Finish the Picture & The Squiggle Game

Start a drawing the child has to finish in their own way. Two versions: draw a few incomplete shapes (a circle, a wavy line, two dots) and ask “what can you turn this into?”; or play the squiggle game — you scribble a random squiggle, the child makes it into a picture, then you swap. The same starting mark becomes a sun, a face, a snail, a balloon — there’s no right answer, only the child’s imagination filling the gap.

  1. For “finish the picture,” draw a few simple incomplete marks on paper — an open curve, a zigzag, a couple of circles, a single line. Leave lots of blank space around each.

  2. Ask: “What could this be? Can you turn it into something?” Let the child add to your mark to make a complete picture, then tell you about it.

  3. For the “squiggle game,” close your eyes and draw a loopy squiggle. Hand it over: “What do you see hiding in here?” The child transforms it into a recognizable drawing.

  4. Swap roles — now the child draws the squiggle and YOU finish it. Taking turns keeps it light and shows there’s no wrong way.

  5. Admire the surprise of how one mark became something. Try giving the SAME squiggle to two people and compare the totally different results.

Variation: use the same starting shape several times and challenge “can you make it into something different each time?” (a circle → sun, wheel, face, button, planet). Or fold paper for an “exquisite corpse” — one person draws a head and hides it, the next adds a body, the next legs, then unfold to reveal a wonderfully mixed-up creature.

Requirements

  • Space: Any table or lap with paper
  • Surface: A flat surface to draw on
  • Materials: Paper and crayons, markers, or pencils; nothing else
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child for turn-taking; works well with a small group passing drawings around
  • Supervision: Light — a quiet drawing game

Rationale & Objective

This is modeled on the Incomplete Figures task from the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, where children complete ambiguous line stimuli into novel drawings — a task built to measure originality, elaboration, and what Torrance called resistance to premature closure, the creative habit of not settling for the first, obvious completion. The squiggle game adapts D.W. Winnicott’s (1971) clinical squiggle technique — adult and child take turns turning a scribble into a picture — into a low-pressure creativity game; an ambiguous starting mark removes the intimidating blank page and invites interpretation. Because each child projects something different onto the same shape, the activity exercises original, divergent graphic thinking rather than copying, which Runco and Acar (2012) link to creative potential. It targets the subdomain marker “creates an original art piece that does not replicate a model” and the EYFS goal of being imaginative and expressive.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: adds a few marks but the result stays close to the starting shape or is left abstract; may name it afterward; might trace over your line rather than transform it
  • Developing: turns the mark into one recognizable thing and can say what it is; the obvious completion, like a circle becoming a sun, is typical and good; enjoys the swap
  • Proficient: sees something less obvious in the mark and elaborates it with details (a squiggle becomes a dragon with scales and fire); offers a different idea when nudged
  • Advanced: spontaneously finds multiple possibilities in one shape, adds rich detail and a backstory, and resists the easy answer; enjoys stumping you with tricky squiggles

Safety Notes

  • Low-risk overall; the main cautions are around materials — use non-toxic, washable crayons and markers carrying the AP seal
  • Supervise marker use near walls, furniture, and clothing, and with children who might mouth caps, which are a small choking part
  • Keep it pressure-free and judgment-free — comparing a child’s drawing unfavorably or fixing it teaches them there is a right answer and shuts down originality
  • Watch posture and lighting for longer drawing sessions, and offer a comfortable surface

Hints

  • Playfulness: be genuinely amazed at what they find hiding in the squiggle, and play up the magic that the same scribble becomes something different for everyone. Do a deliberately silly ‘wrong’ completion of your own to show anything goes.
  • Sustain interest: vary the starting marks (dots, zigzags, spirals), keep a ‘squiggle book’ to flip back through, and occasionally raise the bar with ‘make this circle into five different things.’
  • Common mistake: drawing a too-complete or too-suggestive starter (a clear half-cat) leaves no room to invent — keep marks abstract and open; and never redraw the child’s work ‘properly.’
  • Limited space / no equipment: one pencil and the back of any envelope works; in the air or in sand, draw a squiggle with a finger and describe what it could be.
  • Cross-domain: the fine-motor control feeds pre-writing; naming and storying the drawing grows language and narrative; comparing many uses of one shape touches early geometry; turn-taking builds social skills.
  • Progression: finish a single incomplete shape → swap squiggles back and forth → make one shape into several different things → add detail and a story to each → try the folded ’exquisite corpse’ for a combined creature with others.

Sources

  • Torrance, E. P. (1974). Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking — Figural form, Incomplete Figures task. Scholastic Testing Service
  • Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Therapeutic Consultations in Child Psychiatry — origin of the squiggle game. Hogarth Press / Basic Books
  • Runco, M. A. & Acar, S. (2012). “Divergent thinking as an indicator of creative potential.” Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 66–75
  • UK EYFS — Expressive Arts and Design — Being Imaginative and Expressive ELG
  • HighScope KDI 40 (art)
  • Reggio Emilia — mark-making as one of the hundred languages (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 2012)