Origami is a Japanese art which involves folding paper into three-dimensional shapes such as birds, fish, balloons, pyramids and puppets. All that is required to make origami art is paper; construction paper will work just fine. Search online for instructions for folding the paper into different shapes. Pick one that has fewer folds than others if you are new to this art. Once complete, use the markers to draw faces or designs on the origami piece.
Fold several pieces of construction paper in half, place them on top of each other so that the folds meet and staple them together at the fold to form a book. Using the markers, tell a story on the pages of the book and draw pictures to match. For a more interesting story, have children pass the book around, adding to each page. For example, one child writes about the main character, the next writes about where the main character will go, what the character does along the way and so on. Each child must not read any of the other pages. In the end they will have a story that may or may not make sense at all, but will be a lot of fun to read.
Pick a shape, like a heart, star, circle or square, and draw it with marker near the center of the construction paper. Draw the shape again around the first shape. Continue repeating the shape around the last one until you reach the edge of the paper. Color in the spaces between each shape. The end result is a repetitive pattern with a multitude of colors which can be used to help teach the importance of the use of lines in art.
This activity is good for large groups. Give everyone a piece of construction paper and a few markers and tell them to write their name on the back of the paper. Play some fun music to listen to while they draw a small picture on their piece of paper. After about a minute or two, stop the music and have them pass their paper to the right. The next one should add to the picture or create another picture on the piece of paper while the music plays again. Continue passing the papers each time the music stops until each paper makes it back to the original owner. The end result will be a collage of drawings that form one large picture.