Middle school art early finishers

In a middle school art class, I have students who have completed the project on day two, and students who won't finish until day seven. This leaves a lot of down time for students and after 13 years of teaching (currently my 7th in middle) I've finally devised a plan. Some options students always have are to play board games that I have purchased at goodwill over the years, or they can read, free-draw or just sit and talk with their friends. However, I do have some more anti-social students…

If art teachers had a quarter for every time they heard a student say, "I'm done. What can I do next?"... we would retire early and comfortably. While it takes a bit of extra work in the beginning, it can be really beneficial throughout the year to have some plans in place to help with

There is no worse phrase in the art room than “I’m done. Now what?” It’s inevitable that some students will finish before others. While we can close the gap to some degree, we can’t avoid the reality of early finishers. If you teach middle school or intro high school classes you know it’s imperative for […]

Six early finisher activities for students who complete their classwork long before everyone else. These activities are inspired by works of art with a focus on art history.

The Perfect Project to Keep Your Middle Schoolers on Track % %

After a decade of teaching high school art, I've recently moved to teaching middle school art. It's a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I've learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded

Art Teachers, in your Art Classroom you’re always going to have students finish before the rest, fast finishers, so let’s take a look at some ideas or routines that you can build into your classroom so that students know what to do when they’re done so they don’t have to ask you and so that you don’t have to instruct them on what to do EVERY time.