How to Jump Start Student Ideas in your Elementary Art Classroom.

For most of my elementary art lessons, I like to provide students with “idea starters” for both the planning phase and throughout the lesson.  What exactly is an idea starter?  It is a handout with various hand-drawn images based on the lesson’s big idea, theme or the featured artist. It serves as a resource for students so that they have something to go off of when they begin to create or plan out their artwork. If it takes multiple classes to complete our artwork, I will continue to pass out student sketches, any graphic organizers and idea starters to continue to reference.

Why is this type of resource beneficial to a student’s artwork?

• It gives students a jumping off point and the confidence to simply get started.  Beginning an art piece or sketching out an idea can sometimes be intimidating. Idea starters may help students to feel more comfortable when approaching a new project.
• It helps to get even more ideas flowing, in addition to what is available in the idea starter handout.
• Idea starters don’t provide specific steps. Instead, students have to figure out how they wish to approach the drawing or artwork. I like to see what students can come up with on their own. This way they have more creative freedom and I can see what techniques I need to demonstrate further. This enables them to take what they like from the ideas and put their own creative spin on it.

*When I use ideas starters in my classroom, I let the students choose whether or not they wish to use    them in the first place.  Some students already have a bunch of their own ideas in their head and prefer to stick to these.  If they are using the idea starters, I make sure that I remind them that they are not limited to the ideas provided. I also remind them to take what they like and either make it different or add to it. At the end of the day I try to infuse as much student choice into lessons as possible.*

If you would like to check out some pre-made idea starters feel free to check out my TPT store

Subscribe below with your name and your email to get a free reference with doodling ideas to use in your classroom. This is a great printout to have for early finishers.