ART CURRICULUM PLANNING 101
Don’t have an art curriculum? Running out of ideas for art lessons? Feeling like you could be much more efficient if you had a better plan in place?
I have a solution for you right here. Carve out a little time now that will save time and stress later. Don’t we have enough to worry about already? It’s not as scary as it sounds. Promise.
Don’t be afraid to modify your plan as your go- because you never know when inspiration will find you. Or, when someone will ask you to paint a mural.
If you know, you know.
Before you begin….
you might be interested in downloading this free editable planning guide to follow along.
Now, imagine a funnel. We’re starting broad and narrowing our focus with each step.
Since we are visual people, here’s the breakdown…
Everything is more fun when in rainbow order, right?! Grab your favorite set of pens and let’s get started!
Gather your ideas and brain dump. Anyone else get lost in the hashtags, Facebook groups, Pinterest boards, and blogs? 🙋♀️ It’s both inspiring and overwhelming! If you haven’t already, make sure you save your favorite posts. There are a ton of generous people out there sharing their latest and greatest! Login to each platform and get it all on one page (or if you’re like me, 20 pages).
Map each season. Brain dump in hand, map out projects by Fall, Winter, and Spring. Combine ideas old and new. Consider themes like back-to-school, holidays and other events your community celebrates. If you have a fundraiser project that needs to be done by winter break, jot this down in the Fall section so it doesn’t slip through the cracks.
Estimate how many times you’ll see each grade in the 3 month season. Then, estimate how many projects you may complete in that time. It’s all a guessing game 😅
Map each month- Jot down the lessons you would like to complete during each month for each grade. It might only be one!
Consider materials- do you want all grades working with the same materials at once or staggered? Consider scaffolding- Do you want multiple grades working on the same concepts at the same time (art elements, perspective)? Are there days off school to consider during certain months that cut into your time? This doesn’t need to be an exact plan. But having an idea and going through this thinking process will help SO much!
Plan Your Week- Are things starting to feel lighter now? For me, this part is so satisfying. One week at a time, jot down your individual lessons based on your monthly outline. Pencil-in more specific details like “Lesson 1: Intro and Demo. Lesson 2: Greenware Lesson 3: Glaze” Don’t plan too far ahead here- because you know... life 😅
Here’s where the magic happens….
I build the weekly planning into my daily routine. I always have my self-made weekly planner printed out at least 3 weeks ahead. At the end of each day, I look at what we accomplished and jot down what we’ll do next time. I flip ahead to the next class and jot down what’s next. (I guess I like the word “jot”) If I don’t do it this way, I forget. Because keeping track of 26 homerooms isn’t easy!
Anyone else geeking out over this or is it just me? 🤓
Individual lesson plans- I don’t know about you, but this can get a bit tedious for an Elementary Art teacher to keep up with when we teach so many different lessons and grade levels. And if you’re like me, paperwork is, um…. Not my strong point. If your school requires formal lesson plans, making a template is a great way to stay organized. Print or edit digitally. It’s easier when all you have to do is fill in the blank. Now if only it would auto-fill like my credit card does when I shop online. 🙃
Add standards and assessments. This is what makes a plan into a true curriculum. Connect the National Visual Art Standards and/or your state standards which you can search for by your home state. You could add these right away at the start. But for me, I tend to get overwhelmed in the details. It’s more fun for me to start with what I want the end result to be then fill-in each lesson plan how we will meet the standards. Assessments like rubrics, pre/post tests, exit slips, can be added as needed.
Need a little more help getting started? Check out this time saving resource.
No one said the art teacher life would be easy. But it is worth it!
There you have it! Are you ready to give it a try? I’d love to know what you think!
