5 Art on A Cart Tips & Ideas for Teaching Art on a Mobile Cart
Okay so let’s dive on into 5 Art on a Cart Tips that you can simply and easily do. I taught Art on a Cart for a couple years and while it was a challenge, I learned a lot. Keep it simple and pick a limited amount of mediums that can be used with endless possibilities and start pushing that art cart!
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KEEP YOUR ART MEDIUMS SIMPLIFIED:
Do not try and explore everything. You are going to a different space and there is set up and clean up time which means instruction is shorter than you would like it to be. Keep your art mediums simple and use 4 art mediums for all art projects and then be creative on how you use and instruct them. I would use wax crayons, felt markers, watercolor paints, and oil pastels for all your projects you do. Hopefully students can use their own wax crayons and markers so you don’t have to wheel those around, but if not, it’ll be okay to take those too. Put your supplies into containers of 6 each and stack them in dishwasher containers to keep them organized on your cart. These mediums are easy to wheel and easy to clean.
KEEP OLD FOLDERS:
There is no time to wipe tables, or at least, not all the time. I kept the same set of old filing cabinet folders for 10 years. You unfold them and they’re a sufficient size for creating on. Let them get messy with anything. Fold them back up and put them on the cart. Who cares what gets on it, they are fine and never deteriorate. I even did paper mâché on them and they were still good for another 4 years. It’s amazing. You only need to keep as many folders as your biggest class.
INBOX/OUTBOX:
Keep your bins simple. You don’t have a classroom so you don’t have the space to keep a bin for everything. Keep 1 bin for work being collected and one bin for work you’re handing back. I would consider color coding your teachers or classes so as they hand in, use a felt marker to Dot the back of the work so if the student struggled with labeling, you will at least have a guess.
FIELD EASEL & DRAWING PAPER:
I might be dating myself here, but when I was teaching art on a cart, only 1 classroom had an Elmo or digital overhead projector. If a classroom has this, you’re all good, just teach under the classroom’s camera and give the surface a Lysol wipe before you leave as curtesy to that teacher.
But if you don’t have the luxury like I didn’t, I used my field easel and an MDF board and large drawing paper for demonstrations. I had kids sit close to me like carpet time and did my demonstration.
FREE Art Lessons for Kids!
Click here to download my Free Art Projects that you can use in your classroom!
CHOICE-BASED ART:
Do a lot of choice-based art with the kids. This will take a lot of pressure off of you in terms of planning and coming up with ideas for everything. If you need a break, pull a prompt out of your prompt jar and let kids pick their own mediums and create. Art on a Cart isn’t easy and the timing between classes is nearly impossible so keep your sanity and keep it flexible and simple and if you need to, give the power to your students. They will love you for it!
Art on a Cart | 20 Art Lessons & 10 Art Activities for Art Teachers
Prep for your Art on a Cart Journey like a Pro with Ms Artastic’s Ready-Made Art on a Cart 20 Art Lessons & 10 ARTivities Art Resource for Art Teachers. A complete Art Resource that includes 20 Art Lessons, 10 Art Activities & Assessment for your Cart and Art Teacher Binder to help you plan and be ready FOREVER like a pro in under 10 minutes! This is a one-and-done resource for your Mobile Art Classroom & for Art Teachers to help you be ready for teaching Art on a Cart with 4 art mediums or flexible options Planning! Never worry about having to search for Art Lessons that can Easily be taught with an Art Cart again because this resource has EVERYTHING you will need for stress-free and worry-free Art Planning. Includes Non-Editable Art Lessons & ARTivities.
✂ Use this Art on a Cart Resource and Art Lessons with ONLY 4 Art Mediums OR your choice of art mediums! ✂ Use ANY Art Mediums with the 10 ARTivities and Use EITHER the recommended Art Mediums OR Choice Art Mediums with the 20 Art Lessons too!
Find the link to this resource in the show notes or in the description of this podcast episode or visit my TeachersPayTeachers store. If you’re an Artastic Collective member, this resource is now available to you there!
Well I am Kathleen McGiveron, Ms Artastic, Signing off.
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Find Drawing Tutorials & Art Lessons on the Ms Artastic YouTube Channel!
Finally, if you need some ideas or need to take a break in your classroom or from recording lessons for online instruction, I have lots of Art Video tutorials that are classroom friendly on my YouTube Channel!

Try these Ms Artastic Art Lessons!
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Yours Truly,
Kathleen McGiveron (Ms Artastic)
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