You'll need to use oversized cereal boxes if you want to put regular notebook paper in them. You can easily dye rice and make fantastic pictures. One project is outlining a Mexican blanket, then fill in the blanket with the colored rice. Sidewalk chalk and cheap hairspray. If your child wants to do pastel chalk artwork, there's no need to buy artist quality materials.
Sidewalk chalk works great.
Give it several coats. Let it dry. Dried beans make beautiful art. If you have seeds, you can add those, too. I would recommend the non-drip glue, not the white Elmers.