Back To School Art Ideas

Contact_FullName: Julie

Contact_Email: julesbeth@hotmail.com

Idea:

At the beginning of the school year I have my pre-k class fingerpaint a large piece of roll paper with dark colors. Then I cut out a tree shape. We hang it up in the hallway and as the seasons change, we create new leaves to put on the tree. We call it the "Family Tree" because each child takes home a leaf and decorates it with their family. In the beginning of school for fall, we decorated a fall colored leaf with family pictures. During the holiday season, we added new leaves that said what we were thankful for, and for spring, we decorated leaves with our families that show what spring means to us. The students love showing off the tree and finding their leaf. :)

Contact_FullName: Jamie
Contact_Email: jamiehwilson@aol.com
Area: First Day of School-Art

Idea:

Have students make an edible school bus during snack time on the first day of school. Give each student a graham cracker and a small cup of yellow icing. Have them "paint" the cracker yellow. Add mini Oreo's for wheels, rice chex mix for the windows, and a red M&M for the stop sign.

Contact_FullName: Jessica
Contact_Email: jsmisko@comcast.net
Area: back to school - art

Idea:

On the first day of school, I have the children marble paint on a sunshine shape. I then take each child's picture with the child wearing sunglasses. When the sun shapes dry, I glue the child's picture onto his/her sun and hang them up on the bulletin board. At the top of the bulletin board I write, "The future's so bright..." The children love to see their pictures and the bulletin hints of great things to come!

Contact_FullName: Brenda
Contact_Email: bjhilz_trustinghim@mchsi.com
Area: Names

Idea:

For our first day of class, we have prepared ahead of time a quarter of a sheet of white construction paper. On this piece, we have written the child's names with a white crayon (Rose Art works best!). Please press down hard on the crayon and make the name thick. Then the child is given watercolor paints and washes the paint across the page. Their name will appear before their eyes! We then mount the page on an accent color sheet of construction paper. We are a Christian preschool, so we add " He knows my Name" to the page or use it as our header for our bulletin board. These are a favorite of ours.

Contact_FullName: Karina
Contact_Email: dewarslanding@aol.com
Area: Back to School-Art

Idea:

Have a picture of a schoolhouse ready for craft time. Have children add doors, windows, bell, bushes and children. (Perhaps even a picture of themselves if they are off to school soon...)

Contact_FullName: cathy
Contact_Email: crayolateachcv@aol
Area: beginning of the year/art

Idea:

at the beginning of the year our class works on cooperation activities.....I take a large poster board and divide it into individual puzzle pieces that will eventually fit back together...then each of the students decorates their own piece of the puzzle about an activity that they did over summer vacation....at circle time we share our pictures and stories and then we all work together to put our giant summer time puzzle together....four year olds just love the excitement of watching the pieces all fit together just like our class does after the first week of school

I send home a tree pattern the first week of school with a note asking parents to help their child create a family tree. They can do anything they want as long as it is a family project done together. They turned out great and were very creative. Some drew pictures, some cut out pictures they were all decorated different. This was our first project to go on our class art bulletin board.

With the start of another school year, only one out of my seven children in my care were going off to school. To make the other six eager scholars happy we have Mrs. Karen's school. So the kids could proudly display their works of art on the fridge at home, we made special magnets. I don't think it really matters what they looked like or how they were made. It was a nice way to start off the school year.

However, I used spring clothes pins and a stout magnet. I found clip art of a school house and fall leaves. The kids glue and glittered the pictures then glued the school to a square of fun-foam. After painting their clothes pin the color of their choice, the dry items were assembled for durability with hot glue. For safety reasons I did the gluing.

I make an "All about Mrs. King's Class" big book. I make a page for each child from 1/4 of a size of poster board and title it "This is (child's name)". I also make one for myself. The child then takes the page home and with their mom and dad they decorate it with pictures of their family, favorite foods, colors, books, toys, etc. Since I teach 4 year olds I put a picture of myself when I was 4 on my page. When the children are done they return it to school and I laminate it and we put them all together for a big classroom book. It is our favorite book in the class.

