First Day of Art Class: Getting to Know You Activities and Art Projects

The first day of art class is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming. Between learning names, introducing routines, and helping students feel welcome, there’s a lot to fit into the first few weeks of school.

My goal at the beginning of the year is to help students feel comfortable, build (or strengthen) connections, introduce classroom expectations, and start creating art right away! In this post, I’m sharing engaging books, icebreakers, routines, and art projects for each grade level. These ideas can be spread throughout the first few weeks of school.

I hope these ideas give you a great starting point for planning your first weeks of art class!

🎁 Free First Week of Art Class Printables

Planning your first week of art? Grab these two free printables:

• Amazing Art Coming Soon bulletin board signs
• “If I Were A…” Getting To Know You worksheet – Students doodle little drawings answering prompts such as “If I were an ice cream flavor, I would be..” or “If I were an animal, I would be..”

Enter your email below and I’ll send you the downloads!

My Goals for the First Day of Art Class

• Learn student names (if they are new to the school or in Kindergarten).
• Introduce routines and expectations.
• Practice classroom procedures.
• Build classroom community.
• Create successful artwork.
• Get students excited about art class!

What I Do Before We Make Art

• I welcome students into the art room and show them their assigned seats. I always use assigned seating because it makes attendance easier, helps me learn names more quickly, reduces social anxiety of finding a seat, and allows me to place students where they’ll work well together.
• Next, I show a short video slideshow that introduces the art room. Using a video ensures every class hears the same information, even after repeating it several times throughout the day. Plus, it saves your voice. This video is only about 5 minutes long.
• This video covers classroom routines, including how to enter the room, what a typical class looks like, and where students can find supplies, smocks, sinks, the recycling bin, the early finisher station, and where artwork is stored.
• Finally, we review the art room expectations and behavior plan. I also introduce my ART system: I have the letters A, R, T as magnets on my whiteboard. If the class becomes too loud, I remove one letter as a warning. If all three letters are removed, we take five minutes of silent work time as a focused reset.

Note: You will want to repeat and practice all of these routines, procedures and expectations often over the next few weeks.

My Favorite First Day of Art Class Books

So, now that we’ve gone over the expectations and class procedures, one of my favorite ways to start the school year is by reading a fun back-to-school children’s book. These are some of the books I pulled from my collection that are perfect for the first few weeks of school. Many of them are also great to keep on hand for those extra five minutes at the end of class throughout the year.

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First Day of Art Class Books

• Studio: A Place for Art to Start
• Making Art
• I Am an Artist
• If You are an Artist
• Art is…

Art Supplies

• The Art Box (introduces art supplies)
• The Crayon’s Go Back to School (the book I ordered from this link was pretty small and would be hard to read in front of a class, but maybe you can find a larger version or a video read-aloud.)
• Pencils on Strike!

General Back to School Books

• All Are Welcome
• This is a School
• This School Year Will Be the Best

Creativity & Growth Mindset

• A Little Bit of Oomph
• Regina’s Big Mistake
• No One Saw
• The Curious Why

Name Books

• Your Name is a Song
• My Name

There are so many more wonderful art books you could read to your students. I have a HUGE list of 150+ children’s books for elementary art.

Getting to Know You Icebreakers

I often do a quick icebreaker activity at the beginning of the school year. A couple of ideas include:

• Getting to Know You Bingo: Find someone who… Students move around the room and have classmates sign their papers if they fit into one of the categories.
• Art Class Scavenger Hunt Place many different kinds of media around the room and have students find the media and then create a little doodle inside each box. You can make your own worksheet for this by drawing boxes with a place for each type of art material, or you can use the sheet I made linked above.
• This or That: Write options on the board. Have the students stand for the first option or give a thumbs up for the second option. Cats / Dogs, Summer / Winter, Markers / Colored pencils, Pizza / Tacos, Realistic / Cartoon, Math / Science… etc

First Day of Art Projects by Grade Level

I usually start an art project during the first or second art class. Getting kids creating right away is a a great way to build excitement for art!

Kindergarten – I Had Art Today drawing & Patterned Initial

Free Download: I Had Art Today worksheet I always have the Kindergarten students draw a picture in the framed printout that says “I Had Art Today!” You can see some examples of this kindergarten first day art activity at an older blog post of mine. It also has a space for you or them to write the days of art class as a reminder for the parents. (I have a PDF for one art class day or two). The first day of kindergarten worksheet is a free download in my TPT shop. You can have them draw a picture of themselves as an artist or a picture of their favorite things.

Free Download: Patterned Initials Students will color patterns in the large letter for the first letter of their name. To prepare for this project, I print off the first letter of each of the kindergartners’ names.  For a free printable alphabet, download the block letter outlines here. Then I demonstrate how they could fill in their letter with a variety of patterns, designs and colors.  You could use only crayons.  Or you could branch out to markers and oil pastels.

