Keeping Students Creative Over Summer

During summer school breaks, students often fill their schedule with “fun.” Camps, day programs, and vacations are all the stuff summer evokes for many students and parents. Parents and students often approach me towards the end of the year to ask about creative options for the summer. For parents and students, I developed a handout to help parents and students know where to look for local opportunities to further their art education over the summer months. You may want to do the same if you are an art educator. Here are the general opportunities that you will find for preteens and teens over the summer.

Keep Learning!
Summer is a time when students can focus on their passions. If art is one, consider how to provide opportunities in the arts. As a teacher, I compiled a comprehensive list of where families could turn for art classes in the summer. Look towards your community art organizations, summer recreation programs, museums, town education programs, local colleges, art associations, businesses, etc, to find classes. Those programs and offerings are often easily accessible through an internet search. You will often find a wide variety of classes, from basic painting and drawing to media-specific—classes like photography, printmaking, fashion, ceramics, etc.

Camps
From day camps to sleep-away counts, camp is a summer tradition for many. You can also find art-specific camps with an arts and crafts component. Summer is the perfect time for students to explore, experiment, and relax from the school year pressures. One of my student’s parents spoke enthusiastically about her high school daughter’s summer art enrichment program, saying her daughter connected to the other artistically minded campers and seemed more comfortable and confident after the experience.

Create at home
I encourage parents who want to encourage creativity in their children to provide opportunities at home. How do you do that, particularly if art isn’t a subject you feel knowledgeable about? I encourage parents, when possible, to create a creative space in their home. That space, where their child can be a little messy, could be a desk or table in their child’s room or a corner of the family room. The next thing is to keep some basic creative supplies. Over the years, I have been surprised to learn that not every house keeps basic creative supplies like glue and construction paper. So, here is a list of supplies I feel are good to have in every home for middle and high school learners. Buying these basics during back-to-school sales will often save you time and money. Teachers often assign “fun” projects that tap these materials, so having them on hand is best.

Basic Art Supply Recommendations:
Scissors
Rulers
Tape
Glue: glue sticks and craft glue like Elmer’s Glue
Color pencils: The Crayola brand is fine; for older students, a set of Prismacolor is nice
Crayons
Colored markers
Sharpies
Pack of construction paper
White drawing paper
Posterboard
Graded Pencil set
Basic #2 pencils
Sketchbook

For the middle school art student: A tabletop easel, tempera paints, brushes, watercolor set, watercolor paper, oil pastels, apron (or old oversized shirt)
For the high school art student: Canvas board, sketchbook, brushes, acrylic paint, paint palette, pastels

Family activities
Plan a trip to an art museum, gallery, or studio. I took my high school classes to a museum and after being there a few minutes a student walks up to me and asks, “Are these paintings real?” And she bombarded me with other questions. “How can museums afford all this art? How valuable is this art?” In all her 16 years, she had never stepped foot into a museum. While art may not become every family’s hobby, don’t make them strangers to museums.
Respond positively to your child’s art. Ask questions about what they learned when making the art. Hang your child’s work, even frame a favorite piece. A nice mat and frame can make even a beginner’s efforts look impressive and make a child proud.

Be a maker yourself!
If you have a hobby, share it. Sewing, needlepoint, and even house projects are great opportunities to build dexterity, learn skills, and become a maker. Let your children try or assist you. Thanks to YouTube, my daughter has helped her dad construct a grill, replace a toilet tank, and teach herself to crochet. She’s marbled paper with me and has been to numerous museums, galleries, and art shows. She’s moved from a restless toddler to a thoughtful observer in her teens.

Get creative with jobs and volunteering
Over the years, my students have used the experiences from my art class to find jobs. They have worked in local clay studios, as assistants in art classes, and at local art and crafts stores, to name a few. One even landed an apprenticeship at a local architecture firm while in high school. My child earned community volunteer hours, which her high school required by volunteering as an aide for classes for special needs adults at our community center.

Portfolio Development
Upper high school students may have the goal of using the summer to fill out their portfolios for applying to art colleges or for supplemental programs for non-art majors. Some businesses will work with students one-on-one. Some colleges host pre-college programs that will help develop work for portfolios. Your local community art center and art educators may also provide these opportunities.

Summer Homework
Some teachers give their advanced art classes and AP classes summer homework. This assignment was an example of a teacher’s summer work for an advanced art class. You can find examples of teachers’ summer AP assignments below.

AP (Advanced Placement)
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3 (3D)
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6 (Photography)
Example 7
Example 8
Example 9
Example 10