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!

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How to Run Your First Day of Art Class!

Hi, friends!

Before we dive in, I just wanna say that what you're about to see here is how I run my first 30 minute art class with my first though fourth grade students. I have shared a lot of videos in the past about my first day of art...and really, this one is no different. EXCEPT...I'm going to walk you thru the method behind my madness so you can understand not only HOW I'm doing something but what and why. I'm also sharing my FREE downloads with ya as well as links to the items I share. But before we dive in...

If you just want a whole dang book to have and to hold with all of the info I'm about to share (and so much more), you can pick up a copy of my book Art Teacherin' 101 right here. 

Okay, without further ado, here's the video!

Now, I share several items in this video from my classroom. If you'd like to take a closer look at those things like my Open/Closed sign, my dry erase board and more then you can find links to all of them right here. 

Something I forgot to mention in the video is that I share THIS video at the start of that very first class! I can't believe I forgot to include that. But here it is! And you can find a blog post with more details on this here. 

My dry-erase board is handy because it's small and takes up just a little space on my desk. 

These signs can also be found at the Dollar Tree! OR...I do have an Open and Closed sign as a free download for you so just scroll down.

For my palette behavior system, I created the palettes using plastic palettes! You can find them here. 

Want to hear more about my palette system? I made a blog post and a video all about it! You can find the details here. 

In my book, Art Teacherin' 101, I talk about this "cheat sheet" and how it helps me remember all that I want to cover on that first day. For this free download, just click here!

For the free download of my Open sign, tap here. 

For my Closed sign, tap here. 

If you'd like a copy of my Getting to Know You questions, just click here!

Just a reminder: I'm sharing these with y'all so that you have a great start to your school year. Please do not sell these on TPT...I hate that I have to say that but it happens to me and other educators...a lot. It's stealing. So please don't.

For more info on how I run my very first day of art, please check out this blog post! Here I provide the videos I have created to share with my students. 

You can also find more info on my methods here. 

And you can find more here!

And stay tuned! I have much more on the first days coming your way. BUT...I also have loads of videos already on my YouTube channel you may enjoy.

Have a great week, friends!

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Videos for those First Days of Art

During those first days of art class, there is a whole lot we gotta cover: Rules, Routines, More Routines, Consequences and, again, Routines. It can be taxing on our voice (not to mention energy level) and, inevitably, we forget SOMETHING to SOME CLASS and can never remember just what it was we forgot or to whom. It's all very exhausting...and that's just how WE feel. The poor kids literally spend their first week hearing all the Do's and Don't's until it all just becomes a blur. Usually, by the time they reach our door, they are just dying to do something, ANYTHING, other than hear Rules and Routines. 

So, like, what to do?

I can tell you something that has worked well for me: videos!

Creating videos is something I've done for a very long time (subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out all of my teaching videos!). I started with creating lesson videos and noticed just how closely the kids pay attention. I always say they listen to TV Stephens far better than Real Life Stephens (and I don't know how I feel about that but whatever!). So several years ago, I decided to create some Welcome to the Art Room videos, as well as What is Art and Routine videos and I thought I would share them all here today. 

In this post, I'll share with you some tips on creating your own videos or...feel free to simply use mine! You can always pause the video and interject. Let's start with the most recent video I created for the first day of art. Here's the graphic I created for the video (on Canva, a free website for easily creating graphics just like this!)

This video is short and sweet where I quickly cover some things on the very first day. I do go back and cover the rules the following art classes but this is just a way to catch a glimpse on that first day. If you'd like to see what a first day looks like for me, check out these videos. This is how I run my art room for first through fourth grade:

Not shown: when I stop to play the video. I usually do this after we go through our introductions. 

For more behind the scenes of my art room routines, you can check out these videos. It may explain the method behind my madness:

These are routines I establish that first day and how I start each art class. 

Throwing this video in here since I reference the behavior system that I use. It's a hit with my students!

I thought I'd also share some older Welcome to the Art Room videos that I created in years past. This might give you some more ideas of what a video you create may need. 

This one was created during Covid...so you'll notice how different the routines were.

And this is my original video.

I promised some tips on creating your own video so...here we go:

* Keep It Short! Don't overwhelm the kids. Think of this video as the fun "Cliff's Notes" version of all that you plan to cover. A brief tour, a quick introduction and a general view of how you operate your art room is perfect. 

