It’s no secret that Dollar Tree is one of my favorite places!! Recently I found these Christmas gnomes that I thought were super cute. However, I saw the potential in using them at school with a little transformation. The image is printed on(except the gloves and boots are extra wood pieces added on top of the image. The snow flake and present were on the beard of the gnomes, and I knew I could easily paint over that area, and change things up a bit. I have them flanking a board in the hall where I hang students work they make me outside of class. They have become the art gnome guardians.
I wanted to share a few awesome art supplies for kids that I either recently discovered or just really love. I’m always on the lookout to spice things up in the art room. I know some budgets are tight, but you can always buy one set for a whole table and then the kids can share them. I used to think I needed many sets of everything, but honestly sharing, manners and taking turns are very good skills to practice. Similarly, you can have some of the special art supplies in a central location and kids can choose to try them out during the class period. In the next few sections, I will share the art supply and why I love it. And I will also give you an example of a project you can try with this media.
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I recently discovered these from a suggestion in a Facebook art teacher group. These beeswax crayons are like regular crayons, but are nice and smooth and give a solid coverage. They have vibrant colors.
One project you could do with these crayons is an abstract artwork and tie it in with the artist Kandinsky. He was a Russian artist who has many beautiful abstract works with brilliant colors, shapes and lines. Here is the artwork titled Composition IV.
And here is an example of an artwork using the Beeswax Crayons that your students could try to make. Using lines, shapes and colors inspired by the works of Kandinsky, create an abstract work with your own creative ideas.
I saw these on Instagram and couldn’t believe how bright the colors were- super bright, in fact. I had to try them out myself and they did not disappoint!
The name of this supply is Super Bright Flourescent Paint Daubers. They are just like any other paint dotters you may have tried, but they are definitely brighter.
Here was what I made playing around with these paint daubers. No filter on this picture!
I have several other blog posts about using paint daubers in art projects and you could easily substitute the regular paint daubers with the flourescent colors.
Speaking of flourescent colors, if you haven’t had neon paint to try out, it’s so fun! I try to incorporate neon paint in a few art projects a year. I like Sax Versa Temp for most of my tempera paint needs. Handy art is another brand I’ve tried. And I know some people like the flourescent tempera cakes.
One art project I like to do is have the students create their own alebrije. Alebrijes are colorful, fantastical creatures from Mexican folk art. They often mix different animals—real and imaginary—into one fantastical design. The idea came from artist Pedro Linares in the 1930’s after he had a fever dream filled with these wild creatures shouting “alebrijes!” He turned them into art using papier-mâché, and later, Oaxacan artists began carving them from wood.
Today, alebrijes are a big part of Mexican culture and are often linked to Día de los Muertos. They also became popular when they were featured in the Pixar movie Coco!
I saw an awesome exhibit of huge alebrijes when they were at an outdoor exhibit in the Chicago area. The size, creativity and patterns were amazing!
Speaking of Posca paint pens, kids just seem to love them. My older child really enjoys using them for drawings and kids will ask to use these special sets. I don’t recommend using them with younger kids as they tend to shake them too much and splatter paint out of them and they are expensive, so save these for your older students.
I’m a big fan of the Mungyo chalk pastels. I don’t know how I discovered them. I think I may have got them from an art resale swap or something, but I love the variety of colors and they are fairly inexpensive.
We use these Crayola Metallic markers a lot! Anything metallic is fun to add to your art supply stash.
I like to use these on the backgrounds of other artworks, especially on black paper. The silver and gold in this picture were definitely the Crayola metallic markers. Some of the other colors may have been the chalk markers or paint pens that I mentioned before. The project below was inspired by the artwork of Yayoi Kusama and her dotted pumpkin series.
These are some of my favorite fun art supplies to use with kids! Do you have any awesome art supplies I should try out? Share in the comments!
If you have been with me for awhile, you know that I do annual art challenges. #pumpkinaday in October, #turkeyaday in November, and #heartaday in February. It keeps me creative, and often makes others smile as I post to social media. This year I’m doing a three clue challenge #heartaday. I will give one clue per day, and at the end of the third day I share the art work the clues come from. Join me on my other social media pages to follow the fun!! (I know longer of X. I made the switch to Bluesky!)
This could be fun to do with your students also!!!
I found shallow paper strawberry containers at a reduce/reuse art materials place. I thought they might be the perfect thing to inspire small strawberry clay pinch pots. I had the students break their clay in half, and then break each of those halves in half (bringing in the idea of fractions Whole, 1/2, and 1/4). We did not write names on them, but created them “factory” style…where everyone was making strawberry pinch pots, and you knew you would get four back to paint & take home. We started by creating small pinch pots, and then pinched the outside to make it into a strawberry shape(I had picture references up on the board). After firing, students painted them with tempera & took them home the same day! The kids loved the project, and I heard from many teachers & parents that they too loved the project.
