Set Up An Art Table In Your Classroom

Hi there!

Ever thought about setting up an art table in you classroom? But not knowing where to start or how to stock and manage an art center?

And then wonder - isn't that just for art teachers? 

The short answer is NO. 

We can no longer omit art explorations stations from our classrooms and ignore the value that they bring to your students. 

For starters, independent explorations at an art table can make a powerful contribution to our students' mental health.  Free expression (using art materials at an art center) is really good for overall health and well-being. Giving young children a creative outlet can help relieve stress and work through the things happening in their lives. Making art can help children deal with a wide range of issues and psychological stress, like anxiety.

In addition, creating at an art table helps students develop a number of important learning skills. By encouraging artistic expression, you can help facilitate sustained focus and engagement. Testing out ideas, problem solving through multiple iterations, making modifications and persevering through challenges are just a few skills that students develop at the art table in your classroom.

And finally, don't forget that art is also beneficial for both fine and gross motor improvements. With the need to use your grip and pinching actions, cutting with scissors, applying a range of pressures as needed and working with greater accuracy all contribute to building those motor skills.

But don’t just take my word for it.  View further information on this topic from researchers at Michigan State University HERE

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Convinced that setting up an art table immediately, will have a tremendously positive impact for your students?

So where to start? Don't worry - I have your covered!

I have written a series of 4 Art Table guides so far, for a range of art media, that you can use to set up an art making station in your classroom. New sets are added regularly.  They are fantastic for low stakes explorations and can be used to:

1. Build independent prior knowledge before starting a whole class project.
2. Guide new learning for students who have not experienced the medium before
3. Consolidate knowledge for students who have used the medium in the past.

So which one are you going to set up first, before your next whole class guided art project?

Collage … Papier Mâché … Clay …  Wax Resist?

And if you have a specific medium that you require a resource for, please drop a note below in the comments. I will be glad to make it for you and I know it will benefit other teachers too :)

These art station guides each cover a specific art medium and include square shaped slides for:

1. The guide cover
2. What is (medium)
3. Famous (medium) artists
4. Materials
5. Making a (medium) artwork
6. Can you make a (medium) project instruction card
7. (medium) clean-up
8. Teacher Information x2
9. Teacher instructions
10. Blanks slides for you to add your own instructions x2

And a bonus slide with links to recommended, whole class, art projects for (medium).

You can either print out the pages and slip into a clear file for students to refer to, or print 2/pg, laminate, punch and slip onto a jump ring.

Take a closer look at these Art Table guides for 2nd Grade - 5th Grade, by clicking on any of the images above.

I wish you all the best with setting up these great experiences for your students too! If you like the sound of all 4 sets so far (and why wouldn't you - they are all great),  take advantage of purchasing the bundle and save $$$. 

Why trust One Teacher’s Journey resources?

Because I too am a full time teacher, just like you, with years of experience and current Visual Art Specialist responsibilities. In other words, I do this everyday - just like you.

You can contact me through my store Q & A or email me through my website if you are looking for anything specific. 

That way I can get in touch to better support you. info@help-me-learn.com

Click here to follow One Teacher’s Journey on TPT

Remember to share this post with a friend who might need this.

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I would love to have you join me and experience my resources first hand because my hope is that you will happily become an advocate for this product lines.

Kindergarten - Second Grade Art Elements Lesson Planning

Hi there!

As the old school year draws to a close for our Northern Hemisphere teacher friends, we reflect on things that went well and things we want to improve on in the new year.

Primary Colors / Colours

With all the stress of planning and prepping for your new students, as classroom teachers we often don’t have the time to also plan comprehensive Visual Art lessons. We resort to the same old tried and true - or sadly even to craft activities that lack Visual Art integrity and rigour. 

Secondary Colors / Colours

And now, people who don’t know any better, will tell you that AI can write relevant and connected lesson plans for you ?! As a user of AI myself - I strongly disagree with this opinion!

Click here to follow One Teacher’s Journey on TPT

Warm & Cool Colors / Colours

This past year I reflected on ways to comprehensively incorporate more art theory and history into my teaching of Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade. As a result, I developed an incredible series of lessons, based around the elements of art.

Each lesson includes authentic links to the Element, Art Theory, Art History, Famous artists & their artworks ... and ... also guides you and your students through making a quick but relevant art response. 

Element of Line Pets

I am currently up to 6 lessons for this age group, all intentionally sequenced to build subject specific knowledge and skills.

But even more importantly, my little learners LOVED these lessons this past year and were so proud of what they had created. 

No AI in site, only real students creating real art & developing real intelligence (RI).

