Middle School First Week of Art | Back-to-School Activities Grades 6–8

Start the year with creative, age-appropriate activities designed specifically for the middle school art classroom. This Middle School First Week of Art lesson pack gives students opportunities to create, collaborate, reflect, learn classroom expectations, and begin thinking about themselves as artists from the very first class. The activities are designed to help students feel comfortable in the art room while also giving teachers useful insight into student interests, confidence, creativity, and prior art experience. Use the lessons in sequence during the first week or mix and match individual activities based on your schedule. Why Teachers Will Love It - Designed specifically for grades 6–8 - Combines creativity with community building - Helps establish art-room routines naturally - Gives students meaningful work from day one - Includes artist identity and self-expression activities - Includes collaborative challenges - Includes reflection and goal setting - Works with basic classroom supplies - Flexible for short or full class periods - Useful for mixed-experience groups Perfect For - Middle school art - Grades 6–8 - First day of art - First week of art - Back-to-school activities - Art 1 introductions - New student groups - Art classroom community building - Sketchbooks - Early finishers - Shortened schedules - Homeschool art Skills & Concepts Students practice: - Creative thinking - Artist identity - Self-expression - Collaboration - Communication - Observation - Visual problem-solving - Drawing - Design - Reflection - Goal setting - Art vocabulary - Classroom responsibility Materials Needed Most activities use basic supplies such as: - Drawing paper - Pencil - Eraser - Markers - Colored pencils - Crayons - Sketchbooks - Printed activity pages Estimated Time Most activities can be adapted to approximately 30–50 minutes, depending on class length and student age. Teacher Tip Use the first-week activities to learn about your students while they learn about your art room. Their choices, confidence levels, collaboration, and reflections can give you useful information for planning future projects and differentiation.