Easy and Practical Kids Art Journal
When process art is prioritized, children can be prolific in the amount of creations they make. This is our simplest hack for collecting, storing, and making months’ worth of drawings, paintings, collages, and any flat, 2D artwork: use a 3-ring binder! Fill it with a few sheets of scrap computer paper, card stock, or any other paper you have lying around. The binder is easy to open all the way, making it a breeze to draw on both sides of the paper or make quick marks. Children can also collage on the pages with paper scraps and a glue stick.
The 3-ring binder is also great for traveling or making art outside, as it has a built-in lap board. Offer a hole puncher and various papers with different textures or dimensions so children can add them to their binder themselves. And, of course, any artwork that is made elsewhere can easily be hole punched and added to the binder.
Children can use pencils, pens, markers, crayons, collage materials, watercolors, or tempera paint in their own art journal/portfolio.
To document the process art experience, ask the child to tell you about their artwork and write their quote in pencil on the back of the paper with the date. Older children can even use their newly acquired writing and make a quick artist statement on a post-it note to stick to the back of their work.
Do you need help reimagining your classroom as a hub of creativity where children share ideas and feel seen, known, and celebrated? Learn more about our Materials Matters course and Professional Learning Workshops and transform your creative practice today.