Media Used to Fill In: watercolors
• Background Pictured: watercolors
• Other Details: Add a background color
• Theme Ideas: ocean, beach

This set of animal directed drawings is going to be a favorite in your classroom. The pictures are so versatile for a variety of themes. Also, your students are going to love learning how to draw these animals in the future. They are perfect for bulletin board decorations, hallway displays, art center activities, a morning activity, an indoor recess activity, and more. The animal directed drawings are not just for preschool and kindergarten students. They would also work for first grade students.

Something to remember is that animal directed drawings do not replace open-ended art. Make time for open-ended art, too, so students have the opportunity to create, express themselves, and use their imagination that is process-focused, not product-focused.

Grab the animal directed drawings unit here from the Pocket of Preschool TpT store for your next project. If you want the directed drawing BUNDLE, you can find it here. 

For more information about how to use and the benefits of directed drawings, check out this post!

Get more ideas for how to start directed drawings in your room with this video. They are great for fine motor skills, art lessons, and early finisher activities.

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