Winter break provides a much-needed rest for teachers and students. As the break draws nearer and the anticipation grows, you want to keep learning and behaviors focused and excited up to the final day. You need to adjust the length of lessons to fit within the available time. You want to send projects home and clear your space for a good, deep clean. Above all, you want to maintain your sanity as you balance everything.
Make the most of your time and end on a positive note to keep your students inspired to create—even during winter break.
Do a little vibe check.
For some students, school is a comfortable space and a break from troubles at home. Countdowns to break can create anxiety. Embrace the joy of the season with calming activities. Show students work by artists like Wayne Thiebauld or Burton Morris and challenge them to draw the ultimate mug of cocoa. Play a video of a fireplace during a winter snowfall on your screen. Dim the lights slightly and play smooth jazz during studio time.
Students will love the cozy atmosphere as they practice adding color and value to basic forms. This drawing activity has an elastic timeline. It can be completed in a single day or stretched over a few class periods by adding more details. If you teach younger students, consider trimming an inch off the papers before your students begin drawing. That will make it easy for early finishers to “frame” their drawings by gluing them onto a standard-sized sheet of construction paper.
Embrace the winter blues.
Winter can be the perfect time for your students to go through a “Blue Period” and explore monochromatic painting. Make a cool wintery landscape, focusing on atmospheric perspective and color mixing. It will help them to develop their eye to perceive subtle shifts in value. Best of all, there is a very high success rate at all grade levels, allowing all students to end the year with a completed landscape they’re proud of!
Check out FLEX Curriculum for more twists on landscape lesson plans like Moonlit Midnight or Moonlight and Starry Nights.
Encourage productive play over break.
Extended breaks from school provide time to rest and recharge. Much like the “summer slide,” there can be a loss of skills over winter break. Encourage your students to continue making art with fun prompts. Make a big deal about sharing their creations when they return!
Here are three extension activity ideas your students will actually want to do:
- Art Olympics
Create a fun set of challenges or “Winter Games.” Students can act as Arctic architects, designing the ultimate ice castle or building a backyard bobsled track. Make a slide deck with a challenge on every slide and a space for students to document their work. - Scavenger Hunt
Some students will be traveling, and some will stay local. A scavenger hunt is an easy way to get students to be mindful as they explore their surroundings. - Pocket Sketchbook
Use the final days before break to make pocket-sized sketchbooks. Choose the binding method that works best for your classroom. Making it small keeps it manageable for daily drawing and is easily portable. Provide a printed list of drawing prompts to glue inside the cover of the sketchbooks. Gamify the sketchbook activity with a point system: they can earn one point for each sketch and a bonus point if they complete every prompt.
Build a student-curated art show.
Portfolio reviews bring closure to a unit while reinforcing prior learning. It can leave students feeling confident, inspired, and motivated to keep growing and creating when they return. Plus, they don’t require much physical prep or messy supplies.
After students reflect on their work, they select their best piece for display. Students mat the artwork, make title cards, and even write a short artist statement. Glue the work and statements to long sheets of butcher paper. Carefully roll up the paper—work and all. When it’s art show time, all you need to do is unroll it and hang it up!
Bring closure to your classes with fun review games.
The days leading up to winter break can bring some big feelings and logistical challenges. Many students are already mentally checking out and don’t have the capacity to focus and do their best work. Meet your classes where they’re at with light review games and lots of laughter!
Try these three games to close the year:
- ARTle
Review art vocabulary with a game inspired by Wordle. Simply draw dashes showing the number of letters in the word. Then challenge students to figure it out. They can work collaboratively to show you their guesses. To save your mental energy, too, use AI to make planning easy. Tell your favorite chatbot to code a web app with specified features and load a vocabulary list. - Portrait Partners
Curate a collection of portraits from art history. Students partner up and sit back-to-back. One student will look at the portrait and describe it. Their partner will draw the portrait based on the description. After a few minutes of drawing, collect the works and challenge students to match each sketch to its corresponding masterpiece. - What Am I?
Write art terms on index cards. The Elements and Principles, artist names, tools, art mediums, and specific techniques all work well. Students take turns holding the index cards to their foreheads. When it’s their turn, they ask their peers for clues using yes-or-no questions. Set a time limit and give points for each term they correctly guess in a round.
Embrace the power of AI to help maintain connection.
Note: Be sure to follow your organization’s guidelines for permissions around sharing students and their work, as well as AI. It is your responsibility to check on these policies often because they can change quickly.
AI tools can easily generate code for you. In a matter of minutes, you can generate a web app that allows students to upload images of independent work they create over break or share pictures of things they find inspiring at home or while traveling. Using clear and specific prompts, tell your chatbot to code the images so they display on a grid and allow students to “like” each other’s posted images.
You can build and maintain a thriving community of learning with small but consistent effort—even during the hectic days leading up to winter break and during the break itself. Make the most of every minute in your classroom by meeting your students where they’re at with light-hearted activities. When you encourage students to explore and share their creations and discoveries beyond the four walls of the art room, you foster not only lifelong artists but also lifelong learners.
How do you keep students engaged in the final days before winter break?
Do you offer extension options for your students to create independently or at home?
To chat about the art room leading up to winter break 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.
