Art teachers teach amazing art lessons all day long… but where do those lessons come from? Whether you write your own lessons from scratch or use a curriculum suite like FLEX Curriculum, sometimes lesson planning can feel like extra paperwork. Transform lesson planning from the dullest part of your week to your highlight! There are so many ways to have fun and play with your lesson planning to unleash creativity for you and your students.
Here are five ways to have fun with lesson planning in the art room!
1. Puzzle, Play, and Plan
We all want to have fun and engage our brains at the same time. There is nothing more rewarding than the feeling of discovery and achievement! Approach lesson planning as a game—think of it as solving a fun puzzle where you’re tasked with fitting learning objectives, materials, and timeframes into one cohesive plan. Plus, it helps you avoid repetitive ideas.
To get started, write various art materials, techniques, and project lengths on separate slips of paper. Keep them in their respective categories and toss them into jars. Draw a slip from each jar and challenge yourself to design a lesson using each! For example, you may pull printmaking, symmetry, and one-day lesson. Suddenly, you’re planning a fast-paced printmaking lesson where students create simple stamps and print them in a radial pattern to demonstrate radial symmetry.
2. Swap, Share, and Spark
Lesson planning doesn’t have to be a solo mission. Team up with colleagues to infuse your process with fresh ideas and energy. Collaborative planning not only lightens your workload but also brings in diverse perspectives and synergy across the art department or multiple content departments.
Here are three fun ways to collaborate:
- The Planning Relay
One teacher starts the lesson plan with a theme or objective. They pass it to the next teacher who adds a medium or activity. Keep passing it along until you’ve built a complete plan together! - Lesson Plan Swaps
Share plans you’ve already created with fellow teachers. See how they remix or tweak them for their classrooms. - Brainstorm Circles
Gather a group of teachers, pick a topic or material, and let everyone throw out ideas. Build off each others’ suggestions to create something new and exciting.
3. Spin, Roll, and Create
Similar to the first idea, make lesson planning playful, but this time with a randomizer tool. This keeps you on your toes, ensuring your brain and creativity stay sharp. Once your tool of choice generates a word, plug it into FLEX’s search feature to gain helpful resources.
Instead of staring at a blank template, try one of these methods:
- Spin the Wheel
Create a simple spinner based on a category like medium, theme, or technique. Let fate decide the focus of your lesson! - Roll the Dice
Create or find lists of art styles, materials, or class activities. Number the items on each list and then roll a die to determine your plan. - Card Draws
Use a deck of prompt cards with challenges like “use found objects,” “focus on texture,” or “include an unexpected material.” Draw a card to give your lesson plan a new twist.
4. Sketch, Visualize, and Build
Sometimes, the best way to plan is to just start creating. Make quick sketches to depict how you envision the final product and then work backwards to plan the lesson. You can also gather images, textures, or color schemes and arrange them on a mood board to visually organize your ideas before writing. Alternatively, browse the vast archive in FLEX and bookmark intriguing resources. Under My Library, organize them by class so they’re easy to find and use. Another idea is to try a mind map. Write your main idea in the center of the page and branch out with as many variations as you can think of! This method can result in dozens of lesson ideas you can work through over the course of the year.
5. Reflect, Revise, and Refine
After trying new planning methods, take time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Switching up how you approach lesson planning isn’t about finding the “perfect” method—it’s about discovering what sparks your creativity and keeps your planning and motivation fresh.
Think about how new playful lesson-planning strategies went with these reflection questions:
- Did planning feel fun or stressful?
- Were students absorbed in your lesson?
- Which method generated the most exciting ideas?
Lesson planning doesn’t have to be a grind—it can be a playground for your creativity. By treating planning as a game, collaborating with colleagues, using playful tools, and visualizing your ideas, you’ll create lessons that are as exciting for you as they are for your students. So take a deep breath, roll the dice, and dive into playful planning. You may find that the joy you discover in the planning process will translate into a vibrant and invigorating experience for everyone.
How do you keep lesson planning fresh and exciting?
What’s your favorite way to generate engaging art lesson ideas?
To chat about playful lesson planning with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
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