* Involve the Staff! Kids love to see their teachers ham it up! This video I created on Art Class Etiquette was always a hit:

I also created several "routines" videos and this one they loved because their favorite teachers were featured in it:

* Use Your Phone! I'm always asked "how do you make your videos? What software? Lighting? Microphone?" Guys. GUYS. Your phone is fine! Just prop it up someplace and hit record. And be YOURSELF. Now that is easier said than done. What works for me is to hit record and then make faces at yourself for a minute. Loosen up. Don't worry about messing up. Don't hit the stop button and record again and again. It will just make you frazzled! Just record and know you can edit later. Or not! A bloopers reel may be fun for the kids to see!

If you have an iPhone, iMovie is the easiest editing tool! Watch a 5 minute How-To video on YouTube and you'll have all the basics down. The kids aren't lookin' for perfection. They will love it regardless! Unless they are in 5th grade. Then they pretty much don't like anything ;)

No iPhone? There are PLENTY of free apps out there for editing. Or create the video in TikTok or Reels! That will REALLY get their attention. "YOU HAVE A TIKTOK?!" Yes. And please don't follow me.

So, there you have it! I added this last video in case you are interested in sharing it in your art room. All of the drawings were made on my iPad and I simply recorded myself while drawing! 

Need more art teacherin' tips and tricks? Did you know I wrote a whole book on it? And I can tell it's Back to School season as I'm backing up tons of orders each day. You can find it here. 

Have a great start to your school year, friends! And be sure to check out my last blog post for a ton of back to school art lesson ideas!

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Best Back to School Art Lessons!

There is so much stress at the start of the school year. All the set up, the creating the rules and routines, the prep and organization...it just doesn't end! AND THEN the time spent in meetings and ice-breaker-land when all you can think about is

I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO!

Well, have no fear. I've put together a blog post with some of my very favorite Back to School art lessons. Many of these links to blog posts contain FREE handouts and always free videos lessons. I'm here to help, y'all!

Speaking of help...if you find yourself needing more on all things art teacherin, have you checked out my book Art Teacherin' 101? I can tell it's back to school season as I'm packing and shipping them out as fast as I can. This book walks you through everything to survive your first few weeks and create the best art teacherin' year EVER. You can pick it up here. 

As I share my fave lessons to kick off the school year, I've broken them into a couple of categories. These are my favorite ways to start the school year:

* Collaboration Projects...where students all create a piece of art that will contribute to a large scale piece. I have a blog post of my favorite collaboration lessons here. These are great for BTS time!

* All About Me Projects...what a better way to get to know your students! And for them to feel comfortable in their amazing uniqueness. Those lessons can be found in this post with plenty of links to handouts.

* Sketchbooks...I love doing sketchbooks at the start of the school year and I've done it a ton of different ways. I added all of those in this blog post. Again, lots of free handouts and videos just for you and your studetns!

* Dot Day! More to come on this as I have SO MANY Dot Day lessons. But I did add several at the end of this post. 

Collaboration!

Let's begin with my favorite way to kick off the school year: collaborative projects! This builds community and school pride. We created these painted shapes on the first few days of school. 

Working with our table team, we came up with a positive four letter word to describe our school. 

We even created a bunting to explain our word choice. This one was a lot of fun and very impactful to hang throughout the school.

One year, I got a donation of paintsticks from the hardware store. Each student either decorated or painted the stick for this large-scale piece. Tap the link to see where we hung it and how we created it!

Many of our collaborative projects are based around a theme. One year, we based it on the song Wonderful World. This was one of my all-time favorite collaborative lessons!

Busting out paint on those first weeks of school can see...bananas. So why not try your hand at a less messy collab like this one?

I mean, check out that result!

Another low-mess and low-stress lesson that yields a high impact is this one! 

All you need are colored pencils and sharpies! AND then a lotta help to put the beast together ;) But worth it, I promise!

This collaboration was a first grade lesson but, really, I think all grades would enjoy this one! We began by painting on paper plates which is perfect at the start of the year if your supply order of paper has yet to arrive. Anyone else always late with that supply order?! Lesson here. 

One of my favorite parts of creating large murals like this is getting the kids involved with creating the collage papers for the background. We call them Painting Parties and they are a fun activity for the start of the school year!

