Art lessons – Page 2 – Art with Mrs Filmore

“Pumpkin’s Starry Night” – K and 1

November 6, 2025 No Comments

Gahh! These pumpkins are just SO stinkin’ cute! I LOOoove how they turned out, and my students did too! So proud of their hard work and effort. 2 out of my 8 classes finished so far. Here’s some of their finished work- and photos and details on how we made them!
BTW— Please be sure to read some important information at the bottom of this post!

I love all the different facial expressions!

But students didn’t have to include a face in their pumpkin if they didn’t want to

This was a 4 day lesson (40 minutes each art). My YouTube tutorial is posted below the artwork / steps for the lesson.

DAY 1:

This lesson was inspired by “The Starry Night” —Kindergarten and 1st grade students learned about the life and artwork of Vincent van Gogh.

After learning about Vincent van Gogh, I showed students step-by-step under the document camera, how to draw the pumpkin on a 12×12” sheet of 80# white drawing paper. I began with drawing a large “C” on the left side of the paper. Then drawing a backwards “C” on the right side- leaving a little space in between. We then connected the two C’s at the top with a slight curving line, then connected the bottom.

Then we drew the pumpkin’s stem, adding a few bumps at the top and lines inside for texture. After that, we drew a straight line down the middle of the pumpkin, and then curving lines on either side to create more texture, and to make our pumpkins look more rounded. Then students drew the face (if they wanted one) and added a zig-line for the grass (making sure to go OVER the bottom of the pumpkin a little bit to show overlapping).
Then we erased the parts of the pumpkin that was below the zig-zag line. For the final step of day 1, we drew a moon in the sky.

DAY 2:

Students traced over ALL pencil lines with a black crayon making sure to press real hard as they traced. Then students filled in their pumpkin’s eyes and mouth with a black crayon; pressing hard. Students then drew stars in the sky using a yellow crayon (also making sure to press really hard, and to fill in the circles completely).

DAY 3:

Students then painted their sky using black watercolors, creating a crayon-wax resist technique. It never gets old seeing students watch in awe as the paint glides right over the crayon and doesn’t cover it up! Then they painted their grass, pumpkin, stem and moon.

DAY 4:

On the final day, we looked at Vincent’s Starry Night painting again and talked about all the short dashed lines in his work- particularly around each of the stars, and how it made them look like they were twinkling, and how it created a lot of texture throughout.

Students drew short dashed lines in the grass with a dark green crayon, dashed lines with a red-orange crayon inside the pumpkin, and white dashed lines all around the stars; making sure to press down hard as they drew.

Learning Goals:

Students can identify and create various types of line
Students can define texture and show texture within their artwork
Students can define overlapping and show overlapping in their artwork
Students can define and create a crayon-wax resist painting
Students can identify artwork by Vincent van Gogh

I just added 9 NEW Resources (printable PDF sheets for various art lessons) in my TpT store (11/5/25) link is https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/art-with-mrs-filmore

These are the 9 new resources, in case you might be interested!

Fill in the blank sheets of questions for my abstract self-portrait lesson– 2nd grade

Woodland Creatures Step-by-Step Drawing Sheets
Airplane drawing template
Leaf templates/Tracers (FREE!)
Sandra Silberzweig art lesson resource
Artist Statement / Reflection sheet
Mixing Primary Colors Sheet
“I Am” Statements resource sheet
“Finish The Picture” sheets

Please check out my previous most recent posts —

1 point Perspective Cityscapes
Mixed-Media Leaf Impressions
Dotted Leaf Paintings
Art on a Cart

You can also copy the title of any lesson listed above and paste it into my search bar HERE to go to that post.

Thanks so much for visiting my website today!

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”1 Point Perspective Cityscapes”- 5th Grade

November 1, 2025 6 Comments

SO proud of my 5th graders on this lesson! It took 6 to 7 (40 minute) art classes to complete them. (Can’t you just hear all my 5th graders saying “six-sevvven” right now haha)

On the first day of the lesson I explained what perspective meant in art, and showed students some example photos that show 1 point perspective.

Then I showed them the circle template that each student would receive. I drew a large 9” circle by tracing a plate on a sheet of 12×12” paper. Then using a ruler, created little lines along the inside of the circle to mark where students would draw lines using their rulers. I wrote a number at each little line indicating where they should connect their lines.

