As a teacher, I can attest nothing brings out the creativity of a child like a children’ s art easel. With a kid’s easel, some paint, markers, paper, and a smock, a child’s imagination is free to run wild.  A children’s easel will bring all kinds of joy to your child’s life and to yours as well. Of all the possible toys you can give a child, a kid’s easel ranks #1.

Types of Children’s Art Easel

You have several choices available for an easel. They include:

• Chalkboard
• Dry Erase Board
• Paper Roller

Additionally, you can get ones with cups to hold paints and markers. Trays that remove for easy cleaning. Some kid’s easels are adjustable allowing the easel to grow with your child, making it last for years and years.

Most easels are portable, or at least fold. Some have wheels while others do not. The one thing you will always get is a stable surface for your child’s imagination to grow.

The Top 5 Selling Children’s Art Easels

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Standing Easel $41 – This easel has it all. It has both a chalkboard and a dry erase board. Plus, it has a paper roller for when you child wants to paint. The paint cups and paper are not included in the package, but your child will spend hours creating.

Rose Art Smart! Easel $43 – The makers of the popular Rose Art art supplies brings you this easel. The Rose Art Smart! Easel comes with a  dry erase board, side flaps, paint tray, an under-tray for catching artwork, 8 washable markers, and a 50-foot paper roll. It has a metal frame and a carrying bag. Your kids will love it.

Little Tikes Double Easel $59 - Little Tikes always delivers quality products and this is no different. The Little Tikes Double Easel has two drawing sides for sharing the fun. It comes with chalk, an eraser, and a pad of paper. One side has a chalkboard and the other side holds the paper for painting. It has large removal trays for all your kid’s supplies.

Alex Super Rolling Art Center with Paper Roll – 43.75″ $158 – This kid’s art easel may be more expensive than the others but it is built to last. It is made of wood with rubber wheels. This can last for generations. It has two shelves and eight paint cup holders.  It includes a chalkboard, a dry erase board, paper and a paper roll holder with clip, a child-safe paper cutter, 4 non-spill cups to use for paint, and 4 plastic cups. Your kids and your kid’s kids will be glad you bought it.

Do-Art Travel Easel $20- This easel comes with 12 colored pencils, 8 colored pastels, 8 markers in various colors, chalk, a sponge eraser, a sharpener, a drawing pad and a brochure of instructions and ideas. It has a whiteboard, chalkboard, and a drawing area. The storage area is nice and it does fold up nicely for travel.

Congratulations! You have completed all your college courses, took the test, and have accepted your first job. Now you find out that teachers are not given any art supplies. So what do you do? Considering you have little money, you need to get creative.

Learn the secrets of Teacher Art Supplies to find out how to supply your class with what they need at a price you can afford. With a few teacher secrets, you can have more supplies than you ever though possible.

School Art Supplies

First thing you need to do is check out the school art supplies. Most schools will have a die cut machine (it cuts out shapes and letters). Some have a Cricut. Whatever you have you need to find out what your school has and how to use it.

Since most schools have die cuts, you will only need staples and construction paper to make creative bulletin boards. Get a pack of construction paper now for your first board and then you can use the student supplies to make more.

How to Create BIG Designs

The most overlooked tool is the overhead. Shine any design onto a large sheet of paper and you can trace it.

For example, I do a Dr. Suess “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” wall. I get a transparent sheet and trace a fish from the book. I think place the tracing on the overhead and shine it onto a wall that has butcher paper on it. Pulling back the overhead makes the picture bigger and bigger. Once it is the right size, I trace it on the butcher paper. This makes very cute displays.

You can do this with your school logo, picture books, or anything else you can trace.

The Basic Teacher Supplies

Every teacher needs to have some basics. This is the stuff you want to keep for your own, even if the school provides it. It includes:

• A good stapler
• Your own set of crayons/markers/map colors
• Staples (I prefer colored but any will do.)
• Tons of shaving cream
• Lots of Baby Wipes
• Storage Bags
• Dry Erase Markers
• Construction Paper
• Glue Sticks
• Organizer (I use a tool box)

Additionally, teachers will want to stock up on some other supplies as they start getting more money. I once had a mentor tell me, “Anything you can do at home is worth the money.” This is one of the truest statements ever. Not only does it save you time, it will save your sanity.

• Die Cut (Sizzix is a Good Brand)
• Card Stock Paper
• Glitter/ Glitter Glue
• Tissue Paper (Assorted & Holiday)
• Stamps (Letters, shapes, sayings)
• Ink Pads
• Paints

As you grow as a teacher, you will find more and more art supplies seeping into your home. It is not unusual to find a retired teacher with a whole room full of art supplies. In fact, teacher garage sales are a perfect place to bargain hunt for your teacher art supplies.