1st Grade – Simple Name Design

Name Designs are always fun and a good way to help you remember your students’ names. I have a whole round-up of name designs for all the different age levels. For 1st grade, a very simple name design works best. In the photos below, I’m showing two examples. In the simpler version, the students will write the letters of their name as usual, and then outline with a thicker marker. The older kids can write their name in a simple style, or try drawing in bubble or block letters. Then, will draw pictures of things that they like in the background.

2nd Grade – My Summer Sunglasses

Print out a template of sunglasses. Inside the sunglasses, children will draw things that remind them of summer or memories they have from this summer! You can use any sunglasses template, or grab my handouts at my TPT shop.

3rd Grade – All About Me Artist Trading Cards

All About Me Artist Trading Cards: You can cut or buy your own blank trading cards. They are 2.5″ x 3.5″ miniature artworks. Then, have students draw or collage things all about themselves! You can store and display these in plastic trading card sheets for binders. If you are interested in pre-printed templates with prompts for this project, check out my All About Me Artist Trading Cards!

4th Grade One Word Art Project

Students will choose one word for their year – a word that represents who they want to be this year, a word that inspires them or represents a personal goal. They will then create a colorful piece of word art that brings their chosen word to life through creative designs, patterns, and/or illustrations. Start by reading the One Year for Kids book, then brainstorm possibilities for a word they might choose. Then, draw the letters of your word and the color it to make it unique and creative!

5th Grade All About Me Shoe

For the fifth graders, they will love this All About Me shoe art activity! Print out shoe templates. Brainstorm symbols and imagery that tell about their personality, favorites, hobbies and interests. Draw these designs on the shoe and add color and patterns to make it stand out and express their individuality!

If you would like to have all of my favorite Back to School Art resources in one place, check out my BIG Back to School Art Bundle.

Now that you have some specific art projects for each grade level, I thought I’d share some easy first day drawing prompts if you want to keep it simple!

Easy First Day of Art Class Drawing Prompts

One Giant Doodle: Each student adds one drawing to a giant class poster. Makes a fun hallway display.

Completely Ordinary Drawings: Draw four ordinary things that tell us about you. Think about everyday things…not your biggest accomplishments or favorite vacation. Maybe you ride the bus to school, have a pet cat, wear glasses, or always carry a water bottle.

If I Were A…: This quick drawing activity is a fun, low-pressure way for students to express their personalities. Simply give them prompts like If I were an ice cream flavor… or If I were an animal… and let them draw their responses. You can download my FREE printable worksheet at the bottom of this post.

Doodles of Summer Memories: Draw a collage of doodles of things that reminded you of your summer – could be abstract or realistic

Something I Did Not Do Over Summer Break: Flip the usual back-to-school drawing prompt on its head! Instead of drawing something you actually did over the summer, students create a picture of something they didn’t do. I didn’t go scuba diving. I didn’t fly to the moon. I didn’t wrestle an alligator. The sillier, the better! It’s a fun way to get kids excited and enthusiastic.

Decorate a Sketchbook Cover: If you are doing a sketchbook with your students, this is a fun first week of school activity.

More Back to School Art Ideas

Looking for even more first-week ideas? Last year, I wrote another back to school blog post featuring some of my favorite All About Me art projects. Check it out for even more activities to help fill the first month of school!

Also, feel free to scroll through the ideas below.

Here is another Name Design project that would be good for older kids!

Here are all of my recommendations of low-prep art activities that are perfect for back to school:

If I Were A…: Make a list of objects or ideas and have students respond to the prompts with a drawing. “If I were an ice cream flavor, I would be…” or “If I were an animal, I would be…” Enter your email address in the form below to receive this download.

Here is a set of posters you can hang on blank bulletin boards to let everyone know that new artwork is coming soon! This is also available in the FREE download below!

Classroom Banners for Art Decor!

I had so much fun designing these. These are great for hanging up a quick bulletin board or decorating your classroom. You can grab these Canva banner template designs here.

The best part is they are fully editable in Canva. You can change the text to say whatever you want and you can edit colors, clip art and fonts.

I printed mine at Walgreens and they were ready in one hour! I wrote out step-by-step directions with screenshots to order at Walgreens, but you can also order them at a different printing place. Look for coupon codes online, I printed mine for $13 each. You can see all of my banner designs here!

Whether you’re planning your very first art class or simply looking for a few fresh ideas, I hope this (long) list gives you some inspiration for a fun and successful start to the school year. The first few days are a wonderful opportunity to build classroom routines, get to know your students, and spark their excitement for creating art.

I’d love to hear from you! What are your favorite first-day or first-week art activities? Share your ideas in the comments below!