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A Collection of Art Activities and Learning Centers
This page is intended as a page for ideas to answer the
question, "What should my students do when they finish early?" When
students finish a project before the rest of the class, they have to be
busy or you may begin having discipline problems.
As
an elementary art teacher, I created learning centers when students finished
early. For one center I took a 2X3 foot framed chalkboard and
painted famous works of art on them. I left key areas black for
students to fill in with colored chalk. For example, I left the head
off Mona Lisa. Students could then come up with their own head. Another
center was an origami center. I laminated visual instructions for
creating a shape and students cut and folded colored paper. I also had
a "How to Draw" set of books that students could take to their seats
and follow. I tried to have up to 10 centers in the room. Students
automatically knew that they could not go to a center until I declared
their art finished. This is important because many of your students
will rush their art just to get to a center.
As a high school teacher, I kept a collection of short lessons that
students could pick up to complete. Because high school students won't
do work unless they think it is worth their time, I gave extra credit
for these. However, they had to have all their other projects completed
before doing this work.
If you are an elementary art teacher, it is inevitable that a regular
classroom teacher and/or the principal will ask you to give your
students a holiday lesson. They may ask you to have students make
Valentine cards, for example. The first impulse is to glare at them.
However, there is a way to create a holiday project that is challenging
to students. Following are short descriptions of holiday
activities:
Art Criticism- Review paintings of the real Saint Nicholas of Myra. (Christmas)
- Also- create your own Saint Nicholas painting
Art Criticism- Review paintings of the real Saint Patrick of Ireland. (St. Pat's Day)
- Also- create your own Saint Patrick painting
Art Criticism-
Review the painting, "St. Valentine Baptizing St. Lucilla." He
was the original Saint Valentine (Valentine's Day)
- Also- create your own Saint Valentine painting. Paint it with a small brush on a card.
Art production- Create a mural of Martin Luther King using dominos. Just follow the instructions by artist Robert Bosch. (Martin Luther King Day)
Art production- For presidents day, draw or paint a
large version of the dollar bill (it must be much larger than the real
bill so you avoid any question of violating counterfeiting laws.
Replace the current Washington image with one of many other images.
Art production- Use Norman Rockwell's painting "Freedom From Want" and
copy it using alternate characters. You can do a collage or as in the sample, use cartoon characters. (Thanksgiving)
Technology
If you have a few computers in your room, you can also allow students to do activities there. In the mid-90's, KidPix was a favorite activity for students. If you are an elementary teacher and have KidPix, here is a list of activities you can do. Believe it or not, but you can now integrate KidPix with an iPod. Depending on the age of your students, there are many different software packages to choose from.
A good activity for high school (and possibly middle school) level
students is to create their own art-related web page. If you don't have
a server for them to place their work, there are many free hosting
websites available. Don't forget to check your own internet provider.
Many times they provide free web space for you. Speak with your
technology coordinator if they have these sites blocked. Many times
they will unblock sites when you ask.
One of the problems
a teacher has is finding appropriate movies to show in class. You
can find appropriate DVD's and videos at KB
Toys. You can search by student age, price, and brand. You
can play animated movies at the end of an cartooning/animation
unit. You can find animations such as The Incredibles, Toy Story,
Monsters, Inc. and Shrek. You can also use these as incentives
for good behavior.
Your students can create web page cheap. You can download for
free one of the easiest web page programs called Composer. Composer
is part of a
suite of tools called Seamonkey.
You can create web images using freeware or shareware art programs. You can
see a list of free software in the "Free Things" section.
You can also have your students work on projects for ThinkQuest.
Like this example of a Van Gogh project, students
can collaborate and work in groups to create a unit on ThinkQuest.
In Conclusion
There is nothing like a group of art teachers getting together to
brainstorm ideas for short lessons, activities, and learning centers. I
was lucky to be a part of such a group and we came up with almost 100
ideas. If your district has some professional development time and you
are allowed to work in your building, ask your principal if you can get
together with the other art teachers in the district that day. It is
difficult for art teachers on these days because frequently the
professional development is geared to a teach of a "core" subject.
Finally, do a search on the internet for ideas. You will come up
with thousands of results. The only problem is wading through all
the
information.
Books
Links
Bright Ring Activities
High School Art Multimedia Activities
Ocean Art Activities
Color Theory Activities
IAD's Art Activities and Games
IAD's Free Time Activities
Eric Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education