Good luck and may your teaching years go pleasantly.

As a teacher, I was always asked, “What do the kids really need?” Sometimes it was, “Are they really necessary?” Of course, parents never asked me this but friends and family did. After all, it seems like you buy all these supplies every year and you wonder where they go. They don’t come home at the end of the year and you really don’t see that much come home.

Here I will try to explain why the school art supplies seem to magically disappear and show you ways to save on the purchase of art supplies. As a parent, you want your child to have school art supplies but you also want to save money where you can. Here you can learn from a teacher what you need and why.

Where Do School Art Supplies Go?

Construction Paper

One of the big “disappearing” supplies is the assorted construction paper. Each year you are asked to buy 9×12 and 20×24. However, you know your child does not use all of it. So what happens?

The deal is that construction paper is used for more than art projects. Teachers use the paper to create bulletin boards, flash cards, and all sorts of things. Additionally, some of the paper is used for teaching exercises that get thrown away after they are used. However, I have found most of the paper is used for drawing and kids do not always take these “free time” drawings home.

Liquid Glue

Since liquid glue is not very expensive, most people do not ask much about it. However, some do. Therefore, I will let you in on what I did with the glue.

Tempera paint is expensive to buy and a BIG mess to clean up. So it was rare that I let the kids use tempera paint alone. However, when you add a few drops of paint to a mixture of shaving cream and glue, the paint goes a long way. It forms a sort of puff paint that is very easy to clean up. You can literally take a baby wipe and clean it off clothes, tables, hands and anything else.

However, it takes quite a bit of glue. So I might add a large hand full of shaving cream and about half that in glue to get the paint. It was well worth it and the kids love it.

Pencils, Crayons, Markers

I always found it easier to take up all these supplies and dole them out when needed. This way every kid always had the needed supplies. Additionally, if a cap got left off a marker, then a parent doesn’t have to buy a whole new set just to get brown.

Many teachers use the community property idea with these supplies. It makes sharing easier (no “mine”) and everyone has what they need. Since these are easily broken and consumable, kids do not take them home.

This is also why some years you may not be asked for them. Instead of asking parents to buy crayons, which they have plenty of, they ask parents to buy a more unusual supply like zip lock bags.

How to Save Money on School Art Supplies

Construction Paper

Many times teachers run out of pink and red paper. You can save money if you ask the teacher if she would like you to purchase a specific color instead of the multicolor pack. She might even appreciate the offer.

Buying in bulk is also a good idea. If you see it on sale (normally at the end of the year), then buy a bunch of them and keep it for upcoming years. We actually bought a several cartons of paper on sale for 10 cents each ream. The carton had 20 reams, therefore a carton was $2. We had a place to store it and had paper for close to 10 years!

Elmers Glue

Teachers write this on the list because it is recognizable. What they really want is plain white liquid glue. Therefore, you can buy whatever brand of glue you want to save money.

As for buying in bulk, not always a good idea. It can dry out. However, buying a couple of bottles at the beginning of summer for the next year is perfect.

Pencils, Crayons, Markers

Pencils – As long as you buy pencils with Number 2 lead, you are fine. Get whatever kind you want. I go with cheap.

Crayons – Buy your standard 24 color set. Anymore is a waste of money. No need to buy a name brand like Crayola either. Again go cheap.

Markers – Buy standard coloring markers. DO NOT buy permanent markers, even for middle and high schoolers. They are banned from most schools and will be taken up. (Drug use: Stiffing)

When it comes to watercolor art supplies, they seem to disappear. However, if you apply these teacher tested techniques, you will find your watercolor supplies last longer and are more effective.

Kids love watercolors but unless they know how to use them, it becomes a watery mess. Here we will discuss choosing child appropriate watercolors and tips to make the art project pop with color.

Watercolor Brands

Like everything else, you can find tons of brands of watercolors (not to mention types.)

Some of your more popular brands include:

• Crayola Watercolors
• Primacolor
• Rose Art

As a teacher, it has been my experience, through hundreds of kids, that the price of the watercolor does not matter. In fact, my experience shows it is all about the technique.

How Does Kids Roseart Watercolors Work?

For best results, you need to follow certain techniques to get the colors to show up. If you do not teach the kids the proper technique, they will end up with soaked paper and a watery mess. As a side note, this technique works for all the watercolor brands including Crayola.

Prepare the Colors

Watercolors need to be “primed” for maximum effectiveness. Therefore, you need to add a couple of drops of water to each color. You can use the brush to rub the water in a little bit, but it does need a tiny bit of water to start the flow.

Prepare the Extras

You will need:

• 2 cups half full of water
• 3 Paper Towels/ Dish Rags
• Construction Paper/ Porous Paper
• An extra watercolor brush

It helps to set these up in an assembly line order as follows.

