The second important thing is to give them a decent sized piece of paper. A scrappy bit is more likely to produce scrappy work. It just encourages drawing that is too small and hesitant; big and bold is best. For drawing work with all the materials mentioned A3 was our standard, although for some pastel work you might get away with slightly smaller.
Quite a while back we discovered a trick with the paper for drawing that really made a very surprising difference. We created for each child a lightweight kind of drawing board and taught them how to tape their paper down to it before starting. This was not essential, but helped in so many ways. In the end we felt it was one of the significant factors in our children producing the wonderful work they did.
The considerable advantages were:
Children often found it easier to draw without the paper slipping about.
The board could be held up at a slope, often making observation easier and drawing more comfortable.
It could easily be taken outside, providing a secure, firm drawing surface anywhere.
When drawings were painted, the paper was held flat until the work dried.
And, perhaps best of all:
It made the children feel more like ‘real artists’ and their work important and special.
Although a bit of extra trouble (and initial expense) was involved, it is well worth it in terms of results, and actually it was not particularly costly in the long term. We had just one class set of these drawing boards, which were shared by whichever class needed them for art. Being fairly substantial, the one set lasted for all the many years I was at the school, and presumably for a good while after as well. By the end, they were getting fairly ‘artistic’ looking, with paint and pastel smears and splashes, but this only increased their kudos with the children.
If you want to replicate our approach, you need to source good substantial boards, comfortably bigger than A3 paper. They must be light enough for children to hold comfortably, but firm enough not to flex under moderate pressure. It is essential to use masking tape, not sellotape, to fix the paper on. When the art is done, the masking tape peels off easily without harming the work at all, whereas sellotape is likely to tear the paper. It only needs a small strip at each corner. This can be torn off the roll. It doesn’t need to be tidy. We found that, with a little ‘training’ not to use too much, the children could do this themselves. About one roll per table, kept primarily for art lessons, lasted the whole school year. So no great expense there either.
This is something else that just works.