Elementary Art Projects & Creative Lessons for Kids

Welcome to Art is Basic, a blog full of elementary art lessons, easy art projects, and teaching ideas for K-5 classrooms. Browse hundreds of engaging activities designed to inspire young artists.

Child's drawing of two skeletons with large brown heads and torsos, blond hair, and white stick-figure arms and legs. The design almost looks like thumbprints come to life, adding a touch of whimsy to the scene.

More Halloween Thumbprints

October 19, 2010

A child's drawing from kindergarten features a tree with red apples, a flower, and a smiling stick figure under a blue sky with white clouds.

Kindergarten Apple Tree Paintings

Apple Tree Painting Step One: Pass out watercolor paper to kindergartners. Step Two: Write name on back! Step Three: Demonstrate drawing a tree with brown crayon. Add branches. Color grass with crayons. Step Four: Watercolor paint the sky…

October 18, 2010
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Deep Space Sparkle Blog

If you have not seen Deep Space Sparkle blog yet, and you are an art teacher, you must check it out! This is one of the first art blogs I started regularly watching for lesson ideas. There are…

October 15, 2010
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3rd Grade child's artwork of a person with glasses and raised hands, set against a colorful abstract background.

3rd Grade Mixed Media Self Portraits

Day one: Paint squares of colors using watercolor paints on a piece of 12 x18 paper. Finish during this period. Day Two: Cut out tissue paper squares and glue on top of your painted paper. Day Three: Use…

October 14, 2010
1

Painting of a moody sky with dark clouds transitioning to blue and yellow at the horizon, bordered by a blue mat. This art captures the emotional essence of clouds in transition.

Cloud Painting Art Project for Kids

In Science class, the 5/6s studied various types of clouds. In art class, we learned about clouds in art. This website has an amazing selection of famous artworks with clouds. Scientists have identified the types of clouds that…

October 13, 2010
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Close-up of a colorful bird against a textured, abstract blue background with faint text overlays, resembling an eagle painting.

Eagle painting finished

October 12, 2010
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A cartoon fly with a thought bubble saying "Why me?" showcases today’s whimsical art.

Drawings I did today

October 8, 2010
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Close-up of a mixed media craft piece with a fabric leaf, buttons, lace, and painted elements on a textured surface creating a unique collage.

collage with fabric and other things

October 8, 2010

Colorful square artwork with blue and orange layers featuring hearts, squiggles, and smiley faces, resembling a quilt. Name "Sophie" in bottom corner.

Complementary Color Quilt Paintings.

Complementary Color Quilt Paintings1st Grade Key Concepts: What are quilts? What are complementary colors? What are patterns? We previously had done a fabric quilt square and I wanted to tie this project into their study of quilts already. …

October 7, 2010
2

Colorful vertical brushstrokes in red, yellow, blue, and purple on a white canvas.

Line Paintings

What are different types of lines? What is the proper way to use paints?The kids in kindergarten learned about various types of lines. We tried to think of all the possible types of lines that we could imagine–…

October 5, 2010

A vibrant abstract painting featuring flowers, a wagon, and an array of bright patterns arranged within mosaic-like sections, reminiscent of a collage.

Farmer’s Market Collage

This is a collage made up of photos, paint, painted papers and doodles. I made this a few weeks ago.

October 1, 2010
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Child's crayon drawing of a teddy bear with a heart on its belly, showcasing a textured finish, on pink paper with a bordered edge.

Texture Teddy Bears

To complement the teddy bear theme in their classroom, the kindergartners drew a teddy bear in art class with crayons. We used texture plates to create texture rubbings on the fur. On the inside of the teddy bear’s…

October 1, 2010

Colorful abstract collage with overlapping letters B, R, D, and A in various patterns and vibrant background splashes, showcasing innovative graphic design elements.

Graphic Design for 5/6s

How is design used in daily life? What do graphic designers create? How can we investigate a variety of symbols and fonts? How can we use appropriate symbols, colors and fonts to represent ourselves visually? Using letters and…

September 30, 2010
2

Hand-drawn shells, sea star, and sea urchin, labeled "Rachel" at the top left with detailed contour lines.

Contour Line Shells

The second graders learned about contour line drawing and observed the qualities of seashells (to complement their studies of shorelines in Science). We also looked at the scientific illustrations of shells by this artist:

September 29, 2010

Blog Hop

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September 28, 2010
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