Encourage Creativity and Art in Education

Why Art?

Art is an important part of education. It encourages creativity and causes minds to flourish. Don’t take middle school art education lightly. You may end up having a your own Picasso-like masterpiece hanging in your living room one day.

Art projects catering to your middle schooler offer a way to rest minds from ‘book learning’ when the year has grown tedious! Field trips are a great way to encourage art creativity, so think in terms of combining the two when you can.

Art Project Ideas

  1. Tile Murals – Non-Glassy Ceramic tiles are great for this project. You will need acrylic paint or oil paint with brushes, silicone glue/dispenser gun, and an empty wall space. You can choose a theme for them to design like something from history, or allow them to just do whatever comes to their mind. When dry, display!
  2. Coffee Filter Booklet- This is a fun and unique art project. Kinderart explains it the best with a sample picture. Visit KinderArt’s Coffee Filter Booklet instructions for full details.
  3. Cave Paintings – You will need small bags, an old spoon, old bowls, vegetable shortening, old toothbrushes, mural paper, masking tape, and dirt. This is a prehistoric idea. Again, visit KinderArt’s Cave Painting project for full details.
  4. Live Paintings – In this research project, students compile information on different paintings throughout history. Students then write an essay comparing the paintings they have found. Use an art museum field trip as research!
  5. Craft Stick Trees – Gather 1 large craft stick, 7 small craft sticks, brown paint, as well as red, orange, and green felt. A glue gun is the best tool to make the tree stick together. Cut out little leaf shapes from each color. Paint all of the craft sticks brown. Glue all of the smaller craft sticks onto the large stick to resemble branches. When that dries, add all of the little leaves. When dry, you have the perfect little tree.

What else?

Other middle school art project ideas can range from dinosaur eggs and friendship pins to paper quilling and pencil holders. There are so many creative ideas out there. Pinterest is a great online tool to search for all things middle school art.

Tell us about your most successful art ideas in the comments below? Or, tell us about your biggest challenge/art fail so others can help you find a fix or suggest a different approach?

This article was originally published on our Homeschool Launch Blog.

 

For more on homeschooling and art, watch the “Rethink Art Integration” video.

 

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