Hey there, friends! It's that time of year where the days might be cold and a little gloomy but the art room can be a bright and colorful place...especially with these projects!
I thought I'd round up some of my very favorite winter art lessons that are (totally free!) kid tested and approved and share them with you. You are welcome to use them in your art making world (although I do not grant my permission for any of these lessons to be repackaged and sold on Teachers Pay Teachers). Nearly all of these lessons come with a video for you and your artists and some come with free downloadable drawing sheets. So be sure and follow the link to the blog post.
This is the perfect Back to School after winter break lesson as it focuses on a review of LINE and PAINTBRUSH CONTROL. Of course, to kick things off for that, you might find my books Larry the Line and The Paintbrush Ballerina very handy!
Both books are rhyming books which make them super fun to read. Larry the Line will introduce your artists to the names of lines and ways to remember them and there is a free line guide to be shared with students in the back. The Paintbrush Ballerina has a strong focus on how to use, handle and care for a paintbrush. I created a ton of free downloads to accompany that book and you can find them here and here!
Once line and brush practice is complete, early finishers practice their penguin drawing on dry erase boards. The following glass, we dive into large paper and draw with our beloved bingo dauber! If you have not used them yet in your art room, here's more details!
Chalk was used (sparingly!) to add a little shadow and color to these cuties! From there, we cut them out and added them to the spiral line painted backgrounds.
Now this kindergarten snowman lesson was very similar in the lesson format! We reviewed lines and painting and created the background. We practiced drawing snowmen and then created our own with an ink filled bingo dauber. Then we cut then out and attached to the background!
If you are short on time or are uncertain if your kindergarteners won't accidently decapitate their snowman in the cutting out process (it happens) then you could...simply have students decorate the background! This early finisher made a second snowman and just added spots of color for snow. So do what works! Save your sanity!
If you do have some early finishers who are looking to practice their snowman drawing skills then I might have a fun game for y'all! This one is FREE WITH DOWNLOADS and I promise your students will love it. This works for all early finishers so be sure and have it on hand for your artists as they work.
Looking for a little something that would serve as an in-between project? Maybe a short lesson that is sure to yield big results? This winter pup and kitten lesson was a kid favorite! Each one was so cute and the artists just follow along drawing with me in the video! Check it out here.
After winter break is usually when I start hyping myself up for upcoming clay projects! I definitely don't do those right after a break...I like to ease back into a routine. So to get the kids excited about clay and the annual Clay Mug Lesson, we create these big ole hot chocolate paintings! Of course, we use our ink-filled dauber. For color, I love to use neon oil pastels and liquid watercolor.
Looking for a quick collage lesson? This one is perfect! And we created them in a smaller format (I think it was 6-8" squares?) so we were able to use up paper from the scrap bin. This is a great lesson to remind students on how to use their scissors and glue too! Need a book about that? I might be able to help...
I wrote Scissors, Glue and YOU! to help all artists learn to use this supplies without waste or, worse, injury! It's another fun rhyming book that features Larry (from Larry the Line) and Alfred! Kids love to see these two in art class. You can check it out here.
If you do decide to venture into the clay mug lesson, I've got ALL of my tips and tricks for you! I did this with my whole school for several years and they LOVED it. It was an outrageous hit and I think I figured out the best way to go about teaching it. You can check out all the details here!
A lesson that I love to do each year with my third grade artists is this one! We used to create these pieces on cardboard pizza rounds until I convinced my friends over at Prang to create ROUND PAPER! You can now buy it here.
Speaking of round paper...that brings me to all of the snow globe lessons I've created! Turns out...I've made a lot! This lesson was designed for my fourth grade students. They loved getting detailed with all of the buildings for their snow gloves! Lesson here.
Because we explored MANY concepts in this lesson, it was a long one! So for some shorter snow globe projects...
Let's start here! This one is also great for a sub because I have a free video as well as two free downloads to go with this lesson!
With these two free downloads, your students can also create the following snow globe lessons:
I know chalk can be a bit of a mess and that's a big reason so many of us steer clear but...would you look at these beauties by my fourth grade? Lesson details here!
Today I thought I'd put together a big ole blog post of some of my very favorite lessons that both introduce and continue to explore painting with children. So if you are looking for a fun and engaging lesson for kids of all ages, I think you'll find something here. Thanks for dropping by!
If you've been hanging out with me for a while, then you've seen me share my method of painting with my students. Here's a little background on how the journey of the Paintbrush Ballerina began:
If you'd like to hear a little big of the book, check this out:
I wrote the book in rhyme as those have always been my most favorite books to read to children. In this story, our paintbrush friend who has been abandoned in a watercup in front of palette tells the tale of the Paintbrush Ballerina. You can read more of the book and see the illustrations here.
It's tough to watch out students struggle with the most essential art supply: the paintbrush. And it's a real bummer to see the destruction they do to our expensive brushes! So I took everything that I learned from 25 years of teaching art to small children and put it into this book!
