Children’s Art Week activities
Children’s Art Week runs from the 29th of June to the 19th of July. Throughout the event, creative activities will take place across the country for three weeks. The event aims to encourage children to get creative and form a passion for art. It is a perfect opportunity to teach your pupils all about different art forms and plan engaging activities throughout the celebration.
To help you with your lesson planning, we have created three themes for each week. These are recyclable materials, managing emotions and connecting through art. Use these themes to base your art lessons on for each week and allow children to work together and express their imaginations.
To give you some inspiration of types of crafts you could do, our friend Veena has created three different art and crafts. These are all for each of our themes so you can try them out with your class.
Theme one: Recyclable materials
Using recyclable materials is the best way to get creative. Children can make something new out of the materials and any leftovers can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
One of the best recyclable materials to use for any art or craft is cardboard. Whether this is old toilet rolls or cereal boxes that pupils can bring into the classroom, cardboard is versatile and easy to work with. Let children have creative freedom with what they create. However, it’s important to guide them to use environmentally friendly and recyclable supplies. If pupils struggle with what to make, suggest hanging animals made from toilet rolls or cardboard paintings instead of using lots of paper.
Supply children with plenty of paint and brushes that they can all use. Consider dot brushes for children to experiment with and try something new. They can really make a difference to children’s art and can add texture and detail once they grasp how to use them.
Add in some wooden craft sticks for children to use however they want whilst still using recyclable and sustainable materials.
Theme two: Managing emotions
Integrate emotions with art by tasking children to explore managing emotions through creativity. Let children navigate their own emotions in their art. This theme can be any type of art or craft that means something to your pupils.
An example of managing emotions art is creating cards for loved ones like these Father’s Day cards. Creating their own cards allow children to express their feelings for their loved ones. They can use their imagination to show their love and put a lot of care into the art as it means a lot to them. Let your pupils have the freedom to choose how they want to design their cards. It can be good to encourage them to pick their loved one’s favourite things and incorporate that into their design. Use paint sticks for more precision so that pupils can draw these things.
Make sure to have plenty of assorted coloured card for pupils to use. They can choose to either fold in half for a bigger card or fold again to create a more compact card. Have craft accessories to decorate the cards with such as different foam shapes.
Theme three: Connecting through art
One of the best Children’s Art Week activities to do with your class is creating art together. This third theme of connecting through art lets pupils work together and have fun together. You could have children work in small groups and let them discuss what they would like to make together. It is important for children to work together and socialise with others they may not usually interact with. Doing this is also a great way to develop their negotiating skills as they have to agree on something they would all like to do.
Another great way to connect through art is to create a class painting on a large sheet of paper. Provide your class with watercolour paint and plenty of brushes for them to use. Pupils can discuss together what they would like to paint and help each other out to create it. An example of this is doodling together. Each pupil can doodle whatever they want in certain sections of the paper until the page is full of different doodles. This can then be displayed in your classroom as the class doodle to remind your pupils of working together and to brighten your classroom up.
Use these various Children’s Art Week activities as inspiration for your class to celebrate all things art. To help your pupils with a direction to go in for their art, base each week of Children’s Art Week on our three themes. This allows you to focus on different forms of art each week and gives you inspiration for other activities you may want your class to do.
Why not try out some of the activities Veena has done too? Your pupils are sure to enjoy them! They are a great way to make art fun so that children can grow a passion for creating.
Enter our Children’s Art Week Competition
Want to be in with the chance of winning £150 to spend on our Hope website? Why not share your Children’s Art Week activities with us by filling out the form on our blog? Find out more about the competition and how to enter here.