Managing the Art Room: Mindful Art Starts: From Chaos to Calm

As an elementary and middle-school art teacher, I experienced the chaos as students enter my classroom at the start of each period. Their high energy typically resulted in less time to make art as I waited for them to settle in so they could listen and learn. I soon realized I needed strategies to make this transition a less disruptive one.

Mindful Art Starts
I started a ritual at the beginning of each period in which I played instrumental music as students entered the dimly lit room, collecting their art folders and proceeding to their tables to begin a mindful art activity. Some “mindful art starts” were self-guided, while others were led by me. I found this calming daily ritual not only beneficial for my students’ social and emotional well-being, but it also helped with my own sense of well-being.

Having taught learners with varying ability levels, some of whom experienced trauma and others who faced physical, emotional, and social challenges, I witnessed how mindful art activities can help students de-stress, manage their emotions, and promote well-being. After decades of teaching art to all grade levels, most recently at the university level, I would like to share some arts-based strategies to create an effective, efficient learning environment that has proven to work successfully for learners of all ages and abilities.

Mindful Breathing
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations (Oxford Dictionary). One minute of deep breathing at the start of class provides an opportunity to transition from chaos to calmness and readiness to learn.
Sample Script: I invite you to sit comfortably in your chair. Sit up tall so you can breathe deeply; feel your feet on the ground. Close your eyes if you feel comfortable doing so. Relax your arms, your shoulders, your hands, and your face muscles. Now just pay attention to your breath.

After giving them a moment, I ask students to breathe deeply and be mindful of the rise and fall of their abdomen while breathing. I sometimes ask them to imagine the clean air entering and fueling their body. When they exhale, I ask them to imagine all the stress exiting with each release.

Breath Lines Activity: With paper on the table and a pencil in hand, breathe slowly, moving the pencil up as you inhale and downward as you exhale, visually recording the movement of your breath. When you get to the end of the paper, start again, overlapping lines if necessary. After several breaths have created a pattern, transform those lines into a realistic or abstract drawing.

Lines and Patterns
Line types and line quality are essential components of art that are included in art teaching at every level. Types of lines include vertical, horizontal, diagonal, zigzag, and curved. Line quality includes thickness, length, shape, color, value, and direction. The repetition of lines creates patterns.

Mindful art starts can include one type of line per day, resulting in mini patterns that can be used in future compositions or collages. Repetition of lines in daily doodles, or repetition of movements in other art projects like weaving or knitting, can be very calming.

Dot to Dot Activity: Draw two dots on a sheet of paper, then connect them with a curved line. Draw two more dots and another curved line connecting them. Additional dots can be added to expand the drawing, with students continuing the process of connecting them with curved lines. This mindful line design allows for focus and flexibility, and each student’s work is unique, stimulating conversations about beauty in variety.

What’s Worth Repeating?
Using inquiry prompts during mindful art starts can provide a jumpstart and connect the art-making to social and emotional awareness and other real-life concepts.