I know how difficult it can be to fund a classroom, as a homeschool mommy, buying supplies and materials for my children could get expensive. Thankfully, now, with my years of experience in teaching art to students (and buying and supplying all kinds of materials), I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks for saving money on back-to-school art supplies. Creating a distinctive art-making environment for your students that supports exploration and choice IS possible on a small budget!
In this blog, I’m sharing five creative ways to save money, without compromising quality, while you buy your art supplies for teaching and engaging art lessons this coming school year. As an art teacher and Montessori art trainer, I really think these tips will get you started on the right tack for this new year!
5 Tips for Saving Money on Art Supplies:
1. Buy High-Quality Montessori Mediums & Materials
Buying quality materials is important because you want kids to be successful and enjoy the creation process. Poor quality items can stifle a child’s creativity and can even discourage their artistic passion, making them want to give up on art altogether!
Poor quality Montessori art materials can be bad paint brushes that fall apart, paints that don’t mix properly into secondary colors, or cheap paper that isn’t designed to absorb watercolor paints and rips easily. Buying cheap may seem like a smart money-saving move, but high-quality art products will always be the better option because they will last longer, sometimes even beyond a single school year—and you can buy them without spending tons of money!
You don’t have to purchase everything all at once; start off slowly. Invest in just one or two mediums to use in your classroom for the first few months of school, then add more later. For example, purchase quality watercolor paints, watercolor paper, and paintbrushes for the first month of school. Your students can explore and create lots of paintings with this one medium. The next month, buy premium color pencils and drawing paper, then, the following month, add another medium such as clay or crafting material. You can literally teach hundreds of lessons with a single mediums, simply by changing the subject (and inspiration gallery) each week.
2. Cut Art Supplies in Halves & Quarters
Cutting art supplies down to smaller portions works well when you’re teaching a large group. I usually do this with paper and mediums like crayons and oil pastels. It’s a way to multiply your supplies without needing to buy more sets. This is one of the ways to make high-quality art material seem cheaper, since you’re getting more bang for your buck!
Here’s an example of what I mean: you can buy one dry watercolor painting set that one student can work on, or you can cut up the paper into halves or quarters and up to four kids can enjoy the art project at the same time.
I go a little more in depth with this tip in my book Introducing Visual Arts to The Montessori Classroom, under the art supply chapter. I also share my art-teacher insight as to why this is very important (even beyond helping you save money).
3. Know Which Art Supplies to Splurge and Save On
There are a couple of mediums I recommend you save money; with these, you can buy a cheaper grade and it will not affect your students’ art making results. I recommend spluring on art material like quality watercolor paper, paintbrushes, smooth drawing paper, primary paint colors, dry watercolor paint sets, and watercolor crayons—these will go a long way and last a long time. However, go ahead and save your money on these items (which you can likely find in a hobby or craft store):
- Oil pastels
- Soft pastels
- Colored pencils
- Clay
- Crayons
- Glue
- Markers
4. Take Advantage of Back-to-School Discounts for Teachers
Teacher discounts are everywhere, even online, so don’t forget to use them! Almost every major craft and art store offers teacher discounts. (This article lists more than 80 stores that offer teacher discounts!) Stores know teachers have to buy in bulk, so they’ll sometimes offer special wholesale pricing on large purchases.
If you don’t see anything posted in an ad or in-store, ask about a discount anyway. I remember one time I asked a craft store, they had a teacher discount, plus a special program for something I buy in bulk regularly! 🙂 Don’t be afraid to ask!
My kids-friendly, eco-friendly online art supply store www.store.EcoKidsArt.com has a 20% teacher discount through the end of August, plus free shipping within the U.S. Use this Coupon Code: 786Orange when you check out online.
5. Ask Parents for Help With an Art Supply Wishlist
Here’s a tip I really want you to do every year at the beginning of school: send out an art supply wishlist to your students’ parents. It will help you decide what art mediums you really want to introduce to your students, without the constraints of your school’s budget. It’s also a way to inform and engage your students’ parents with what their children will be learning in art during the coming school year.
Send this wishlist letter out the first week of school. You will find that there will be a handful of parents who would love to donate or be of some help to get the school year off to a good start. Give them a wish list of premium stuff like watercolor paper pads, paintbrushes, and palettes. I talk to thousands of parents every year, and so many of them tell me they wish their school would support more art making in the classroom. I promise there’s going to be a few parents that will be excited to support you. You can never have enough quality art supplies!
Bonus: Save By Creating with Recycled, Used, or Found Natural Items
I’ve come up with time-tested, low-cost ways to teach painting skills. Plenty of painting practice and color mixing experiences can be achieved by altering paint surfaces like using recycled or found items in nature. Get scrappy by using these types of materials to paint on rather than buying new items for each paint project. This list of cheap, found materials (plus other money-saving tips) can be found in my book, Kids Painting:
- Rocks
- Sticks and twigs
- Wood scraps
- Large butcher block paper
- Cardboard boxes and cereal boxes.
- Paper rolls
- Cheap fabric rolls (cut into mini paint canvases)
- Egg cartons
- Old CDs
- Large seed pods
- Pinecones
- Seashells
If you would like to learn more about setting up for more art making in your classroom you can order my digital or paperback book, Introducing Visual Arts to The Montessori Classroom, which has dozens of art lesson ideas and art supply advice. You can also check out this blog post: 10 Items to Include in your Montessori Art Shelf.
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