Top Ten Tips for Art on a Cart
Top Ten Tips for Art on a Cart: for when you have to teach art on the move.
Okay so I’ve just spent the best part of a year roving from classroom to classroom and it is not for the faint hearted, but I did learn some things along the way that made it easier and the silver lining is that hopefully these tips will help make it easier for you if you find yourself in these circumstances.
So first up I want to acknowledge this would not be my preferred way to teach art, and if this was how a school was set-up with their art program, I would not be interested in taking on that role, however this was forced upon as my school renovated and of course as with all renovations they took waaay longer than expected so it felt like a very loooong time.
I have called this Art on a Cart but in reality there was a lot of carrying upstairs too. I would have needed 3 separate carts and still a heap of lugging stuff up steps too. So I did have carts but they weren’t beautifully packed with pretty Pinterest inspired art supplies, practicalities meant I had stackable tubs that could be lifted on and off the trolleys and carried as needed. So …
Top Tip #1
Get yourself lots of clip lidded clear plastic tubs that vary from small lunchbox size for pencils, erasers, scissors, gluesticks and brushes. Medium sized ones 20L for class sets of coloured pencils, paint slicks, watercolour sets, paint pens. These can be stacked and unstacked on trolleys and handed to your student helpers to get up steps and stairs.
Lidded Storage Tubs that will stack your art supplies and can be lifted on and off trolleys as needed
Top Tip #2
Google Slide all your lessons. Have images, learning intentions, task steps, imbedded video links ready to connect to the TVs around the school (hopefully your classrooms have these). This way you just need an iPad or laptop. Sometimes the technology fails so having a connecter as back up to plug in if things won’t Airplay, will save your bacon. Nothing like your classroom management going out the window while you become your own IT help desk and the troops get restless.
Use Google Slides for guiding students through the art learning whatever classroom you have to pop into, as long as they have a TV!
Top Tip #3
Plan your lessons for all your grade levels using the same art materials. Okay so you don’t need to have everyone doing the same lesson, of course you differentiate what the skills and content is for different ages, but using the same art materials means you aren’t lugging extra stuff or having to dash across the school to swap material boxes from whichever cupboard you’ve been assigned. Believe me you’ll have your step count up enough.
A student painting in a sketchbook
Top Tip #4
I spent the first week of my Art on a Cart experience delivering a class set of named sketchbooks to each classroom. This was well worth the investment as paper is really heavy to lug around with you, it gets affected by wild wind and wet weather as you move around the school and it goes missing easily. So these were kept in a labelled Art tub in the class and only came out for Art lessons as things go missing easily, especially if you’re only seeing students once a week. I did carry 3 spare with me for back up paper and any new students who might magically appear without warning in my classes. This meant my lesson planning was designed to be mostly sketchbook based with a sprinkling of exciting 3D pop up lessons with paper magic clay, coloured paper and pipe cleaners or tin foil sculptures.
Egg sculptures made from paper magic clay, light, air dries and no mess
Top Tip #5
I invested in some art supplies that were quick dry, low mess but still allowed for colour mixing and fun and let kids art be kids art. So I bought paint sticks (sometimes called paint slicks) which are vibrant and work like a wind out glue stick or lipstick, dry quickly but are great for painting with and I made sure I got them in all the rainbow colours for colour theory lessons. I also bought lidded watercolour palettes that could be shared between 2 kids. I got some paint bingo dabbers in the primary colours for colour mixing. I also invested in some paint pens for finer work. I counted everything in and out of boxes during set-up and pack-up as I couldn’t afford to leave things behind and sprinkle art supplies around the school.
Rainbow coloured paint sticks
Top Tip #6
You can explore texture and create excitement in the class by bringing in items for drawing and frottage rubbing so along with collecting leaves and flowers, I brought in texture plates and toy coins for rubbing. With these I had a set of block crayons and twistable crayons. For observational drawing and watercolour I carried small items- a class set of sea shells, feathers, collected gum leaves, miniature tea cups, old keys, small plastic toy cars, lolly wrappers depending on the week and the lesson. It’s amazing what excitement even a bag of sea shells can create.
A student doing an observational drawing of a shell
Top Tip #7
Utilise the outdoors. If weather permits grab jumbo chalk and draw outside. Outline a mural and get them to colour it in, explore pattern and repetition with a collaborative mandala on the basketball court, outline their bodies and create human pyramids and poses, create comic book stories.
An art class outdoors enables students to explore nature and leaf rubbings
Top Tip #8
Bring in a picture book as a mentor text and start your lesson with a read-a-loud. This can be about an artist or just a great book with engaging illustrations or imaginative storyline to get them drawing or collaging.
A student creating a cut paper collage’ inspired by a picture book
Top Tip #9
Carry packs of stickers. Animals and shapes and use these as drawing prompts. Draw the jungle around this parrot, create a house for this mouse, start with this circle- what can you turn it into. These drawing games are endless and while they’re practicing creative thinking they also are developing their fine motor skills.
A student uses stickers, squiggles and spills to spark their imaginative drawing
Top Tip #10
Let’s talk water. It’s vital if you want to use watercolour, and kids love to watercolour- so along with the lidded watercolour paint kits I had a drink bottle and a 2 small desk top buckets which were my impromptu sink. I found these mini containers in a craft store that came in sets and had a screw top lid. Originally designed for beads and buttons not for water, I was delighted to discover they were water-tight. Once these got dirty I could refresh at lunchtime or tip into a bucket and refill from my drink bottle. Them I simply collected brushes in one bucket to rinse under the staff room during breaks, refill the drink bottle and mini containers and tipped the dirty water on a garden bed or down a drain and stacked it back up. Student helpers were very good at this. It did mean a bit of sink work for me at break times but it meant I could bring the magical calming brush painting into the classroom which was worth it and so appreciated by the kids.
A portable sink set-up with buckets and mini water containers
I hope this has given you some ideas and you feel less overwhelmed as you embark on a roving art experience. These skills will be great for travelling workshops and pop-up art experiences too. I could probably write another ten tips so if you want more or have questions you’d like to ask, send me a message and sign up for more xx Emily
