Welcome to Art With Coach T | An Elementary Art Blog
Hello and good day!
I’m Caitlyn, and I’m here as your growth mindset and art education coach.
If you’re interested in strengthening resilience in your art room or at home, you’ve come to the right place.
I believe that art teaches us that you can do hard things — even though hard things are HARD to do.
And in a time where AI and technology are taking center stage, building timeless skills through hands-on, no-screen experiences matters more than ever.
This blog is where I’ll share classroom-tested elementary art projects, lesson plans, management tips, and art resources that will help your kids develop resilience and social emotional intelligence.
What you’ll find here: Elementary Art Lessons and Resources
For Educators:
Ready-to-use lesson plans with step-by-step instructions, photos, and videos.
Projects designed to strengthen fine motor skills, encourage creativity, and build resilience through a lens of growth mindset.
Tips, tricks, and all the goofy analogies I use to make content accessible to a diverse range of learners.
For Families:
A growing library of kid-friendly art tutorials—collage, painting, weaving, paper sculpture, printmaking, and more!
Simple setups you can try at home with everyday materials.
Resources to help you embrace being a beginner and create together.
My Why: Building Resilience Through Art
For nearly a decade, I have watched how the process of art making has helped kids develop life skills that carry far beyond the art room.
Making art is a low risk way to build some of the most important and timeless traits we need in the age of AI and technology – resilience and creative problem solving.
Consistent practice — even when it’s difficult — is how children develop patience, self-discipline, and confidence.
But courage comes before confidence. So why not make something super cool with our hands AND learn how to be a strong person at the same time?
Why do I go by Coach T?
Along with my passion for art-making, I have a life-long love of strength training.
Pushing beyond limits, learning to cope with failure (missed lifts), trusting the process of practice makes progress — all of this translates perfectly to the art room.
And I hook my students on day one by stating, “Building muscle takes practice, patience, and time. And that’s what we’re going to do here. Build our art muscles one lesson at a time.”
It’s an instant hook. The idea immediately creates a space of curiosity, trust, and willingness to try.
To be a coach of any kind, you have to be able to establish authentic relationships, keep your targets engaged, and have a deep understanding of your subject matter to make it accessible to a wide range of recipients.
So, up front — my space is goofy. We tell jokes. We talk about mermaids and superheroes.
We also try hard things. We get frustrated. We support each other.
And behind the scenes — I design art lessons for kids to build fine motor ability and learn the elements of art in an accessible, scaffolded sequence over time through an SEL framework.
TLDR
We make cool art and learn how to be accountable human beings.
Want to know more about me? Read here.
How to Get Started
🎨 Grab your free art mantra coloring pages here. We start every art class saying these words. It lets those little energetic bodies know that it’s time to create!
📚 Browse my growing library of elementary art projects and kid-friendly tutorials here.
Click and start creating if you’re brave enough to be a beginner.
Together we’ll build art muscles, resilience, and classrooms full of confident young artists.