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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First Days of Art Class 2020-21

Wowza, y'all. School began last week for me with days of professional development and just yesterday for my students and all I can say is that in my 22 years of teaching, I've never had a year like this! And...it's only Tuesday.

Just to give you a little info on what my school district is doing for our elementary students: kindergarten thru second grade have the choice of going virtually or returning in the classroom. If they are returning, they are to be wearing masked, spaced 6' apart and washing or sanitizing hands frequently. My older students in third and fourth grade have the option of being remote or virtual. Remote means that, when allowed, they will be back in the building. My district plans to reassess in two weeks. However, we do have some of our third and fourth graders at school as they may be the children of teachers or learners who need to be with teachers. So, what that means is that every 3rd and 4th grade teacher has about 3-4 children in her classroom and is asked to teach them and her remote learners simultaneously via Zoom. Which is...a lot. 

As for me, I've been asked to prep lessons for all the virtual and remote learners as well as teach my in house students. Because of some schedule overlap, I have not been going live with my remote learners. Instead, I've been providing them with prerecorded videos for them to listen and create at their own pace. 

All that to say...it's been a rollercoaster so far and that was BEFORE the kids even got here. I had to much prep to do for those remote and virtual learners that I nearly neglected my in person kiddos. However, on Sunday, I came in, finished setting up my art room (new room tour to come) and recreated my Rules and Routines video. I was able to salvage the first have of the video (originally recorded in 2017) but had to completely redo the second half as we have new routines to follow. 

Here you go!

On our first day, here is what we do:

* I meet them in the hallway. If you know me, you know that I use the acronym WELCOME on the first day. 

Normally, my students would go straight to the floor and be seated...you can see my USUAL first day routine here. However, this year, we had to do two new things: get our hands immediately sanitized as I demonstrate in the video and go stand on a spot that is 6' apart. In future art classes, we'll go straight to our seats but on that first day, we wait a pinch while we all sanitize and enter the art room.

* I got everyone quickly to a seat. The tables are color coded by messy mats (not sure if they will stay but they are working for now). I also have color coded circle stickers on the back of each chair that has the table color and number on it. My friend Andrew @elementaryarts recommended them to me and I found them on Amazon. 

* Once seated, I do my greeting.
* We learn our Art Class Catchphrase.
* I introduce the Word of the Day.
* We talk about the Open/Closed sign.
* We talk about the Happy/Sad board. 

I did it just like you see in this video...except students were at their tables:

* From there, we watch the video I shared at the top of this blog post. 

* We stretch!
* We greet each other and I ask a list of silly questions (more on that in an upcoming blog post!). This you can also see in the video from last year. 
* We review the clean up routine with drums, gong and a table caller.
* We learn the lining up routine...and that's it!

And that...was our first day. I LOVE the idea of doing art in art class on the first day but with 30 minutes and so many new things...this was all I could pack in. I'll share with you what we do on the second day...and I'll continue to share with you as I learn new things about this new art teacherin' world we find ourselves in. Sending y'all hugs. We've got this!

 

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In the Art Room: First Day of Art Projects!

BIG NEWS! My podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts! I'm so excited. If you want to keep up with me, be sure and subscribe. Also, a rating and a review would be super duper. Thank you, friends!

I have been talking A LOT here lately, both here and on my podcast, about heading back to school. It's right around the corner for me (next week, ACK!) so it's all I've been thinking (and nightmaring) about. In case you've missed it, I've been sharing about my rules and routines for my art room. Next week, I'll be talking about the three consequences I use in my art room, why students might misbehave in our room and the one classroom management tool I use like crazy. But today...I thought I'd share my very favorite art projects to do on the very first day (follow this link for videos and more)!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I try VERY HARD on those first days to do the SAME project with ALL of my grade level kids. Why? For my sanity, y'all! I gotta work up that stamina again. AND because my focus is rules and routines. Doing the same and simple lesson with my students allows me to focus on the rules and routines...while they are creating. So what I'm sharing with you here today are projects that can be done with 1st-4th (and sometimes kindergarten too but I usually start here for them). The exception to this is when I've done Dot Day projects at the start of the year, where each grade does something different. You can find my fave Dot Day lessons below.

Last year, this lesson I created was a HUGE hit, both with my students and fellow art teachers. I know the link for the sheets has been broken forever but GUESS WHO FIXED IT! That's right...finally. Follow this link for both FREE downloadable PDFs. You and your kids will love this first day activity!

While storage was a little tricky, once these guys were finished and up they made for quite the beautiful display. You can see how we displayed them here. 

Who's to say kids can't paint in art class on the very first day?! I created these Welcome Back banners for my students to paint at the END of last year...so I could hang next week. But you could make them now, let the kids paint them and hang them up for Open House or just to brighten the halls. More details on how these were created here and here (with video!). 

I'm a big fan of having my students create collaborative pieces at the start of the school year. Why? Because they can help establish a culture of community! And they are so pretty. We created this piece a couple of years ago and it was so well received that we have since painted a bunch more for our school library. More details here and here!

Of course, you cannot go wrong starting off your school year with The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. I have done a BAZILLION different Dot Day projects, many complete with instructional video. I put 'em all into one big blog post right here. So, need some Dot Day? I got you covered!

This here is an oldie that I've brought back a couple of times now...three times to be exact! I've created a popular video that you are welcome to share in your art room. You can find the lesson details and video here. 

Having done this lesson a couple of times, I've found different ways to display them. Here's one and then here's one where we took our faces and created a world!

This lesson has been a HUGE hit on my blog with so many folks bringing wings into their school. It's a super way to start the year. I've got a video just for you (that's free!) right here. 

Big ole collaborative murals are my fave thing for my kids to create! This one really sends home a message that I want my kids to receive.

And this big ole beast, inspired by the author Todd Parr, makes me so happy that I've yet to take it down!

There are truly so many ways to start your school year...but I would encourage you to START SIMPLE. I know these projects may not seem to be simple. That's because you are just seeing the final results. On that first day, it should be RULES AND ROUTINE city, okay? With some creating mixed in. If you do the same lesson with everyone, then you are making your life a little easier. And when your life is a little easier, then you can focus on rules, routines and getting to know your kiddos (my favorite part). So find what works, have fun, enjoy those first few days by keeping your life easy. Remember, a happy person makes for a happy art teacher. Go easy on yourself and have a wonderful start to your school year. 

More details on these trees here!

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