Art Lessons for Kids
My kindergarten class had a terrific time creating their collage snowmen. It’s a very simple lesson to do with this age group. You’ll need two 30 minute sessions: First session: Cut small pieces of tissue paper into small pieces (violet, blue, pink and any other cool colors) and arrange on trays. Set tray in the [...]
Searching through more archived photos, I thought I would post another one of my favorites. This art project is adapted from one the Arts Attack video art lessons. The main goal of this lesson is to teach the “double-loading” technique. As the students dip their paintbrushes first in one color, then another, a special affect [...]
Van Gogh’s famous Sunflower series is one of the most recognizable art subjects in a classroom. My students loved the flexibility of drawing sunflowers and enjoyed the opportunity to create many types of flowers. Using oil pastel to color is a mess-free choice, although not nearly as “fast” as paints. Drawing with Oil Pastels The [...]
A classic glue and chalk pastel lesson. Using a 12″ x 18″ sheet of white or black construction paper, instruct the kids (directed art) how to draw a cat. You can come up with your own version. I encourage the kids to follow the directions in this lessons as problems arise if the kids don’t [...]
Kinder students at Foothill and MountainView created wonderful gifts for lucky parents this holiday season. With great skill and enthusiasm they created ceramic snowmen. For art teachers, this is a fairly easy lesson to do. I chose to do it with my kindergartners but it might be more suitable for first or even second grade. [...]
If you don’t subscribe to Arts and Activities magazine, you should. It’s full of great lesson plans complete with great photos. I found this lesson in the March ’07 issue. Art teacher Jennifer Bowden submitted this lesson which I found extremely accessible to my fifth graders. I had done a Picasso Face Art Lesson before [...]
Sometimes inspiration comes in many forms. I was perusing one of the many art supplies catalogs that happen upon my desk and I saw metallic paint for sale. Gold, bronze, copper, silver…rich, showy colors. I immediately thought of Gustav Klimt. I picked up a copy of Klimt and His Cat by Berenice Capatti. The story [...]
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This is one of my favorite art lessons for kids. It combines a couple of my favorite techniques…double-loading of the paint and black paint outline. Inspired by the French artist Georges Rouault, the lesson is designed to teach the children about light and how to achieve it within a painting. First the children draw a still [...]
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One of the best books for art lesson ideas is Dynamic Art Projects for Children by Denise Logan. It has many doable art lessons for elementary kids. This Mola project above came from this book and includes great tutorials plus handouts to give to the children. I did this lesson with fourth grade kids but it would [...]
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Paper portraits are yet another fun and easy way to create portraits for your students. Although this project is simple and fun, there are certain steps the children must do along with the teacher in order for the project to be successful. This project usually takes two, 45-minute class periods, perhaps allowing some extra time [...]
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Need a beautiful, accessible project for first graders? This fall stencil project is perfect. Very little prep is needed…just a short jaunt outside to clip some leaves. Make sure the leaves are fresh, not the crispy dried ones that have already fallen. Pour white tempera paint into a paper plate or plastic palette, and add [...]
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This lesson came from the summer ’07 issue of Arts and Activities Magazine. Writer/Art teacher Debra Sweeney created a great project that tied American history with personal history. Her lesson involved researching family trees, but I decided to stick with the pure art possibilities of this amazing monument. Drawing Lady Liberty Draw Lady Liberty in [...]
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After teaching art for four years, and being a creative person, I’m always trying to come up with some new twists on some perennial favorites. The first grade self portrait is one such project. I wanted the kids to not only focus on what they look like but to image themselves in the future. To answer [...]
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Teaching art to kindergarten kids can be tricky. You can make it easy by having them color or fingerpaint, but that wouldn’t make for a great art program…so, I spend alot of time coming up with age-appropriate art activities that all kids, no matter what their ability, can master. This is one such lesson. I discovered it [...]
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This two-part lesson for first graders is one of my favorites. I love the collage aspect of this project. It requires at least three, 40 minute classes or 2 one-hour classes. Background supplies 12″ x 18″ watercolor paper Palettes of liquid watercolors (blues, yellow, green, orange and brown) Oil Pastels (white, green, black and brown) [...]
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