Information about Children’s art Day for art teachers and Primary school teachers
Did you know that the 6th of July 2021 is Children’s Art Day? Notably, Children’s Art Week is normally run by Engage. You may not know that Engage stands for the National Association for Gallery Education and are supported by the Arts Council. However, due to the pandemic, plans have been halted and instead art teachers have been urged to organise their own Children’s Art Week. This means that any art teachers can choose any theme to engage and involve children in creative activities.
Firstly, it is worth noting that throughout the pandemic it has been activities like art that has been proven to improve wellbeing for people including children. Therefore, Children’s Art Day is a wonderful opportunity to introduce important tools to help children. Importantly, it can help them explore their creativity, express themselves, practice mindfulness as well as have fun.
To help teachers with art related activities to celebrate Art Day, we have listed some of the most useful resources for various ages. These include practical activities as well as some free art gallery virtual tours.
Resources for art teachers and primary teachers
You may be interested in the following if you are an art teacher, They have been taken from the art resources at Twinkl, dedicated for KS1 and KS2.
- Art Challenge Cards for Key Stage 2
- Warm Up Drawing Exercises to inspire Key Stage 1
- Children’s Art Week Banner
- Children’s Art Week Write Up Worksheet to enable children to evaluate how they have taken part and what they have learnt.
Free downloads from online resources include:
- How to draw a face https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t2-a-004-how-to-draw-a-face
- Warm-up drawing exercises https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t2-a-130-duplication-warm-up-drawing-exercises
- Street art graffiti colouring page https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/street-art-graffiti-colouring-page-t-tp-2662094
- Grid symmetry https://www.teachstarter.com/gb/teaching-resource/grid-symmetry-drawing-owl-2/
The National Gallery of Art has a range of video teaching resource from Modern Art to Egyptian and Greek. https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/loan-video.html
In addition, they have school virtual tours https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/school-programs.html
Why art teachers and primary teachers should consider taking their class on a virtual tour
You probably know all too well about the travel restrictions in place. So if you are an art teacher, why not explore the world of art from your classroom? Therefore, you can introduce children to virtual tours available for free from some of the most famous galleries around the world.
Here is a list of free virtual tours with information often given about the art gallery building, and with individual information per painting once you click on it. Some have several exhibitions, and you can venture far away from Paris to Brazil.
Our list of virtual tours for art teachers and primary teachers
Museum of Art in São Paulo in Brazil. To take their tour, click here
Surprisingly, it contains 6 varied online exhibitions including art in fashion, art from Brazil until 1900 and art form Italy. In addition, it has art from France as well as the History of madness in its collection.
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea. If you wan tot take their tour click here
Did you know it contains 8 exhibitions? Importantly, it includes Artists in their time, Canvas Art, oil paintings, Digital Art, Garden and more.
The National Art Gallery, London.
Did you know that in 2016, Google created this 360° tour of Rooms 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15? In addition, the tour includes the Central Hall that houses Renaissance masterpieces. Above all there is a varied range from Northern Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, including works by Titian, Veronese, and Holbein.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, click here to take their tour
Importantly, The Rijksmuseum is world-famous. Did you know its masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age include the Milkmaid by Vermeer and Rembrandt’s Night Watch. You may be unaware thatThe Rijksmuseum itself is also a masterpiece. Various online exhibitions are available with easy access to its most famous paintings.