How to Teach Art in Elementary School
Arts education is crucial to intellectual and creative development for kids. According to KinderArt, arts education can help students better understand subjects like math and science, as well as boost their self-esteem and confidence. For students in elementary school, art class can be a great release for pent-up energy and imagination. If you are already an art teacher looking to find new methods of teaching your students or if you are looking to incorporate art into other classes that you teach, creating a curriculum of age-appropriate concepts and offering encouragement is key to a fun and educational art room.
Instructions
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Create your lesson plans well in advance so you can prepare age-appropriate concepts for each of your classes. Students from different age groups may have an easier time performing certain skills, such as drawing exercises, and it is important to not make your assignments so difficult that students feel overwhelmed. The Internet provides a wealth of resources for teachers who need ideas for activities, and many websites, such as Incredible Art Department and KinderArt, provide exercises organized by grade level.
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Show finished examples of the assignment to your students so that they can visualize the final project. Elementary school students can be very artistic, but they may have not yet developed the abstract thinking skills necessary to create an artistic assignment from scratch. By providing examples, students can better understand what the anticipated outcome of their project will be, especially if you are demonstrating certain concepts, for example, different types of shading in drawings.
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Practice the techniques before assigning homework so that students can build off of their knowledge. If working on learning to draw portraits, begin at the basics: start with shapes and the basic shapes that define the face and then move on to topics such as shading and details.
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Time the assignment to keep students on task. In elementary school, students' attention spans are more limited than in high school classrooms. Timing the assignment helps students stay focused by knowing they have a limited amount of time to finish their projects. In art classes, it is particularly important to time assignments so that students learn to use all of the available time allotted to them, thereby encouraging them to continue to evaluate their work and constantly improve upon it.
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Allow time for teacher-monitored class critiques. Learning how to analyze and critique artwork is a useful skill for students and provides them with a critical lens through which they can view their own work. It also allows students to learn that no work is ever "finished." Making sure students focus on constructive criticism is crucial to getting the most out of this activity.
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Display the artwork around school and encourage your students' visions. By showing students' work, they know to feel proud of their artistic endeavors and that their interpretations of your assignments are correct. Art is subjective, and so showing the diversity of your students' work will help encourage them to continue to create and boost their self-esteem.
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Tips & Warnings
Plan ahead when creating your assignments. You will want enough time to be able to order the art supplies you need and ensure that these materials are within your department's budget for the year.
References
- Photo Credit Katy McDonnell/Digital Vision/Getty Images