Dirty Water Cup:

Each time your child wants to change color, the child will clean off the excess color in the dirty water cup. This cup is only for rinsing off the brush. It is not used for adding liquid to the watercolors.

The Dirty Color Towel:

After rinsing off the brush, the brush will have dirty water on it. The brush should be dabbed on the next towel to remove any excess watercolor. (If you skip this step, your yellow and red colors will turn an icky brown.)

The Clean Water Cup:

Next, your child will dip the brush in the clean water cup. The water needs to stay clean in order to maintain the integrity of the colors. (If a color needs to be primed again, use this water.)

The Second Clean Towel:

This towel is used to tap off excess water. Too much water on the brush will make the watercolors to watery and won’t show color.

Begin Painting

With the paint primed and the brush slightly damp, you are ready to paint. All you need to do is rub the brush around in the color. Circular motions work best to coat the entire brush. This will give you the fullest color.

• If water starts to pool in the color, take the extra paper towel and dab out the water.
• If the paints accidentally mix or dirty water gets on the paint, take the paper towel and dab that up. (Do not rub)
• When paints need to be re-primed, use the additional clean brush and add a drop of clean water to the paint. If necessary, rub it in. Then clean the brush with the dirty water, dirty towel,  and clean water.

Picture Perfect Watercolor

This may sound like a lot of work, but it really is worth the extra minute or two it takes to set up. Additionally, if you teach your child the method, then they will have better success at school.

The process is easy to learn and I have taught children as young as 4 this process. They pick it up fast and they love to paint!

Learn what Art Supplies for Kids you really need for school and how and where to save money. Sometimes you need the name brand but most of the time you don’t. Learn the difference to get your child off to a good start with Art.

When it comes to ART SUPPLIES FOR KIDS, there are more options than you could possibly imagine.You have watercolors, markers, glitter, acrylic paint, puff pain, colored pencils, school art supplies, teacher art supplies, and the list goes on and on. Ideally, we will make finding the art supplies easier, tell what they are for, and if you cheap will work.

Kids Art Supplies Basics

We will break this down into two groups: school art supplies and craft art supplies. They are slightly different and each has their purpose.

School Art Supplies

When buying art supplies for school, you really need to go cheap. (Trust me, I used to teach.) Chances are the supplies for younger children will go into a big bin anyway. These supplies need to be functional as you will never see them again.

• Crayons -
  • Younger kids can get away with 8. However, a standard box of 24 is perfect. Buying a bigger box is pointless.
  • Rose Art or other cheap brand works just fine. Save the Crayola brand for home. Crayola is less waxy and will give truer color. However, for school go with cheap.
• Construction Paper -
  • You will need an assortment of construction paper every year in elementary school. Therefore, if you find a cheap price for the 9×12, then buy a lot and hang on to it.
  • Teachers always run out of red and pink construction paper. (Think Santa, Valentines Day, and Mother’s Day.) You may want to talk to the teacher and see if she wants you to buy a package of red or pink instead of the assorted colors, which they often have plenty to go round.
• Map Colors – Colored Pencils
  • Younger children buy the cheap kind as they will break and get lost.
  • Older children, starting around 4th grade, it may pay to invest in the better quality. This is especially true for middle school and high school where maps are important. They will need to color a lot and breaking lead only means buying more colored pencils.
• Glue -
  • The list may say Elmer’s glue but really they mean all purpose white glue. Rose Art glue will work just find and it is cheaper. Teachers just don’t want you to buy the glittery stuff or fancy art glue. (This is important as we use it for other stuff than gluing. Glitter glue can mess up projects where glue is an ingredient.)
  • Stick Glue – If stick glue is asked for, then buy the kind that dries clear. There are some purple ones that dry clear but you don’t want one that dries purple.

Kids Art Supplies for Home

When you are at home, this is the time to buy the better products.

• Crayola makes the best crayon and will give the truest color.
• While Playdoh is nice, Moon Sand never dries out. You can find it at LakeShore online or through the catalog.
• The Squeeze paintbrushes look nice, but they are hard to use. I would not recommend them.
• Buying kits for art projects can help in 2 ways.
  • They give you the supplies you need to make cool crafts
  • They give you enough to have substantial leftovers for future crafts
  • I recommend the project kits at LakeShore for a wide variety of goodies. They have Insects, Oceans, Transportation, Dinosaurs and so many more.

Best Art Supply Advice

I highly recommend keeping all extra supplies. Put crayons, markers, map colors, google eyes, and everything else in individual plastic baggies. You can organize them in a tool box for easy access. Additionally, sort of construction paper and card stock in an according folder to easily see what colors need replacing.