Lessons From Kids Art Classes

A few things I learned this summer.

Jul 25, 2026

I finished up two weeks of art camps for 3-5 graders this week. One was entitled “Monsters and Myths” ( a repeat from last year) and “Aliens Among Us” ( a retooled version of the previous camp. I wrote about my camps last year and what I did, crowing victoriously about how well they went. This summer’s camps did not go as well. I had some challenging kids. Here are some lessons I learned from having to keep the energy of the class contained while trying to get some artwork done.

Some kids will sharpen pencils for the entire three hours if I let them.
Rulers=swords.
Whiteboards are the biggest temptation kids will face. The joy of using the markers and erasers is unparalleled.
Kids who can’t sit still and work have a homing instinct that allows them to find each other and sit next to each other.
Some kids are very loud and some require quiet to work effectively. These kids will both be in my class at the same time.
No matter how much fun I think it will be, kids don’t want to write. It’s too much like school.

However, the joys largely outweigh the negatives that will oftentimes happen when you get a bunch of random kids together. At the end of the week we do a gallery walk so that parents can see what we did. And we did a lot! Some weren’t focused enough to do everything, but that’s okay. As long as they had fun and want to come back to do more art, I’ve achieved my goal. And you get treasured moments like when a parent asked her son what his favorite part of camp was and he said “having you as a teacher.”

Here’s some pictures of work from both camps. We made movie posters, trading cards, comics, spaceships and crews, and lots more. If you want to know about any of the activities that I did, please send me a message and I’ll get back to you!