Basic Drawing Templates for Kids & Why Drawing Matters

These drawing templates for kids provide the practice and exposure they need to feel more confident and creative with drawing!

At the beginning of this school year, our school-based therapy team met to discuss what supports we could put into place for our kindergarteners who were struggling in some developmental skill areas, but had not yet been formally identified by the team as needing services.  

As we made our way through the list of concerns the teachers had brought to our attention, it was interesting to see that some patterns emerged, indicating that there were several kids in each class who were struggling with similar things.

There were kids having difficulty with dressing skills and clothing fasteners.  Kids who were still figuring out how to grasp their pencils.  And kids who needed a lot of help and support when cutting with scissors.  

One less expected area that came up for a handful of kids was drawing skills.  One teacher in particular mentioned that some of her students were having difficulty with creating their own pictures on their journal pages.

Not only were there fine motor and visual motor concerns preventing them from having success with drawing, but these students also had some more rigid behaviors.  This often led to frustration and shut-down when they attempted to draw something, but the result was not what they intended, or didn’t look enough like the object they were trying to draw.  Next thing we knew, these kids were refusing to draw at all, preventing them from gaining valuable exposure to this skill that is such an important precursor to prewriting and writing.

Tracing & Drawing Templates for Kids

So, we came up with the idea of these tracing and drawing templates to help kids achieve success and gain confidence through practice.  The pages show kids how to first trace an object to get the feel for how to draw the simple shapes that come together to form a picture and then give them space to attempt the drawing themselves, using the shapes they have just practiced.

These pages are perfect to use as a classroom center or during a push-in therapy session in the classroom.  You can even laminate them so it’s easy to use them again and again for repeated practice.

Another great way to work on drawing skills in a structured and simple way is by using dot to dot pages. These dot to dot printables are a great place to start!

Why is Drawing Important for Kids?

Pencil Grasp

Drawing and scribbling is the first chance young kids and toddlers get to explore how it feels to hold a writing utensil.  This is a huge deal because exposure and exploration allows kids to move through the developmental progression of pencil grasp.  This way, by the time they’re ready to start experimenting with pre writing and early writing skills – they are solidly working their way toward an efficient pencil grasp.

Hand strength

Drawing is a fun opportunity for kids to build strength and endurance in the muscles of the hands.  Coloring inside a designated space, scribbling on a piece of paper, and experimenting with drawing shapes and lines all result in strengthening of the hands.

Bilateral skills

One of my favorite things about watching toddlers learn to draw is seeing them suddenly realize that they need to use both hands (one to stabilize the paper and one to draw) as the paper slides away from them when they start to draw.  Drawing is one way for kids to get the feel of using a dominant hand to work and a non-dominant hand to stabilize.

Pencil control and dynamic grasp

I mentioned pencil grasp above, but as kids get more experience with drawing, they also refine their grasp so they’re not only holding the writing utensil efficiently, but they are also able to control its movements easily.  Having a dynamic pencil grasp means that the child is able to rest his or her hand on the paper while drawing, coloring, or writing, with the movement coming from the digits of the fingers rather than the wrist or elbow.=

Prewriting shapes

Within their drawings, kids begin to explore making different shapes and lines.  These usually include circles, horizontal and vertical lines, diagonal and intersecting lines.  Practice with making these lines contributes to later success with letter formation.

Creativity, Confidence, and Independence

Finally, drawing is a great way for kids to gain independence and build confidence as they create their own one-of-a-kind masterpieces.  They also get the chance to demonstrate their creativity and get their ideas onto paper.

There are tons of developmental benefits related to coloring and drawing and these tracing and drawing templates are a great way to start!  Grab your copy today!