How to Teach Children Art
By Spramani Elaun
Teaching children visual arts can be an easy task once you have all the right information you need.
Teaching art has many different areas to teach like drawing, painting, crafting, sculpting, mixing colors, and even digital multi-media.
In this blog I want to start with the very basics you need to get started teaching kids art.
This article is more focused for the person teaching primary and elementary grades.
If you would like more information, I have blogs and books taking a deeper dive into specific visual art subjects.
You can also order my book DEFINING VISUAL ARTS outlining art literacy standards.
I’ve taught close to 200,000 children of all ages how to paint and draw over a course of 20 years.
I now train teachers Internationally teaching them how to bring literacy into their classrooms.
Why Visual Art is Important to Teach Kids
The first thing you should understand is some important aspects to why we should teach kids art.
- Humans are the only species on the planet that can create with their hands!
- Making art is another way we can communicate ideas.
- Art making allows children to think creatively, and problem solve.
- Pushing the mind to think outside the box, leads to new ideas, plus innovative thinking.
What Art Subjects Do we Teach Kids?
Regardless, if you’re a teacher in the classroom or parent, art lesson topics are all the same.
Choosing an area in the arts is a personal preference.
You might like the idea of teaching children to paint, or you might favor crafting.
Generally, the subject area to teach is your choice.
But, there are Educational Art Standards with guides to follow for specific grade levels.
These Art Standards help you understand at what level you should be teaching at.
If you would like to following these guides, check out my book on The Arts Standards Defining Visual Arts, or you can look up your local educational department for these standards.
Getting Started with Lessons
Decide on the subject area you want to focus your lessons on, maybe you have chosen painting.
Then choose the type of painting method you want to teach, watercolor painting is one way to learn to paint.
You’ll need to do some light research on the basic materials you need, then choose your supplies, for watercolor painting.
Once you have materials, I recommend you and your students explore them first without instructed art lessons.
You can then decide on the techniques you want to learn more about.
There’s literally hundreds of artist techniques to explore.
If you would like to follow formal lesson plans, you can buy books, or search online on these topics.
If you are a teacher within a district and need to report that your art lessons are following the Arts Standards, again I recommend you get familiar with these guides.
I’ve written a book that creates a framework for learning the subject. Defining Visual Arts focuses on the latest standards and the most important projects, mediums, and techniques to teach.
Warmly,
Spramani Elaun
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