I am so excited to share them with you all. They have been flying off the TPT virtual shelf since I added them into my store. Wow! Who knew these were so needed.

Cherry Blossom Textures

Using these lessons will help you make a positive start with planning for your Early Elementary learners, for the new year, too.

If you like the sound of all 6 lessons (and why wouldn't you - they are all great), purchase the bundle and save $$$. 

The bundle also includes a bonus - extension activities for these lessons. 

So take advantage of this offer and see how my step-by-step tutorials will support your lessons, while also  improving your own Visual Art teaching knowledge and skills.

3D Space Cube Rooms

The Bundle includes all 6 lessons illustrated in this post:

1. Primary Color / Colour

2. Secondary Color / Colour

3. Warm & Cool Color / Colour

4. Line Pets

5. Cherry Blossom Texture

6. 3D Space room cubes

Elements of Art Mega Bundle

Take a closer look at these Art Elements lessons for Kindergarten - 2nd Grade, by clicking on any of the images above.

Why trust One Teacher’s Journey resources?

Because I too am a full time teacher, just like you, with years of experience and current Visual Art Specialist responsibilities. In other words, I do this everyday - just like you.

You can contact me through my store Q & A or email me through my website if you are looking for anything specific. 

That way I can get in touch to better support you. info@help-me-learn.com

Click here to follow One Teacher’s Journey on TPT

Remember to share this post with a friend who might need this.

 🖍 🖍 🖍 🖍 🖍 🖍 🖍

I would love to have you join me and experience my resources first hand because my hope is that you will happily become an advocate for this product lines.

More Spring Themed Art Lesson Plans and Video Guides for Classroom Teachers

In my previous post I wrote about the benefits of harnessing the arrival of Spring as a starting point for some great art lessons with your students. This post will further expand on those benefits and also align some specific pick-up-and-go comprehensive art lessons that you can use with your students today. Some lessons are step-by-step PDF guides while others are narrated video demonstrations. You can find one that suits you and your students, the best.

More Spring-Themed Art Lesson Plans and Ideas

Abstract Garden Quilts & 3D Spring Flowers

Spring flowers are a symbol of new beginnings and can be the perfect subject for a spring-themed art lesson. Have your students collect different types of flower pictures or take photos of flowers. Both of the following art lessons will build problem solving skills and also result in each student’s work being unique.

Abstract Garden Quilts  focuses on the art concept of ABSTRACTION for 2nd grade and up. Use oil pastels and paints. This is a fully narrated video tutorial that demonstrates all steps in real time. Stream the video lesson on your large screen and free yourself up to roam your classroom and support your students. This lesson plan focuses on:

• Break up and recompose photographs

• Extract basic shapes to compose an image

• Under-painting to create the garden mood

• Show depth in an artwork through layering shapes and using analogous colours

• Contrast warm and cool colours to create focal points

3D Spring Flowers is a 3D painted paper collage art project for grades 1-3. Includes a fully illustrated PDF teaching guide that demonstrates every step. Introduce students to the elements of SHAPE and FORM, & the principle of PROPORTION (sizes and location). 2 colour schemes are demonstrated in the guide. Students also learn about colour value and using stencils to create repetition. 

Spring Flowers 3D art project has built in choice for differentiation, while keeping the skills taught consistent across the class, to save your sanity.

Praise for SPRING FLOWERS: 

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ "did this with my first grade class. Took us about 4 art classes to complete. turned out so absolutely beautiful that they were displayed in our school foyer"

Butterflies and Bees Art works

Butterflies and bees are a common sight as spring arrives, and they make great subjects for a drawing lesson. Have your students study the different parts of these insects, including their wings, body, and antennae. This helps to create artworks with more understanding about the subject matter. 

Butterfly mobiles  

is a fully narrated video tutorial created for K-1st grade, that demonstrates all steps in real time. Stream the video lesson on your large screen and free yourself up to roam your classroom and support your students.

Benefits of using a video lesson:

• The lesson has already been tested

• All steps are viewable from start to finish

• Techniques are demonstrated

• Rewind and rewatch as many times as needed

• Narrated explanation adds depth to understanding art theories

• Its like having an art specialist in your classroom 

Bee Brave Art project for Back to School guides students to create values based artwork at the start of the new school year. Each student draws and paints a large flower design, symbolising learning growth in a happy classroom. Then add an observation drawing of a bee that representing themselves as the busy learner. Finally students incorporate a classroom value word of their choice, e.g. Bee Positive or Bee Kind. You will love the results and they can stay up on display all year as they remind students about the class expectations of a happy learning environment.

