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While paint, paper and brushes are all essential parts of a well stocked art classroom, but there’s always room for some special supplies that add a little fun to learning about art and inspires creativity in your students. Some of the most obvious choices for arts classroom supplies include glue (both in sticks and standard school glue), scissors (regular, left-handed and scissors with shapes), pencils and erasers but there are also a number of creative supplies that will really get your students thinking about the possibilities that they have inside of them for creating something great.
First of all, every art classroom should have at least one really good pencil sharpener. If your students are using pencils (including colored pencils), being able to get a fine point becomes important for outlining, some shading and texture work. If your pencil sharperer can also handle crayons, all the better. You should also have paint trays – whether well trays or flat – for students to use as palettes. Aprons will make sure that your students’ clothes don’t become ruined from all the fun materials you’ve gathered for them to work with.
When stocking an arts classroom with fun supplies, let your imagination go wild. For instance, feathers, buttons and stones (either cleaned natural stones or store-bought rhinestones) and balloons can be used for mixed media pieces, scrapbooking, accessory designing and other fun art projects. Yarn in a variety of colors and thickness (along with plastic yarn needles) can be used to create a variety of different projects from the standard crocheted or knitted hats and scarves to rings, dolls and toys. They can also be be used as part of more conventional art projects, especially for children’s projects.
Individually sized mirrors can help your students if they’re going to create self-portraits. Make sure the mirrors are able to stand up on their own. Finally, sponges are great for a variety of projects and are fun.