You can find out details on our Painting Parties in this here blog post!

Check out this fun Rizzi-City we did as a collaboration with our papers! 

We did a mascot-themed series of back to school lessons one year. As the tigers, each grade did a tiger lesson. I share more about all the different grade-level mascots here. 

These cuties were created by first grade. Lesson video can be found in this blog post. 

I love doing Monochromatic Selfies with ALL o f my students at the start of the school year. And the video I created to teach this lesson is one of my most viewed on my YouTube channel. You can find the complete lesson and video here!

Now how you decide to display those selfies is up to you! We created a map and featured them all. I explain the process in this blog post. 

Encouraging individuality is this collaborative lesson based on the book You Be You! We each created a colorful fish and added the to a large collaborative mural. Check it out here! And for a look into how we created these, check out this blog post. 

A collaborative mural that I put up and just could never take down because it was right outside my art room door and I LOVE it is the It's Okay to be Different mural!

I mean...SO CUTE!

All About Me!

Back to school time is the best time to get to know your students...and for them to get to know one another! That's why Get to Know Me lessons are always a hit. I've done this a couple of different ways. One is by having the kids create a sketchbook with designs that share a little about them. This page was ultimately added to their sketchbook so they could share with family and friends when they took it home. Free sheet can be found here. 

If you want to take it a step further or have older students, why not have them create their own decoder sheet? I know they would love it!

I REALLY love doing the same lesson with all grades at the start of the year (have you noticed?!). There's just so much stress at the start of the school year already. Why not make one thing a whole lot easier and set up the art room for a lesson for all. 

I mean look how pretty! This is another lesson I shared that was a big hit: Getting to Know Me paper sculptures! Lesson details here. 

We work on these for the first 3 art classes (where we learn rules, routines and the rest) before calling them complete. Then they immediately go in the hallway for the most colorful and fun display! See more here. 

This is the same lesson I love to do with kindergarten...but without the decoder sheet. It's always a hit!

Sketchbooks!

Sketchbooks is another great way to kick off the school year. I've done sketchbooks many different ways. One of my favorites was upcycling file folders that were donated from the school secretary and let the kids experiment with paint and texture tools on the first days of art. Then we proceeded to add paper, staple and decorate them with fun Duct tape. All the details you could ever ask for right here. 

Looking for something a little less messy? We did our names on our sketchbook covers one year. I also tried my hand at having the kids use folders that they could add paper and handouts too. I liked this process a lot. You can find the free handout in this blog post. 

Did I mention I like to change things up?! Here's another version of our sketchbooks. These are half the size. On the first days of school, we used tempera sticks to decorate the papers which was a lot of fun. Each line told the view a little about us! You can see that lesson here. 

And if you're uncertain how you'd set up Sketchbook Town (as I call it), I got you! I lay it all out here. 

I also...created my own sketchbook series with my pals at Prang! You can buy them on Blick, Amazon or any place you buy your art supplies! My kids loved these the best. I actually have created two sketchbooks. One is sold in packs of 12 called Sketch Smart and it's designed for the art room. The other is called Amazing Artist Sketchbook and it's sold individually...but has great pages that would be perfect sheets for Early Finishers!

Dot Day!

I actually have so many blog posts on the different Dot Day back-to-school lessons we have done that I think I may have to make it into a separate post! I'll drop several of them here...but stay tuned. Or, if you just can't wait, you can use the search bar on my blog and most of them will pop up.

One of my most recent first day/Dot Day lessons was done on pizza pans! This was a HUGE hit with my students and it got everyone, kindergarten through fourth, painting within the first days of art class. You can check out the lesson here. 

Seriously, y'all. There's a rabbit hole of art lessons about The Dot on this here blog! I promise a whole post is coming sometime this week. For now, here's another super easy Dot Day lesson!

Let's be real: covering all that you need to on those first days doesn't always leave a lot of time for big and elaborate lessons. So...try this one on for size! I have a great handout here. All you need are markers, crayons and circle stickers from the dollar store!

Still want more?! Here's a post on Dot Day ideas.

More first day of school lessons that I may have forgotten can be found here.  And here! Oh, my....and HERE. This is what happens when you've been blogging and teaching FOREVER. 

The lesson I ALWAYS do with kindergarten on their first day!

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