• Theme:  Skyscraper building study
• Objective: Students will use overlapping, perspective, distance, pattern, line, and composition to depict a cityscape with skyscrapers and other buildings.
• Instructions: Research skyscrapers of famous cities in books or the Internet.  Visit a local downtown area with tall buildings to get ideas.  Students can also imagine a cityscape and draw various buildings with different shapes, sizes, and textures.  Drawing can be in pencil or colored pencil. 
• Materials:  paper, pencils, erasers, colored pencils.

• Theme: Colorful hand drawing that resembles stained glass.
• Objective: Use hands as the subject to create a design using overlapping technique and color to resemble a stained glass look.
• Instructions: Have student trace their own hand and repeat by overlapping and drawing their hand in three different positions to create an interesting design.  Using colored pencils, have the student color the shapes that were created.  The shapes beside each other should be colored different colors.  Use primary, analogous or complimentary colors.  Refer to the color wheel.
• Materials:  Sketch or drawing paper and colored pencils.

• Theme: Heart birds
• Objective: Use elongated heart shapes for the beak, head, body and tail to draw birds.  Position birds on the branches using design and depth composition.  Apply wax resist technique. 
• Instructions: Have example of finished project for child to see.  Discuss design and draw branches on paper using light strokes.  Demonstrate how to draw birds using elongated heart shapes.  Draw larger birds in foreground and smaller birds in background.  Trace with wax crayon and use light brush strokes to apply watercolor paint to give color to give to birds, branches, leaf shapes, and background. 
• Materials:  80lb. paper or watercolor paper, pencils, wax crayons, watercolor paints, brushes, water.

• Theme: If You Give a Pig a Pancake by by Laura Joffe Numeroff (Grades K-1)
• Objective: Create an art lesson on pointillism using a printable based on the book.  Gather books and other resources to show examples of pointillism.  Print pig printable from here.  Provide cotton swabs and acrylic or tempera paints and instruct child to use only dots to paint printable. 
• Materials: Pig printable, cotton swabs, acrylic or tempera paints, foam plates for paint, water for clean up.

analogous example 1

analogous example 2

•  Theme: Winter toboggan in analogous colors. (Grades K-2)
• Objective: Teach color theory, primary (red, blue, yellow), secondary (green, purple, orange) complimentary (colors opposite each other) and analogous colors (any three colors beside each other on the color wheel).  Create designs and patterns with tangram shapes.
• Instructions: Print the toboggan template, trace on card stock or heavy paper and cut out.  Print color wheel to teach color theory.  Discuss primary, secondary, and analogous colors.  Trace hat on paper and use tangram shapes to made designs and patterns.  Print and cut out your own tangram shapes from here.  Use card stock or heavy paper.  Trace hat template on drawing paper.  Trace tangram designs on hat (use a quarter to include circles). Choose 3 analogous colors and color with colored pencils.  Staple tassle to top of hat.  
• Materials:  card stock or other heavy paper, drawing paper, toboggan template, tangram shapes, colored pencils, yarn for tassle, stapler, scissors. 

color wheel

toboggan template

Cornucopia wax resist/ watercolor technique. Example 1

Cornucopia wax resist/watercolor technique. Example 2.

• Theme: Thanksgiving cornucopia (Grades K-3)
• Objective: Demonstrate wax resist technique using watercolors and wax crayons.
• Instructions: Print the printable for children to use. It is best to change the printer setting to print as a watermark to lighten the lines.  Trace the outline of the picture with a wax crayon.  Filling in with watercolors. 
• Materials:  80lb. paper or watercolor paper, wax crayons, watercolor paints, brushes, water.

Cornucopia outlined with crayon.

First grade class. Deer Creek Christian School. University Park, IL

• Theme: U.S. Constitution (Grades 1-5)
• Objective: Create a collage with mixed media.  Cut out images and arrange with cut/torn papers into a design and glue on drawing paper.  Accent with chalk pastels.  Student’s example.
• Materials: printed images, construction paper, chalk pastels, drawing paper, glue, and scissors. 

• Theme: Neoclassical Architecture (Grades 1-5)
• Objective: Discuss and show examples of symmetry in Neoclassical architecture. Demonstrate oil pastel rub transfer and wax resist techniques. Fold paper in half. Draw half of a building on one side; fold paper and rub to transfer image to other side.   Apply watercolor paints to demonstrate wax resist technique. 
• Materials: Images of architecture from Neoclassical period for ideas, watercolor paper, oil pastels, watercolors, brushes, and water.

Scene inspired by Frederic Remington’s The Smoke Signal.

• Theme: Wild West project (Grades 1-5) 
• Objective: Discuss and show examples of images from American wild west.  Use cut/torn papers and found objects and apply with glue to paper to create a scene.
• Materials: Images from American wild west for ideas, drawing paper, various found objects, glue, scissors, construction paper, and tissue paper. 

• Theme: Colored pencil sketch (Grades K-5)
• Objective: Sketch an apple with color pencils.
• Materials: drawing paper, colored pencils, apples with a variety of colors.