Art Lessons for Substitutes

You thought teaching art all day was going to be easy? And then there are no day plans left, and barely any materials. The glue is all dry or glued shut, the sparkles are all over the table, and will be all over your bag for the next month as you put your bag down before seeing the sparkles. Ah well, here are some art activities that work for any grade.

  1. Chalk drawing. Most schools still have chalk – some even have coloured chalk. If it’s nice weather, go outside and allow the students to draw. One fun idea is to have students lie down and another student draw their outline. If it’s not nice, draw on the chalkboard if there is one, or on paper. Be sure to leave time to clean hands at the end.
  2. Torn paper art. If there is construction paper and glue, then students can tear little bits of paper and make a picture using little bits of torn paper. (See picture below.) Be sure to leave at least 10 minutes at the end of class to clean up as this activity usually leaves lots of little bits of paper everywhere!
  3. Students love the learn-to-draw videos on YouTube and often have a great time following them. One that is easy and that leads to great results is drawing a 3D hole. I sometimes have to pause the video so that students can keep up with the video. See the video here: Draw a 3D hole

No matter what you do with the students, be sure to have them clean up at the end of the day and make sure they are not using copious amounts of material. Have fun because art is fun!

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