Back when I was in college earning my Art Education degree, we had to -gasp!- thumb through art history books for lesson plan ideas. Years ago, there were barely any lesson plan websites built specifically for art teachers. Thankfully, this is all changing. Over the last few years, there have been a number of fresh, new websites and blogs that have burst onto the scene, while other sites have significantly improved the resources they already had. Now, there’s a multitude of places to find creative lesson ideas and inspiration online. Here’s our list of the 10 best lesson plan websites for art teachers:
1. The Art of Ed — One of the best elementary lesson plan websites (and most informative) we’ve found, The Art of Ed posts daily, giving real-world advice on topics every art teacher deals with.
2. The Incredible Art Department – One of the largest, well-known and long-running websites for art teachers, the Incredible Art Department is a huge compilation of original and reader-submitted art lessons. Bonus – it even has a page for art teacher rants (we all need to vent once in awhile).
3. Artsonia – Artsonia has grown significantly over the years, turning from a place to exhibit student artwork online into an expanding network for art teachers, including teacher-submitted lesson plans, fundraising opportunities, and an endless supply of new ideas with lesson photo galleries (very useful for high school teachers).
4. Mrs. Picasso’s Art Room – A blog run by a current art teacher, this website is chock-full of inspirational, multicultural elementary lesson ideas and brightly colored step-by-step pictures.
5. One Crayola Short – Another art teacher blog, One Crayola Short is a great resource for art lesson plans, ideas and inspiration.
6. Teachers Pay Teachers – Art teachers need not be turned off by its general education vibe; TeachersPayTeachers actually has thousands of teaching resources (some for sale, but many for free) available for download, from worksheets, to full unit and lesson plans, to PowerPoint presentations, teaching aides, and more.
7. Pinterest – Pinterest has taken the hoarding personality element of many art teachers to the digital world, letting us finally ditch the filing cabinets full of ripped-out magazine pages, articles, calendar pages, and web print-outs that gave us ideas years ago. Now, we can neatly compartmentalize all our classroom and lesson plan ideas online in a digital folder for safekeeping.
8. Crayola – Crayola’s lesson plan website enables K-12 teachers to search via medium, grade level, or even by Crayola-brand product, for fitting lessons. This is great when you have a box full of ModelMagic you don’t know what to do with.
9. KinderArt – A one-stop shop for art teachers (especially elementary and preschool), who are looking for simple lesson plans in a hurry. Need seasonal or holiday lesson ideas? KinderArt’s the place to go.
10. DickBlick – With an assortment of high-quality, advanced lesson ideas, DickBlick is an excellent lesson plan website for middle and high school art teachers (as well as elementary). With categories even broken down to topics like “Graphic and Digital Art”, “Maskmaking” and even “Metal and Wire Art”, teachers are sure to find lesson ideas in any subject.
