All About Me art projects are great for Back to School! Here are 10 (actually more!) awesome Back to School art projects to get to know your students and ease into the school year.
Just a heads up that I will be having a sale of up to 25% off all of the art resources in my shop on Tuesday, Aug. 5 to Wednesday, Aug. 6. Use promo code BTS25 to get the full discount.
Why plan Back to School art projects?
- Build classroom community: Getting students to share about themselves helps them feel included and seen.
- Ease into the school year: Plan a low-stress project to make your first week easier and less chaotic.
- Assess students’ skills: With a simple project you can quickly assess where students are at with their art-making and fine motor skills.
- Create an instant art display: With blank bulletin boards all over the school, these projects are a quick way to make a colorful display.
Start with a Back to School Children’s Art Book!
There are a lot of great books to read on the first day of school in art class! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used. The small commission earned goes to support the costs of this blog.)
Here are 3 of my favorites:
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi– A story about a new girl in school and her students have trouble pronouncing her name. Goes along with name art projects.
- Studio: A Place for Art to Start by Emily Arrow– A great book to introduce what an art studio is
- Pencils on Strike by Jennifer Jones– Good for teaching about taking care of art supplies
After reading a book, for Kindergarten I like to start with a simple “I Had Art Today!” worksheet or the My Favorite Things worksheet. Both are FREE downloads. After this, I usually move into a Dot Day art project!
10 Back to School Art Projects that are perfect to get to know your students
Many of these projects are part of an All About Me package I have with all of the templates, handouts and directions included. You can do most of these projects on your own without buying anything, but if you’d like to just print and go, check out the bundle of Back to School art projects. The video below shows you everything in action!
1. All About Me Explosion Books
You can teach your kids how to make an explosion book and then decorate the pages with things all about yourself! Each section can show different character traits, favorite things or personal interests. If you’d like my templates and instructions, you can grab them here. I recommend this project for grades 5 and up – it is a bit challenging to fold these. You could also look up different types of bookmaking!
2. Artist Trading Cards – Who I Am ATCs
Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are always a hit with kids! I recommend this project for grades 3 and up. Here are a couple of ways you could do this project.
1. One way is to cut blank cards yourself. These are sized at 3.5″ x 2.5″, like a standard playing card. I would use the thickest card stock that you have.
2. Another way is to buy pre-cut artist trading cards. I have tried out many cards and these artist trading card blanks by Apostrophe are the ones I like the best. They work with many art media and don’t smear (as long as you let it dry for a minute or so.). There are many inferior ATCs on Amazon (I’ve tried several brands) and some smear really easily or don’t take common media like colored pencils or markers, so I would buy with caution. Have the kids create 9 ATCs and then display them in plastic sleeves for trading cards. (I have not tried out these particular sleeves, because I had a huge stash in my house.)
3. Another option is to get these prompted artist trading card templates. Each card has an All About Me prompt and the kids can draw and color in the templates. I recommend printing these on to card stock paper and then cutting them out when they are finished.
3. Personal Zines Art Project
Kids love zines! I have taught an open-ended zine making project and the finished zines have been really fun and creative. I highly recommend making zines with your classes, they are so much fun!
Here is my finished example of an All About Me folded zine! I put together three different zine templates with prompts and frames where the kids can write and draw all about themselves. I usually make zines with my 5th graders. Folding can be a little challenging, so I recommend demonstrating in small groups or having students help each other.
Here is also a free Zine template and here is my video about how to fold these zines.
4. Name Design Art Projects
First, start with a name book! Two other good examples are Your Name is a Song and My Name. I have done so many name design art projects over the years. Here are some of the past name design ideas:
- Gridded Name Designs I usually do this with 2nd grade.
- Doodled Name Design – Write your name in block or bubble letters. Trace with a Sharpie marker. Fill it in with patterns. Add more doodles and designs to the background. Color your designs!
5. Folded Brochure
Students can take a regular sheet of 8.5″ x 11″ paper and fold into three sections like a tri-fold brochure. In the brochure, they can write or draw to introduce themselves. You can write prompts on the board (like your favorite animal, favorite book, things you are good at, favorite meal, etc) or you can use this All About Me brochure template.
6. Folded Petals- About the Artist
How this works: On one side of the flower shape is an image from art history with a prompt to go along with it. Such as a painting of a dog, with the prompt: Draw your favorite animal. Students draw their responses on the other side of the flower. Then you can fold the petals open and closed to see the pictures on the other side. Check out the folded petals art project here!
8. Personal Identity Flag Art Project
Look at different examples of flags around the world for design ideas and then have the student create their own personal flags showing their identity, interests, favorite things and favorite designs!
9. Patterned Initials
For Kindergarten and 1st Grade, this is a fun project to practice using patterns.
I have a free download of the block letter outlines to make this easy.
10. Collaborative Art Projects
It’s also fun to have a collaborative project where many classes (or the whole school) works on an artwork that is put together in pieces to make a show-stopping display.
- All Are Welcome Self-Portraits
- Collaborative Display Inspired by Tula Pink
- Collaborative Dots
- All About Me Puzzle Pieces
- ThankYouX Cube Mural
Free Posters!
I also wanted to share with you some super cute fuzzy letter posters I made that are FREE to download.
How to Use: When school first starts and you don’t have anything to hang on the school bulletin boards you can put up generic motivational posters as well as this fun fuzzy letter poster which tells people that amazing student work is on its way!
I have these FREE super cute fuzzy letter posters that go together:
- “Student Art Coming Soon”
- “Amazing Work Coming Soon”
- “Amazing Art Coming Soon”
- “Make Art!”
- “Welcome to Art!”
If you are looking for even more ideas, I have some other articles to share with you from the past!
First Day of School for Art Class
Back to School Tips and Project Ideas
What about you? What are your favorite art projects to do at the beginning of the year?
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