A great way for the children and their parents to keep in touch is to send home the class phone numbers. I achieve this by taking their thumbprints and asking them what animal or bug they would like. I created ants, caterpillars, butterflies, beavers, and spiders out of their thumbprints, listed their phone number and titled the page, "Thumb-Buddies".

I have each child decorate a plastic shoe box and we keep a change of clothes in it! Each child can identify their own box and they only cost about 99 cents.

I send a letter to the children before school starts and enclose a tag board cutout of a child. I ask them to color it and bring it in on the first day of school. When the children bring them in on the first day, I put it on a bulletin board entitled "Our Circle of Friends."

For a quick way of checking roll which lets the children take responsibility for their environment, try this idea. Cut out a large school bus and have the children finger paint it the yellowish-orangish color. When it's dry, draw windows on the bus and place a picture of each child on the windows using Velcro. Underneath, have a place for the children to move their picture to form a line or inside a school house. When the kids come to school each day, have them move their picture from the bus to the line/schoolhouse. When they leave to go home, move their pictures back to the school bus!

On the first day of school, have your children decorate tote bags that they can use all year. You can find inexpensive muslin or canvas bags on sale at a crafts store or hardware store. With a permanent marker or fabric paint, print the child's name on a bag, then let him/her decorate it. You can use sponges cut out into various shapes, or dip cookie cutters into paint and let them "print" designs on.

On the first phase-in day of school, I have my children and a parent bring a new white T-shirt. We paint the children's hands and let them place on on their shirt and the other on their parent's. They place the hand prints in an arc on the front of the shirt. I also have each child place one handprint on my T-shirt. After the handprints have been placed, I paint the outside of their arm and fist. We carefully lay the arm on the shirt, in the center of the handprints. When the shirts are dry, I paint legs , eyes, and a beak on each shirt. I also write the name of each child on the handprint they placed on my shirt. Using the computer and transfer paper, I print each child's name approximately 1 1/4 inches high and iron it on the back about halfway down. The end result, each child and parent has a matching shirt to wear on field trips and/or any time they want.

On one of the first days of school I make a banner. On the top I write, Stepping into the future. Then I lay it out on the floor and paint each child's foot with tempera paint and have them walk (remember to hold them so they do not fall) across the paper. I also walk across. When it is done I hang it up in the room where everyone can see it. We try to find each other's foot prints.

Here's a back-to-school poem that I hang on the wall at the beginning of each new year. The first letters of each phrase spell out the word "WELCOME".

W hen you 
E nter this 
L ittle room, 
C onsider yourself 
O ne of 
M any special people who 
E njoy learning, laughing and playing together.

We have an orientation day at our school and the class is divided into two 45 minute sessions. A parent comes with their child, so I like to have them participate in an activity. I prepare my bulletin board with the title "The More We Get Together, The Happier We'll Be" I then place the children's names at different places on the board. Each child is given a person pattern, and I ask them to decorate it to look like themselves. Mom or Dad is watching them do this, and they really enjoy it. After the child has finished, the parent then takes the child to the bulletin board, and staples the figure by the child's name. Of course, the child points out his/her name first. It makes a great September display.

We always have a "Meet the Teacher" night for our families. This is a come and go event where the children come and bring their school supplies and make their name tag for the first week of school. My name tags are a Ellison shape crayon, I write their name on it and they can string colored macaroni on the string. The children love to wear their nametags, and it helps us to learn their names. Also, each teacher uses a different design so we can easily identify which class a child belongs in.

T-shirt Art 
Cut out shapes-Holidays, leaves, etc. out of contact paper. Stick to shirt in desired pattern. Using spray bottles, small plastic ones from dollar store, fill with the following: 

One cup warm water 
One teaspoon salt 
One tablespoon Rit Dye Liquid 

Shake lightly.   Put newspaper in the middle of the shirt so the paint doesn't seep from front to back (waxed paper also works) Now, spray the shirt lightly around the contact paper with one, two, or more colors. Blot the contact paper parts before lifting the shirt up, so, the paint won't drip. Then, let dry. Neat huh? 

