If you’d like to try Screen-Free Week this year, here’s a week’s worth of activities for kids with a focus on independent projects.
Updated April 2025
Screen-Free Week is the first week of May every year. This annual event is a wonderful opportunity to unplug and spend your free time playing, reading, daydreaming, creating, exploring, and connecting with family and friends.
Do you want to participate? Check out these (un)official rules.
But remember to make it work for you. Participate for a week or just for a day. Participate with your TV or include all screens. Make your own rules.
Here’s the catch, there might be a little whining from the kids in the beginning. The more your child whines about screen-time, the more important Screen-Free Week is for your family.
That being said, participating in Screen-Free Week shouldn’t mean you have to become Super Parent with tons of projects and activities. We’re here to make it easy for you with 7 independent art activities for kids.
And when in doubt, try strewing. Strewing is the art of casually yet strategically leaving “invitations” for learning and creativity out for your kids to discover on their own. Let them wake-up to discover an opportunity to create or play!
Screen-Free Week Activities for Kids
1. Double-Doodle Art
Double doodle art is fun, relaxing, and easy! It’s also a great way to exercise your brain by using both sides of it simultaneously.
2. Mandala Art with Stickers
Sticker mandalas are a fun and mess-free way to create mandala art using a favorite art supply: stickers!
3. Contact Paper Suncatchers
Tissue paper suncatchers are a tried-and-true Artful Parent craft. They are fun and easy to make and are a lovely addition to any window!
4. Toothpick Sculptures
Grape and toothpick sculptures are edible art projects that double as a healthy snack for kids. Fun to make and tasty to eat!
5. Q-tip Pointillism
Pointillism art with cottons swabs may sound complicated but is actually super simple and kids LOVE it! Simply dip a cotton swab into liquid watercolors and make dots on the paper!
6. Fingerprint Art
Try a fingerprint art book by Ed Emberley for a fun drawing activity for kids. Make fingerprints and then turn them into whatever you’d like!
7. Collage Art
Try simple paper collage for kids by cutting colored construction paper (good scissor skills practice!) then gluing the shapes to paper.
Looking for more Screen-Free Week inspiration? Check out ScreenFree.org for resources and additional ways to get involved. Or print a list of 75 Screen-Free Activities over at Let’s Lasso the Moon.
More Art Invitations for Kids to Try
- 10 Art Invitations to Create for Kids
- 5 Easy After School Art Invitations for Kids
- 10 Art Prompts for Kids to Foster Creativity
- How to Set Up Morning Invitations for Kids
- The Art of Strewing for Kids
- How to Set Up Creative Invitations for Kids
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