Curriculum Planning for Art Teachers: 5 Easy Ideas to Stay Organized All Year

Do you smell that familiar art room aroma? It’s time to kick off a new school year—freshly waxed floors, leftover art supplies, and boxes of new materials waiting to be unpacked. As you hang displays and rearrange tables, don’t overlook one of the most important (and most forgotten) tasks: organizing your art curriculum. It’s easy to push aside when it’s not visible, but once the year picks up, no one likes scrambling for lessons to be the norm. A little planning now can save you time, stress, and chaos later.

Grab these five easy ideas to keep your art curriculum organized all year!

The Art of Ed’s Community Engagement Team is here to support your best year teaching art yet! We share our top curated picks to help you manage your curriculum so you can redirect your art teacher energy to the artmaking magic.

1. Start with the end in mind and work backwards.

Do you keep a running list of neat artists, magical techniques, and fun art projects? We all do, too! While it may be a tendency to try to incorporate them all into your year, we’re here to remind you that you don’t have to. Cramming in too much can make your students’ learning shallow, and your schedule tight and chaotic. 

Instead, start with the end in mind. Think about any standards or big learning targets you need to meet. Work backwards and include only the top artists, processes, and lesson ideas that best support the concepts and skills at hand. And a bonus? This method makes it super simple to swap out an artwork or activity later without compromising your overall curriculum! 

Read More!

2. Develop systems to keep resources at your fingertips.

We all know there’s more to curriculum than stellar lesson plans. Supplemental resources like vocabulary lists, sketchbook prompts, brainstorming supports, and assessments can help you differentiate for students and make your art curriculum shine. However, keeping resources organized can be a real struggle with multiple preps. There’s nothing more annoying than spending time rifling through unorganized piles for resources you know you have somewhere.

Although it’s an initial investment, take the time to set up systems that work for you. A great place to start is purging old papers and digital files. When you’re left with only high-quality materials that you’ll use, it’s easier to design systems. Consider organizing by theme, grade level, or project. Whatever you choose, make sure you label things clearly and consistently so the next time you look for something, you can find it in a snap!

Read More!

Speaking of systems, instead of creating your own from scratch, why not customize an existing system full of thousands of resources? Curricula is a curated view within FLEX Curriculum that organizes Collections and Lessons by grade level (K-8) or media. We’ve done the legwork for you to ensure content and activities are sequenced and paced appropriately. Each Curriculum features aligned standards, an overview of the number of lessons and hours of instruction, and extensions for one-day activities or early finisher options. Add them to your Classes and customize for your teaching situation and students!

Discover FLEX!

3. Bring in new ideas one at a time.

Remember that running inspiration list? Maybe it’s artists we want to share with our students, projects we saw on social media, or an artistic discovery we made over the summer that our students absolutely need to see. It’s tempting to want to try everything at once! Instead of diving into overcommitment and overwhelm, start small.

Take one bite-sized idea and figure out how to incorporate it into something you already do really well each year. Let’s say you do a popular clay maraca lesson that your students love. One way to add a fun twist is to introduce a new glaze technique. The following year, you can refresh the lesson again by collaborating with your music teacher for a cross-curricular connection with Caribbean music. Each time you teach a lesson, add one more thing or tweak one area to make it even better.

Join The Art of Ed Community for exciting project and activity ideas, sure to spark your curriculum planning. Then, once you try something new, share your successes and learnings with other art teachers, so they can grow too!

Join the Thread!

4. Create an art curriculum that sparks passion at any stage of your teaching career.

Whether you’re a brand-new art teacher or you’ve been around the block a few times, it can be hard to find curriculum tips that work for you at your stage of the journey. The What Do New Teachers Need to Know mini-series is your essential podcast to build foundational information and refresh you on best practices. While it’s directed at new teachers, the discussions offer great advice and calls to action for everyone, no matter how many years in the classroom you have!

The episode on curriculum specifically reminds you to find lessons and ideas that are interesting to you as the teacher. When you’re passionate about an artist, technique, or activity, your students will get excited too! Build a cache of foolproof lessons filled with fascinating connections, skill-building, and creativity opportunities.

Listen Now!

5. Have a solid cache of sub and one-day lessons.

Building an art curriculum takes time and intention. You spend hours working on the perfect scaffolding of techniques and vocabulary so that everything runs smoothly. But what happens when you’re out sick, there’s a family emergency, or you have to proctor a test? Students know when they’re assigned “busy work,” so it often results in more effort for everyone than it’s worth.

You’re already in a scramble from the unexpected situation, so make the rest of your decisions easier (without compromising your curriculum) with curated Substitute Tips & One-Day Art Lessons. This is a treasure trove full of resources for whenever you’re in a pinch. Take your organization to the next level and compile a Sub Tub with everything already printed and ready to go. You can even base the folders on the time of year so it syncs perfectly with your scope and sequence!

Explore More!

As you settle back into your classroom for another amazing year ahead, remember that the most impactful preparation often happens behind the scenes. Organizing your curriculum is the key to a smoother year with deeper and more intentional learning. Whether you’re old school paper, new wave digital, or a combination of each, set up systems to stay inspired and on track. Invest in networking with fellow art teachers for fresh ideas! Then, incorporate them slowly, keeping the end goal in mind. With thoughtful planning now, you’ll not only avoid the “what are we doing tomorrow?” flurry—you’ll build a rhythm that fuels your joy and your students’ creativity all year long.

What’s one thing you did to organize your art curriculum that you wish you had done sooner?

Do you keep physical, digital, or a blend of both when it comes to curriculum resources?

To chat about curriculum organization with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!