Pringles cans with lids are great for getting important notes home to parents. Clean them out well, let the child color a picture, glue or tape the picture on to the can, making sure the child's name is visible, cover with clear contact. Voila, a good sturdy device for getting those papers to the parents.

During the first week of school I try to encourage the idea that we're a class, a group, a team all together. I provide the children with large pieces of whites paper (any color would be fine) pre-cut in the shape of a t-shirt. The t-shirts are pre programmed with the child's name across the top and a random number in the middle. The children can then paint the t-shirts with a contrasting color.  I use blue marker for the name and number and have the children paint with yellow paint-these are also our hometown school colors. The teacher's shirts are done the same, with the exception under the number I write Coach and Assistant coach for teacher's assistants. When the t-shirts are dry they can be hung up around a sign that reads: Team Rainbow Corner Pre School (insert the name of your school).

FRIENDSHIPS BLOSSOM HERE ! Make large construction paper flowers. Place these around the sides of the board, with large leaves. I even made tiger lilies, by creating a cone shape, glue to long black strands or paper inside, and add little pom-poms at the end. Children bring in a picture of themselves, and this is added to the board. (we have over 100 students at our site). HAVE A GREAT YEAR.

To encourage "happy faces" on my three year year olds, my beginning school theme is "Preschool Makes Me Happy". I use happy face stickers for each child during orientation and during art they decorate a flower petal shape with Dot Paint. When dry, I glue a yellow Happy Face in the center of the flower and staple to my bulletin board with my theme. Don't forget to add the child's name to their happy face flowers.

Back to School Bulletin Board-

Title: What a "Grape" Bunch of New Students

The first day of school give each child a purple plate (found at party stores- or have them paint a white one purple). I prefer small dessert plates. Have them turn the plate into a picture of themselves by adding eyes, hair, a mouth, etc. Once dry, arrange the plates on the board in the shape of a bunch of grapes. Add a stem and leaves along with the title "What a 'Grape' Bunch of New Students".

Before the first day of school I send my children a welcome to preschool letter and a cutout of a teddybear. I ask each child to decorate the bear and bring it to school on the first day. In circle we talk about our bears and then hang them on the bulletin board with the caption "Beary Good Friends".

At the beginning of the year have each child bring in a t-shirt to be decorated with their handprints and apple prints. Remember to put the date on it. Do this again at the end of the year with handprints and summer things. See how much the hands and creativity level have changed. You can add height and weight for an all about me t-shirt.. you can also do this 3 or 4 times a year for a progressive growth counter...this is fun for all ages!!!

During our "All About Me" unit in our pre-k class, we trace the children's body's on large butcher paper and let the children color their own body tracing with all the features they feel are necessary.. Some children only put in a face, while others go to great detail coloring clothes, hair, rainbows, suns, etc. After they finish coloring their body tracing, I ask them to finish this statement, "I like me because...." I then write the statement, exactly as the child has finished it, on the body tracing. We then hang the children's body tracings around the room (asking the children where they would like to hang there's). This is a great way to help the children feel welcome and that the classroom belongs to them.

My first months theme is "All About Me". The first week of school I cut out rather large simple figures of children. With buttons for eyes, markers make mouth and shoes, yarn for hair, wallpaper for pants and shirts and dresses, we "dress" the figures (teacher included). When finished we put them on our bulletin board with caption "Here We Are.", with their pictures that I have previously taken (or supplied by parents).

My Banner

Before school starts, send each parent a large piece of construction paper.  Ask them to trace each family member's hand on the banner and write their name next to their hand.  They can decorate their banner with crayons, markers, ribbon, colored glue, paint, stickers, photos, etc.  Ask them to send their banner in with their child on the first day of school.  

The children will have a great time looking at the banners.  This also provides them with a sense of familiarity.