Can you ever really get too much art into your day? We are so excited to share with you seven great ways to incorporate art into your day. Art is wonderful for a variety of reasons and if you’re a teacher, you’re going to know the benefits more than anyone. When students have art in the classroom, it makes learning fun and more engaging. Studies have shown that students who regularly participate in the arts are more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, win an award for school attendance, participate in a math and science fair and be elected to class office.
Unfortunately, many teachers are being forced to cut art from their classroom routine. Therefore, it’s even more important that we get creative in creating objective based lessons that combine academics with fine arts activities. Completing art activities is great for problem solving, sharing, working well with others and strengthening fine motor skills. It also gives children a creative outlet to think outside the box which is an area where many children are struggling.
Here are four great ways to incorporate art into your day:
- Have your students create art that matches the theme of the lesson. This is a great way to brighten up what might be an otherwise dull lesson. It can be a lot of fun for students of all ages. For example, if we learn about insects, we create various insects out of construction paper and hang them from the ceiling. When learning our names, we did tear art of the letters in our names (which is great for fine motor). You can also create shared and interactive writing experiences to enhance art projects.
- Have students create a brochure or a poster related to the lesson. Not only is this fun, it’s also a way for your students to show they have processed the lesson. By recreating it in a new medium, they show a deeper level of understanding of the subject.
- Use art, music, or dance as a writing prompt. Not only is this a lot of fun, but it also encourages your students to stretch their creative muscles and try something new.
- Have your students create a PSA. A public service announcement is another way for your students to process information they have gained through art.
- Read a book or poem and have students create character puppets to reenact the beginning, middle and end of the story.
- Create self-portraits throughout the year (you can see ours here). You could also allow students to create cards for others and illustrate them.
- Illustrate their learning. I always ask student to illustrate their learning by giving them a blank square of paper and asking them to draw an example of something they learned. This is a wonderful way to allow for art in your daily lesson plans.
Now that you know these seven ways to incorporate art into your day, you can implement them in your own classroom. I promise your students will thank you.
These are great ideas. I am quite guilty of forgetting about art, but you are right there are so many ways to keep children involved in the lesson and bring art into it as well!
Thanks for the tips 🙂