The 6th of July 2021 is Children’s Art Day, part of Children’s Art Week normally run by Engage – the National Association for Gallery Education and supported by the Arts Council. However, due to the pandemic, plans have been halted and instead teachers have been urged to organise their own Children’s Art Week on any theme to engage and involve children in creative activities.
It is worth noting that throughout the pandemic it has been activities like art that has been proven to improve wellbeing for people and this includes children. Children’s Art Day is therefore a wonderful opportunity to introduce important tools to help children 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.
The following are taken from the art resources at Twinkl, dedicated for KS1 and KS2.:
- Art Challenge Cards for KS2
- Warm Up Drawing Exercises to inspire KS1
- 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
as well as school virtual tours https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/school-programs.html
and lesson plans such as the use colour and light in art https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-art/color.html
With travel restrictions in place why not explore the world of art from your classroom and 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.
Musee-Dorsay in Paris
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris: Contains information on the beautiful building that is filled with Impressionist paintings.
Museum of Art in São Paulo in Brazil
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/masp?hl=en: Contains 6 varied online exhibitions including art in fashion, art from Brazil until 1900, art form Italy, art from France. History of madness.
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea:
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-museum-of-modern-and-contemporary-art-korea Contains 8 exhibitions including Artists in their time, Canvas Art, oil paintings, Digital Art, Garden and more.
The National Art Gallery, London.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtual-tours/google-virtual-tour
In 2016, Google created this 360° tour of Rooms 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15 as well as the Central Hall that includes Renaissance masterpieces from Northern Italy, the Netherlands and Germany, including works by Titian, Veronese, and Holbein.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum has world-famous masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age include the Milkmaid by Vermeer and Rembrandt’s Night Watch. The Rijksmuseum itself is also a masterpiece. Various online exhibitions as well as easy access to its most famous paintings.