I love how many different skills an art activity can cover – attributes, following directions, cutting, fine motor, etc. In our classroom, we complete one art activity per day. These activities are prepped ahead of time and organized in bins for the week. Students use picture directions to complete the projects as independently as possible – hence, it’s their work, not ours (you know what I’m talking about).
 
 
 

 
I struggle with being a perfectionist daily. So when it comes to completing an art activity with a student, it can be suuuuper hard for me to step back and try to let them do it independently – even if they aren’t putting the pieces EXACTLY where they are supposed to go. This is such an important skill though and it gives our students ownership over their artwork.
 
Below is a picture of how I set up our “craft” station. I have bins labeled with the days of the week, and  we make sure we are prepped a week ahead of time so here is no scrambling in the morning before the students arrive. Glue, scissors, paintbrushes, and crayons are stored on the shelf below. 
 
 
 
Crayons are organized for easy color recognition while working AND a built in sorting task. 
 
 
Here is an example of how we set up the craft station daily. 
 
 
I hang up the craft of the day for the students to view and pull the bin with all the supplies needed. There is a place for schedule cards for students still working from a picture schedule, as well as a “level of prompting” guide for adults. 
 
I include everything needed for the activity in the bin. 
 
Picture directions are also provided for the students to follow. 
 
 
When possible, I like to offer the students options for colors/shapes/etc. so that they can have the opportunity to make some choices about their work. 
 
For the cupcakes, we had them choose the icing color.
 
 
I might also withhold a vital supply needed (glue, scissors, pencil) or a piece of the activity (sprinkles, heart) to prompt the student to request the item. For students that are nonverbal, I would have them use visuals to communicate what they need. I love using the pictures from this art area visuals pack to aide communication at this center.
 
 
 
Once everyone has done the activity, we put the finished products back in the bin to be hung on display and get the next day’s activity set up.
 
 
Click below to check out my Easy Art Pack for Valentine’s Day! 
 

 

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Easy valentines day crafts for kids


1 Comment

Erin Blecki · February 7, 2015 at 4:19 pm

I love love love how you have this set up weekly! We only do one art activity per week, with the goal that the child finishes the activity by weeks end. We do art as a one to one activity with teacher and child, occasionally, 1:2 depending on the activity. We have some kiddos we very limited attention spans so we let them accomplish as much as they can until they lose interest. If they do not finish it, then they have the next day to get more work done on it.

And some days it's just so crazy busy, no one does art. 🙁 BUT I LOVE what you've done with your art area! You're always making my brain think of how I can tweak something in my own classroom!

Erin
Creating & Teaching

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