20 of My Favorite Fall Lessons!

Fall is upon us, y'all! Thank goodness as I'm just about over these super hawt Tennessee temps! For the occasion, I thought I'd put together a big ole blog post of my very favorite lessons for fall. Some of these are advanced and would work well with older students too!

To find each of these lessons, just tap on the links. Nearly all of the lessons have a instructional video for your artists and some come with free downloads. As always, these are for you to use with your artists and I provide them for free. PLEASE do not reuse/repackage them and sell them as your own on TPT. I hate that I have to say that...but it happens.

Okay, grab those fall leaves and let's dive in!

Let's kick things off with this here sculpture lesson! These little pumpkins would be fun for any lil pumpkin to create and they are super easy! Sculpt in one class and paint the next. Done! Find the lesson here. 

My students LOVED anything spooky! This lesson is inspired by a contemporary artist. I know your students will also love the paint smearing aspect of this project! Find it here. 

Need a quick in-between-lessons project? Or one that's perfect as a sub plan? Then you may want to try this one with your students!

My students LOVE drawing sheets and love creating silly characters! This sheet (and video!) is totally free! Have students practice draw along with me on a dry erase board before diving in on their own Candy Corn Characters. Find the video and this free download here. 

Oh man! Did my students love this lesson! We used Gelli plates and Dollar Tree sunflowers to print these on bright and bold copy paper. To give them an Andy Warhol look, we used puffy paint for the outline. These are always show stoppers! You can find the lesson details here. 

If you want to share printmaking with your students but don't want the mess...than have you ever tried Marker Printing?! It's so fun and easy! Check it out here, you'll be amazed!

To deck the halls with a little bit of spooky, why not try these big-eyed owls on for size? This lesson incoorporates weaving, collage, watercolor painting and more! You can find the lesson video and details here. 

I'm a HUGE fan of Celluclay! For your older students, they could make a pumpkin head planter! Any plastic planter will work...or even a plastic water jug! All the details can be found here. 

If not a pumpkin, how about a skull?! I loved making this big guy...and the spider palm plant at the top was just so funny! I think I need to add some eyes to him though, what do you think? All the details here!

Did someone mention eyeballs?! All you need for this is plaster wrap, aluminum foil and paint! I made tons of these for my Halloween tree. You can check out the process video here. Middle schoolers would LOVE this!

Aliens and monsters are always fun to create during this time of the year. I love this lesson because students work BIG and use their bingo daubers (you know I love 'em!). You can check out the lesson details here. 

Did someone mention monsters?! These Loud Mouth monsters are inspired by the artist Greg Mike. I also paired it with a lesson for students to have choice in what their monsters could be saying. You can find the handouts for this as well as the video here. 

Looking for some collage lessons?! This one is a riot! I love how all of the Franks turn out differently. Let me walk your artists through the process here!

Here's a lesson I did every year because it was always such a hit!

Need a lesson on painting landscapes? I loved this one and each turned out so colorful and happy. We looked at many fall landscapes and the colors of the fall. You can find the lesson details here. 

One of the most popular lessons on my blog is this one! When I did it, I used homemade Gelli plates which are a total pain to make! So if you have Gelli plates you'll love this lesson...and it will be so much easier! You can find the details here. 

Need a fall collage lesson? I did this one with my first grade and they loved it! We painted, printed and collaged. You can check out the details here.

Need a fun fall weaving lesson? This is it! I would recommend this with small groups if you are working with children in second grade and younger. I did this with my third graders in the spring...so maybe, for this time of year, this would be best suited for fourth grade and up. Lesson here!

More monsters, you say?! Look no further! Here's a lesson I used as a sub plan!

And I saved one of my All-Time Faves for last...this Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night inspired hauted house lesson! All the details here!

And there you have it! Happy fall, y'all!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #117 and It's Fall, Y'all!

