Best Back-to-School Art Lessons!

Okay, y'all. It's happening! The emails from admin are rolling in, the BTS stuff is out at stores...it's already (ALREADY!) time to start thinking about heading back to school...and the lessons you plan to kick off your school year with.

When I'm thinking of my very first lessons, here's what I consider:

    * The lesson should involve not-so-messy supplies. I do this because during those first days in the art room, the focus is on the expectations, the routines of the art room and the rules. To also throw into the mix the rules, routines and expectations of said messy supply is overwhelming. So I tend to do lessons that involve supplies my students are very familiar with.

    * The lesson should be one where all are successful. I want that first lesson to really set the tone for the art room. I want all students, even those who say, "I'm not an artist" to feel as though they are. So the lessons you'll find here today are ones that are tried and true...and where all students have found success.

    * The lesson should be something that could be used for a display. Often we have an open house not long after the school year begins. To highlight the art program, it helps to have something to deck the halls. I'm often looking for a BTS lesson that does just that.

    * The lesson should be the same for everyone OR make use of the same art supplies. This one is a hot take...I've gotten some flack for this one. But at the start of the year, I usually do the same lesson with all students, 1st - 4th (kindergarten is a different story and you can find out what I do with them here). But I find that this helps me not to stress and run around prepping 5 different lessons, art supplies and the rest. I do the same thing with everyone...and in the end it makes for a cohesive display and a more relaxed start to the beginning of the school year. You have the whole year to stress! So...let's not kick things off that way!

With those things in mind, I'm going to share with you lessons that I've used over the years for BTS. Feel free to use them in your art teacherin' world! Just tap the link to visit the blog post. There you'll often find free downloads and videos. Let's go!

Back to School Banners

One way to start the school year is by creating banners for your students. I create my banners with my trusty ink-filled bingo dauber (which you can find here, if interested) and I often create them for my students to color at the END of the school year during field day. Then, when we return to school, I have them up as a way to decorate the halls and welcome students back.

However, you can make them now! They would be the perfect activity during those first days as they would get your students creating, getting to know their classmates and becoming familiar with your art room. 

When it comes to creating the banners, your only limit is your imagination. I've created frames for students to draw selfies and slogans for students to color.

I used to have a set up like this and allow my students to paint. While this was fun...it was a lot of work and a lot of cleanup after tons of kids painting all day. In the end, I switched to having my students use paint sticks...and that seemed to work so much better! The colors are just as bright...and much less messy. But, you do you!

For all the details on how I created these banners for my students, visit here!

And if you aren't comfortable creating these rolls, don't worry...I made some for you! You can find all four of them here. 

Getting to Know You Sculptures

Oh man, do I love teaching paper sculptures! In fact, this IS the lesson I do with my kindergarteners on their very first day...I just elevated it to include this Getting to Know You sheet and added some more paper folding and sculpting techniques.

This lesson makes for such a fun display and a great conversation starter as the kids share with their adults what each part of their sculpture represents. For the TWO TOTALLY FREE downloads, just visit this blog post!

Sketchbooks

I've done sketchbooks every manner of ways but the one I ultimately did with my first through fourth grade was this one! We created these sketchbook covers on the first days of school and they were always so much fun to put together and have ready for the school year. 

Inspired by the Getting to Know You sculptures, I created these decoder sheets for the covers. You can find them as a free download here. 

If you are interested in how I use, organize, store, operate, all the things sketchbooks in my art room, you can read all about it here. 

And if you'd like to check out the sketchbooks I created for your students with my friends at Prang, you can get them here!

Self-Portraits

I find that selfies are such a great way to return to school. Of course, for some students, they can seem daunting...so I like to keep them on a small scale. These wee selfies are just 3-4" squares! We went with a monochromatic color scheme but you could do these any way you like! You can find this lesson as well as a video for you and your students here. 

Of course, self-portraits can take on any manner of style. This was such a fun collaborative piece to make that we kept it hanging for years outside the art room! For more collaborative projects like this one, visit here. 

Dot Day

Dot Day is a great way to kick off the school year! Based on the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, it is one that I read to all of my students on their first days of art. So what better way than to dive in with lots of dot-themed art projects?! To find out about this one seen above, tap here!

For a shorter Dot Day experience, my students LOVED this one! I picked up a bunch of metal pizza pans from Dollar Tree and my students explored monoprinting! You can check out this lesson here.

If you are feeling a little anxious about the idea of using tempera paint on those first days of school...I got you! Check out my blog post featuring my Top 10 Tempera Painting Tips!

If you are looking for even more inspiration for back to school lessons, I have MORE in this blog post! BUT...I'm ready for my second copy of coffee so I'll leave it here for the day.

Stay tuned...I'm working on a new video for a lesson that your students will love! It will have a couple of free downloads just for you. I hope to have it for ya next week so...until then!