Ideas from the
Art Room
A growing collection of art lesson ideas, experiments and explorations from teaching practice. From drawing and painting to craft, construction and material play, Ideas from the Art Room documents activities tried with young learners, alongside different ways of encouraging curiosity, creativity and learning through making.
Shapes, Expressions and a Spinning Automata
Explore shapes, expressions and simple mechanics in this playful automata activity. Design your own box-face character, build a spinning mechanism, and give it some wonderfully wild moving hair!
Making an Animal Pop up Card
A simple paper craft for little hands! Colour, cut and fold your favourite animals into playful pop-up cards, while practising colouring control, scissor skills and discovering how a flat piece of paper can come to life.
Tessellation X Character Design
Explore tessellation through character design in this playful art activity. Starting with a simple Post-it note, children create a repeating shape, turn it around to discover unexpected creatures, and bring their characters together to form a colourful tessellated pattern.
From Drawing to Designing Pokemon
A playful creature-design lesson that moves from breaking animals into simple shapes to inventing something entirely new.