10 Quick Middle School Art Projects When You’re Pressed for Time
Art lessons don’t have to be complicated. These quick art projects for middle school are the best way for busy homeschooling families to make time for art.
What comes to mind when you hear homeschool art?
A time-consuming elective that rarely makes the cut in your busy school week? Something you wish your kids had more time for? That’s what many of us think of art education.
Most of us aren’t art teachers. It’s not in our comfort zone.
But thankfully there are plenty of simple middle school art projects, with step by step directions, that we can use to add art into our homeschool day.
Your art lessons don’t have to include complex activities. Instead, focus on easy art projects that are geared toward your child’s interests.
Quick Art Projects for Middle School
The 10 fun art projects listed here encompass a variety of mediums, so your older kids can learn a variety of techniques. It should be easy to find something that your tweens find interesting.
They can choose from a project using watercolor paints, a couple that replicate the techniques of great artists, simple line drawing projects, a colored pencil mosaic, and more.
No matter your child’s skill level, you’ll find a cool activity that your older kids will enjoy, that won’t take a lot of time.
What are the Benefits of Studying Art?
For middle schoolers, studying art can open up a world of possibilities. It’s a fun way to build self-confidence. Creative activities also help students in other subjects, like language arts and reading.
Art lessons teach critical thinking skills, spark imagination, and can reduce stress. It allows middle school students the chance to learn new techniques and be creative.
Whether they see themselves as artistic, art shows tweens different ways to view the world and lets them express themselves in a unique way.
Take Time for Art
As homeschooling moms, I know it’s difficult to fit everything in. Something has to give. For most of us, that something is often things that take extra planning and time, like art. But as you saw, art lessons have great benefit for kids of all ages. There are many reasons to add some art activities to your homeschooling week.
It’s true that art projects take additional planning, but they don’t all have to take hours to finish. That’s the best thing about these projects. Most of them take around 30 minutes to complete, depending on how detailed your teen gets.
Another bonus is that they also don’t require a ton of specialized art supplies. In fact, you probably have most of the basic supplies on hand already.
If we’re honest, most of our kids will not become artists. Our goal is to add some art into their lesson plans.
Instead of ditching art altogether because of the time-commitment, there’s a better way. Simply change your perspective and choose different activities. Leave the complex art projects for when you have free time and your teen has the interest.
For your normal homeschooling weeks, when you don’t have much time, add one of these quick teen art projects to your lesson plans to give your older kids a break from their book learning to do something creative.
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Art Supplies for Tweens
While this isn’t a complete list of items you’ll need for all the art projects found below, these are some basics.
- different colors of chalk pastels
- color sharpies
- oil pastels
- mixed media paper
- colored pencils
- acrylic paint
Soft Chalk Pastels
SHARPIE MarkersOil Pastel SetMixed Media PaperColored Pencils SetAcrylic Paint Set
When you’re running short on time, but you want to add an art activity to your homeschooling day, choosing one from this list is the perfect way.
Quick Teen Art Projects
When you're looking for a way to fit art into your lesson plans, give one of these a try. They're simple and take little time to complete. They're a great way to develop your kids' creativity.
Add some pop culture to your tween's art lessons with this Baby Yoda project.
Teens will use the juice of blueberries on a piece of paper to create a watercolor effect.
Art created by traditional mosaic tiles is beautiful but time-consuming. This project allows them to create the unique patterns of mosaics with colored pencils.
Encourage your tween to do some research on the famous artist, Wassily Kandinsky, and use their inspiration to paint their own geometric painting. This is a great introduction to his work.
Tweens can use simple tools to draw and color this patterned cat in the style of Laurel Burch.
For a lesson on dimension, have tweens draw and color the cake of their dreams.
This American flag op art project looks cool and is much easier than it looks. It gives tweens the chance to look at things from a different angle.
Chalk pastels are the best medium to use when you're short on time. These chalk art projects are all about the beach.
Turn a lovely nature walk into a work of art with this art project. Older kids will love using a hammer to create their nature artwork.
This rose watercolor resist project will give your teen a chance to work on their watercolor skills, while adding in the element of resist painting.
Hopefully these beautiful, yet easy projects have encouraged you to add some art back into your homeschool days.
Middle School Art Ideas
If you are looking for more inspiration for your art lesson plans, check these out.
- Fall Mixed Media Art Projects
- One Day Art Lessons
- Chalk Art Projects
- Learn How to Draw a Cute Flamingo Pool Floatie
Which one of these quick art projects is your tween going to try first?
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Awesome ideas! We love to add art into our day but it can be hard to find the time; pinning this wonderful list for future reference.
Thank you Joanne. I totally agree, that’s why I’m always looking for ways to fit it in. Ultimately, I found that I was thinking too big, so I started to search for smaller sized projects that I could use to introduce various mediums to my girls. If one sticks, then we spend more time on it.
Love your art posts, Tried to comment and let you know on your others 🙂
My daughter is the artist in the house so she will love these, thanks for sharing!