PRAISE FOR Bee Brave

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "What a great back to school project. Great messages to go with this project and the students really got into it. I love the process of it and that if fits more than one grade level. Thanks!"

Blossom covered Spring Trees & Landscape Paintings

Spring trees and landscapes can be full of vibrant colours and interesting textures. Have your students study photographs of blossom covered trees and  landscapes and then create their own artworks using collage or a variety of colours and brushstrokes.

Bird Song Spring art lesson plan for BIRD SONGS COLLAGE suits Grades 2-4 introduces students to the wonderful media of paper collage. This comprehensive art project for grades 2-3, or older was inspired by the illustrations of popular children's picture books and the artworks of Henri Matisse.

• SHAPE - identify and use 2D shapes to compose artwork

• SPACE - Create space by layering shapes

• COLLAGE - gain experience and skill working with this medium

• STENCILS - gain experience and skill for making and working with stencils

This is a great art unit to combine with a Science inquiry focused on seasons (Spring) or animals (birds). For a literacy connection, collage picture books have been suggested as reference among other resource links, and a clear and comprehensive photo journal of each step of the process has been provided, along with student and teacher exemplars of work in progress and completed work.

This lesson plan focuses on:

Colour Value Landscapes is a project that can relate to plant life cycles and seasons, Sharing the Planet or How The World Works. Your students will love creating this unique and impactful art project that has a strong focus on the Element of Colour (Value) and the Colour Blocking painting technique. Learn about why as artists, we need to use multiple values in any hue and build painting skills with different paint brushes and tools.
COLOUR VALUE LANDSCAPES is a comprehensive visual art lesson plan for paint & oil pastel that will guide your students through creating artworks of trees on a hillside in a season of your choice, including spring. This lesson has tons of built in choice for differentiation

Spring Weather Art

Spring weather can be moody and unpredictable. Showers one minute and windy the next. Some great drawing and painting artworks can be created using the weather for inspiration. Combine with a poetry lesson, like writing Haikus about weather, and you’re onto a winner.

Rainy Days is great when you're teaching a unit on weather and needing an impactful Art Lesson that also helps to consolidate Science learning. Your students will love creating this bright art project with tons of built in choice for differentiation, while keeping the skills taught consistent across the class, to save your sanity. 

Take the guesswork out of teaching art, avoid the epic fails that result from not having the time to trial the lesson or media yourself before teaching it. I’ve done it all for you and trailed this lesson with my own students, aged 5-6, in 1st and 2nd grade.

Windy Weather is another great art project when you're teaching a unit on weather and needing an impactful Art Lesson that helps to consolidate Science concepts. Your students will love creating this fun art project about a kid with an umbrella, blown off their feet by the force of the wind. With an art focus on the principle of MOVEMENT, this lesson has tons of built in choice for differentiation. I’ve trailed this lesson with my own students, aged 6-8, in 2nd grade through 4th grade. 

PRAISE FOR WINDY WEATHER:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “This is a great project, my grade two students definitely found it challenging. We had to stop and replay the video several times. I found the guide pages very helpful.”

And finally...

Easter themes

As Easter falls into spring (Northern hemisphere), bunnies form another popular subject matter. These create a gorgeous wall display in your classroom, and students can add eggs and / or flowers to further embellish their display.

Fluffy Easter Bunnies is a comprehensive art lesson plan to guide your Easter art project in grades 1-3, using poster paints and sponge printing techniques. Includes a PDF teaching support document with printable drawing guides and display suggestions. This lesson comes with the instructional video that demonstrates every step, supporting students with creating texture in paint, using the element of SHAPE and the principle of PROPORTION. 3 versions (colour and bunny poses) demonstrated, to guide originality. Created with students aged 5, this lesson plan is aimed at early elementary but also includes an extension for older/ more capable students, and focuses on:

• the element of SHAPE concepts and principles of PROPORTION

• painting techniques (sponge painting)

• and fine motor skills (drawing, cutting, composing)

So as you can see, Spring brings many options for incorporating amazing art projects into your teaching days and your students will love you for introducing them to a range of art processes and creative options.
If you would like to know more about any of these lesson plans, click on any of the images or links to be taken directly to that lesson on TPT.

If you find TPT overwhelming, you might prefer to browse my website  instead. All links for where you can find me are below my signature at the end of this post.
And please reach out in the comments or on any of my platforms if you have any questions about my products or about teaching in general.

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We would love to have you join us and experience our resources first hand because we hope that you will happily become an advocate for our product lines,

Thank you for stopping by,

With love, Te Aroha 

Timea 

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