February is a wonderful time to take stock of what you have already accomplished in the art room and think about what you still want to focus on.

The weather is often cold, rainy or somewhere in between and despite it being our shortest month, teachers can accomplish a lot in this wintery window.

Download the February Freebie Pack for some great lessons to use this month. Click the yellow button below and we’ll send 4 seasonal lesson templates straight to you! (NOTE: We recommend downloading the freebie using Chrome or Safari)

While Valentine’s Day and Black History Month are probably top of mind, this is also a good time to ensure that you have a place to store artwork for upcoming Spring art shows. 

If you haven’t created your student portfolio’s yet (I know, please don’t gasp…many teachers like me just never seemed to get around to it until absolutely the last minute), this is the month to do it. 

Here is a very good strategy for creating student portfolios and sorting student art.

Do you do a ceramic unit? If so, this is a good time to start cleaning out your ceramic cupboard, see what you need, throw away all the junk and start adding water to all of those bags of dried up clay (yes, you can reconstitute clay!).

What’s happening this month in February…

Black History Month

While it’s better not to limit the celebration of black artists to just one month, this is a great time to start. 

Here are a few lesson and posts ideas for you:

Alma Woodsey Thomas | Painting a Rainbow  Learn about Alma Thomas and her colorful abstract art

Beautiful Blackbird Art Project | The art of Ashley Bryan A great Kinder- second grade project that shares a wonderful book with a color theory lesson

Here’s a list of picture books to help celebrate Black History Month plus matching lessons.

Valentine’s Day

It’s the month of love and I would argue that this too should also be celebrated all year long. 

As a teacher who only brought non-religious holidays into the art room, somehow I just couldn’t bypass Valentine’s Day. It may have been the glitter or the pretty red hues but I suppose it was really the happiness that these colors and activities brought to the students. 

We have many FREE Valentine’s Day Projects right HERE.

Chinese New Year

The Year of the Dragon Art Project is a quick watercolor resist lesson and fun way to celebrate the Chinese New Year with your students. It can be leveled up or down for several different grade levels and adapted to your students’ skill levels. In this lesson, students will create a fire breathing dragon with a flame that includes their vision for the new year in just a few words.

Winter Sports

I absolutely loved creating the Tonal Winter Landscapes with Sports Figures.  Any chance I can get to design a figure skating costume, well, I will definitely take it. The sports figure handouts are located in the download so make sure to grab them.

Before you know it, February in all its glittery glory will be gone and signs of Spring will be on the way.

Make sure to stop and smell those supermarket roses and know that it’s 100% OKAY to s-l-o-w waaaay down, not celebrate and do everything and that by just showing up, you are doing something special.