If you'd like to see me talking to my kindergarten about how to use their paintbrush, then check out this video here:
If you are curious about my teaching methods and would like to see more, I have a playlist on my YouTube channel called "A Glimpse Inside" where you can visit me as I teach my students.
Keeping that brush on it's toes is always the goal! Check out this sweet kindergartener doing just that!
Alright, now let's dive into those lessons, shall we? I have no rhyme or reason to the order of these lessons. This is just a big ole smattering of some of my faves!
Let's start with kindergarten who are my very favorite! After learning about the order of the color of the rainbow, we dive into painting our own with tempera cakes. Tempera cakes are a fave in my art room as they are low mess and, low prep and the colors are just beautiful! I'll circle back to this lesson in a moment.
Now let's skip forward to third grade. By then, you'd think they'd have a better idea of how to handle their brush. BUT I gotta tell ya, 'tis not the case. Even tho it feels like we say the same things all day long (cuz we do!) we are saying it to different groups of students! So I had the same sayings and phrases on constant repeat...and the bit about the Paintbrush Ballerina was one I always said. AND they always love!
To read all about bingo daubers and why I love them in the art room, visit here. If you've not tried them out in your art room yet...be prepared to fall in love!
When it comes to painting, it can be overwhelming as to where to start! Do I begin with color mixing? Mark making? Introducing white and black to share tints and shades?
Here's what I've learned: start wherever you like! BUT start with just one thing. That's the easiest for you and your students. So, first things first, begin with how to use the paintbrush! THEN...maybe go with mark-making. I introduced my students to a wide range of color and mark-making ideas to create these beauties.
For many years, this is how I introduced both painting and line to my kindergarten students. By limiting the color to just black (we used a diluted black ink to allow the brush to paint more smoothly), we could focus on just the brush and the lines. From there, we were able to add color!
When it came to introducing color to kindergarten, I usually did that, like I mentioned, the day after our black and white line painting lesson. That's when we did the rainbow paintings. BUT...since I'm skipping around a bit, you'll have to scroll down a pinch to see that first rainbow lessons.
Many of my kindergarten lessons are born out of "the fast finishers need another something to paint!". And that's what happened here! After painting the rainbow, many students then got a sheet of paper and painting stripes of rainbow color. This served to be the perfect background for these adorable self-portraits!
So sorry these are kinda out of order. Truth be told, when I try to edit or move images around, they tend to disappear. So...it's easier if you just scroll then if I sprout more gray hairs.
Meanwhile, in first grade, we took the idea of our paintbrush being a ballerina a little further. We listened to music and had her paint across our page!
More info here. You can also check out how we made these into beautiful weavings!
And now...color mixing! These wee Mouse Paint masterpieces were created by kindergarten. The best part...the Hobby Lobby frames!
I recently had someone give me a hard time about this...
I shared that often, at the start of the school year, I do the same lesson with all of my students, kindergarten through fourth grade. Why? FOR MY SANITY! I'm usually trying to set up my classroom, introduce a thousand routines and just keep my head above water. Once I have my Back to School footing, I feel good venturing into different lessons with everyone. But, to start, we all begin with the same supplies, same visuals and same lesson.
This commenter DID NOT like that and let me know.
Now look, I'm cool with sharing your thoughts and opinions but...there's a way to do it. AND if you aren't an art teacher then...you might just wanna sit it out, you know?
Regardless! I did THIS same lesson with all students AND put a twist on it so it ended up being a big ole collaborative. So there! ;)
Now, let's jump forward to fourth grade! Here's one of my favorite landscape lessons based on folk art. We created these with tempera paint and you can check out more about this lesson here.
My second grade students created these paintings with either a warm or cool color watercolor background. When using watercolor, I often have my students decide if they will use one family of color or the other. This keeps their paintings from becoming 'muddy'.
This lesson with fourth grade introduced my students to tempera cakes and many different painting methods. We began by painting these stripes of color that were later used to draw buildings in Sharpie. Full lesson on this process, with video, here.
We used cardboard circles as our base for our snowglobe. I had my students create three sketches first. They LOVED those little small circle paintings so much that we turned THEM into a project too!
This snowglobe lesson was done with tempera cakes. And glitter...which I don't recommend, ha!
I've done a couple hot chocolate/cup of coffee based lessons (I may be a little biased, I suppose!) and you can find this lesson here!
Let's circle back to the ole bingo dauber, shall we? It's like a Sharpie on steriods!
I LOVE that we can create the most epic contrast with the bold black ink and these bright paints! We are using Jack Richeson's neon tempera cakes here.
This is the perfect Back to School after winter break lesson as it focuses on a review of LINE and PAINTBRUSH CONTROL. Of course, to kick things off for that, you might find my books Larry the Line and The Paintbrush Ballerina very handy!
Chalk was used (sparingly!) to add a little shadow and color to these cuties! From there, we cut them out and added them to the spiral line painted backgrounds. 
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