Art Supplies for Teachers

Art teachers must utilize supplies appropriate for the age of the students they're instructing.

Art teachers should challenge their students' creativity with a variety of media and support surfaces, presenting greater artistic challenges as proficiency increases. For small children big, simple and easy-to-hold art supplies with vibrant colors allow them to experiment. With older students, instructors should acquaint pupils with materials that require more thought and precision, encouraging them to employ subtler colors on smaller surfaces.

Preschool

For young children, instructors should provide media tailored to their little hands, such as large crayons, hard chalk and washable markers. Finger and tempera paints offer hands-on, free-form art experiences -- without worrying about staying in the lines. Big surfaces work best for art at this age, including newsprint, poster-board and butcher's paper. Avoid using soft chalk, oil pastels and colored pencils, as they require more manual dexterity to use effectively, and may frustrate preschoolers.

Primary Grades

Teachers working with primary-grade students include soft chalk, oil pastels, watercolors and colored pencils in their supplies, as the children have the dexterity needed to handle these materials. Crayons, markers and tempera paints still enthrall, however, so teachers should keep these supplies on hand. While students continue to use construction paper or newsprint for the majority of projects, art instructors can introduce other support surfaces, such as heavy, acid-free drawing paper, as students produce more finely detailed art.

Upper Elementary

Teachers should begin pushing students to more delicate media by the upper elementary grades, directing them away from crayons, chalk and tempera paints, toward colored pencils, fine felt-tipped markers, watercolor and acrylic paints. Calligraphy pens, vine charcoal and graphite pencils of varying degrees of hardness further kids' ability to produce finer artwork. As teachers show students how to form sculptures with clay and paint their creations with glazes or create decorative masks from paper maché, they foster more inventive work.

Junior High and Beyond

Art teachers of junior high or older students should supply materials that will challenge their creativity -- scratchboard, gouache, gold or silver leaf, linoleum blocks for print making, wood burning tools and glass etching. With this age group, instructors focus on technique rather than materials, but it benefits the students' artistic growth to be tested with more difficult-to-master supplies. Silk screening, which requires patience and precision to execute well, offers just such a creative challenge. If the budget allows, students should test their hand with oil paints, too.

References

• "Children and Their Art: Methods for the Elementary School"; Al Hurwitz, et al.; 2006
• Homeroom Teacher: Art Supplies for Schools