 Fall Colors Monday: I scored this vintage dress last spring and I've been saving it to wear on the perfect fall day every since. Despite that 1950's Ima-gonna-choke-ya collar, I love it so. dress: vintage, etsy; belt: Anthro; shoes: Frye; pin and bangles: vintage, gift from moms-in-law

Well, hello thar, buddies! I dunno what you are doing this upcoming week but I can tell you that mine is totes kid-free! That's right, I'm on Fall Break. To the creators of said Fall Break, I take my hat off to you (not that I'm much of a hat-wearer but in this case, I'll wear one and, well, take it off). I'm so looking forward to this week cuz it's gonna be a wild and crazy ride. Tomorrow I'm heading to Bowling Green, Ohio to chat with art educators there (deets here, kids. It's free and open to the public so you should totes attend, kay?). After that, the hubs and I are heading out to Cali for back to back nights of haunted fun-ness. I've got all my Halloween dresses laid out and ready to be packed up just for the occasion.

Since it's fall and all, I decided to dress in my fave fall dresses this week. I also thought I'd share with you some of my favorite fall projects that have been posted on this here blog. Just incase you get that crafty itch (which they've yet to make a cream for) and wanna get your artsy on. 

I'd love to hear what you are up to this fall. Anyone else on break? Whatcha doin'? Until next time, kids, enjoy this fallishness!

 This here leaf-relief project is one that I've done with my third grade students (and buddies on craft nights) and they always look amazing. The process is simple, the supplies are cheap and the results are rad. Follow this link-y-loo for the directions.

 Terrifying Tuesday: So on Tuesday night, I went on a lil photo shoot. More details to come unless I made a fool outta myself (um, more so than the norms) and gotta go confiscate all said photos and burn 'em. Seriously, y'all, I take my own pics with a timer or my handy clicker. I ain't used to no one being behind the camera so it's a lil unnerving when there is! Although, I gotta hand it to the photographer, he was great. But I'm rambling, deets to come, eeeh! dress: vintage; shoes: Dolls by Nina

 One of my favorite things about fall is the changing of the leaves. A coupla years back, I collected a million leaves and started squashing 'em between a leaf press. After a couple of days, I took them out and created several paintings like this one with them. 

 Do you even know what a stress reliever it is to tighten the screws on one of these bad boys everyday? I love that the leaves retained their color and still the look the same in these paintings even though they are years old.

 Whuz Up, Wednesday: This week was seriously a busy one. It seems each day of the week I was buzzing off somewhere. I'm so glad it's fall break, y'all. Let the laziness commence. dress: The Limited, a couple years back; sweater: Thrifted

 My kindergarten friends created these leaves-floating-on-water pieces a couple of years ago. One thing I always add to my school supply order are those Rolyco Color Diffusing Leaves (sold in just about any art supply catalog). My kinder kids learned about line, the veins of a leaf and warm colors just in the leafy portion of this project alone. After coloring the leaves with warm color marker, water was added and the magic of color diffusing happened. The leaves were backed in construction paper with a small square of cardboard added to the back for a pop-out effect. For the water, the kids painted concentric circles and added a piece of tissue on top. 

 Big Puffy Arm Thursday: Seriously, whatcha doing there, Big Fat Sleeve? Oh, did I forget to mention that I've been workin out but only that right tricep (or is that a bicep? Maybe my thigh-cep? Whatevers, my arm looks big in the picture. Why didn't I just say that?!). dress: Anthro, found at Buffalo Exchange; top: gift; embroidered necklace: DIY, here

 I love this project so much that I'm actually really excited to return to school after break and to a variation with my fourth grade students. You can read more about this project here. 

 Fall Break Friday! Not that I'm excited or anything, ahem. sweater, belt and dress: thrifted; necklace: Forever21; owl sandals: Anthro

 I love embroidering when I travel. It's the perfect little craft. In fact, I'm getting ready to start a new stitchin' for our upcoming long plane rides. You can read about this stitched up fall blouse here. 

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