Elementary Art Lessons, Projects & Teaching Ideas for K–5

Because art is fundamental to who we are. Art has always been a basic form of human communication. From cave walls to classroom walls, art helps us express ideas, tell stories, and better understand the world around us. I believe art is an essential part of every child's education, which is why I chose the name Art is Basic. Here you'll find K–5 creative art lessons, teaching ideas, and printable resources to help K–5 art teachers inspire young artists.

Easy End of Year Art Project: Collaborative Banners

Are you looking for an easy end-of-year art project? On the last days of school, I had some students that needed to finish up art projects and others that really just wanted to be done with the school…

June 6, 2015
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Create a Memory Book of Your Child's Artwork-- Preserve your art!

Create an Art Memory Book

My daughter who is in 4k comes home with at least 3 drawings every day. She can draw during free choice or nap time (she won’t nap). Plus with the drawing she does at home, we have collected…

May 30, 2015
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Summer Art Challenge

I am going to introduce this summer art challenge to my students next week. I did this summer art challenge a couple of years ago and we had a lovely display in the fall. The parents of the…

May 25, 2015
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First graders create bird paintings after learning about Audubon.

Bird Pictures with First Graders & Studying Audubon

I am so proud of how well my first graders drew these beautiful birds and I’m excited to share them with you. We started by reading the beautiful book The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John…

May 23, 2015

A fingerprint and hand art project at the end of kindergarten.

End of Year Kindergarten Fingerprint Art

Our Kindergarten teachers approached me with a request for an art project for the back cover of their memory books. The kids have filled out pages in their memory books all year and they wanted a colorful back…

May 19, 2015

Non-objective drawing featuring colorful shapes, with a black wave, a blue circle, and multicolored squiggles on a white background.

Non-objective Drawings by 3rd and 4th Graders

I love non-objective art. Non-objective art means that the art does not represent or depict person, objects or places. It is a picture with lines, colors and shapes as the subject. I teach this drawing project every year…

May 16, 2015

A set of four abstract panels on a white background, labeled Analogous, Warm, Rainbow, and Cool, studies colorful geometric shapes.

Color Scheme Studies with 3rd Grade

My third grade classes studied color theory by using the color wheel. They learned about many different color schemes including warm, cool, neutral, primary, secondary, rainbow, analogous, monochromatic and complementary. First, they started by coloring in this Color…

May 12, 2015
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Paper Hats with 2nd Graders

This is just a quick post to share with you a simple and fun project for the end of the year.. paper hats! The kids started with a long strip of construction paper, drew designs on their hats…

May 1, 2015
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Art Around the World – Sketchbook Prompt Cards

I am super excited to tell you about my new pack of sketchbook prompt cards. My students enjoy learning about different art works and they like getting small nuggets of information along with the chance to create artwork…

April 27, 2015
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Making talking sticks by painting and decorating branches.

Making Talking Sticks with Kids

Earlier this year, one of the second grade teachers approached me about an idea for an art/social studies collaboration. She had read a story to the children about a tribe which used talking sticks. She thought the students…

April 26, 2015
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Vibrant inspirational quote poster decorated with heart and flower doodles, reading "It is not how much you do but how much you treasure the things you do."

A World of Artist Journal Pages Review

I am excited to share with you the book A World of Artist Journal Pages. It just arrived in the mail yesterday and it is thick.. just full of inspiring art pages. And I am super excited because…

April 22, 2015

Learning about Louise Nevelson and making an assemblage with children

Making an Assemblage & Learning about Louise Nevelson

I have seen variations of this project many times but have never tried it with my students. I am pleased with how our assemblages turned out! This was a great opportunity to clean out the junk in…

April 17, 2015
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Paper Masks and Paper Sculpture Techniques

These lovely paper masks were made by my second graders. The students learned different paper manipulation techniques including controlled tearing, punching paper with Fiskars squeeze punchers, cutting with paper edgers , crimping paper with a paper crimper, making…

April 10, 2015