Students drew their lines connecting to each corresponding number using their rulers making sure to draw lightly. After that they started drawing buildings within each “pie slice” starting at the roofline. They had handouts of buildings to refer to for inspiration while drawing. They could make any building they wanted, and could of course create them from their imagination as well. I explained to create some taller than others, and to make sure that each building touched one another within their circle. I also mentioned to make sure to leave some space in the center for sky.

I also mentioned to make sure any windows drawn inside the buildings go from largest to smallest from the bottom up to show a sense of space and create the illusion that things are getting smaller and are further away from the viewer as they go up towards the vanishing point.

Once everything was drawn, students erased the guidelines created on day 1 that remained in the sky and traced over everything using a fine point sharpie.

After sharpie, students decided on whether they wanted to create a daytime or nighttime sky and created stars and moon or a sun and clouds with pencil. Then began coloring in using alcohol markers, using whatever colors they wanted.

Once finished, (some students finished on day 5, some day 6, and some day 7– but I think I should’ve had more moments of silent art to help them stay focused)— they cut their circle out and glued onto a separate sheet of 12×12” black paper.

These are some works still in progress below —- (my Monday and Tuesday classes are behind everyone else due to holidays and the fact that we started school this year on a Wednesday). I absolutely love the “pencil” store and cool 3D art museum below! My students had some very creative ideas for their buildings!

This is a new art lesson for me this year (2025) and I LOOVE it! I love the fact that it’s a circular design on square paper as well. Lesson idea from art teacher @kerry.daley_artteacher on Instagram. Thank you Kerry for such a cool lesson idea! My students really enjoyed this one!

Please check out my previous most recent posts below if interested!:

“Dotted Leaf Paintings – 4th Grade”
”Mixed-Media Leaf Impressions – 5th Grade”
”Owls at Night” – grades 2+3
”Art on a Cart”
”Pumpkin’s Starry Night” YouTube tutorial
”Drawing a Victorian House”
”Elementary Art Lessons: A quick glimpse of my website!

You can always use my “SEARCH” bar (in the drop down menu) to copy and paste in any of the above post titles to find them quicker as well! Also—- I will be posting finished artwork on k/1 Pumpkin’s Starry Night on Thursday night (11/6/25)! Thank you for visiting my website!

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SPLATTER PAINTED GHOSTS/ BATS / PUMPKINS!

September 29, 2025 No Comments

My first graders had so much fun creating these! It only took 2 (40 minute) art classes to make them too.

Day 1

First, I created these pumpkin, moon, and ghost template tracers made from heavyweight Manila tagboard. I created about 25 tracers each.

Students chose their tracer and taped it with a masking tape loop (I helped with that step) on 3 areas of the back of the tracer onto a sheet of white 80# drawing paper.

Then students splatter painted whatever colors they wanted on top of their paper using watercolors. I told them to cover their paper with a lot of splatterpaint, and to splatterpaint close to the edges of their tracer especially. This makes sure the image comes out clear once the tracer is removed.

Once finished, the paintings were put into the drying rack.

Day 2

I carefully took off the tracers on each paper (it’s a good idea to actually press the tape loops on a bit of cotton beforehand so the tape won’t be AS sticky and tear the paper) I learned that the hard way, as some of the tape loops tore their papers a tiny bit in some areas.

We talked about positive / negative space. If a student chose a moon tracer, they cut out a bat from black paper (that they traced a bat on using my tracer) and glued it on their painting.

Students then drew faces if they had a pumpkin or a ghost with a black sharpie marker to add final details!

Such a fun and quick lesson that my students LOVED! Lesson idea from @artsyblevs

LEARNING GOALS:

students can define and identify positive and negative space within their artwork
students can create artwork using various painting techniques

This was a lesson I did last October (2024) but I never added it to my website until now. The first 3 images from the top are my teacher examples, and the rest are by my students.

NEW artwork and lessons to come VERY soon!

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K and 1 FALL LEAVES

September 28, 2025 2 Comments

My students in grades K and 1st created these beautifully vibrant leaves for the fall trees I made on my schools bulletin board recently! It took just 1 art class (40 minutes) to create.

I did this a couple years back and I’m always SO impressed at how bright and vivid the colors come out! And how rarely any leaves end up being brown or muddy!

We used Roylco brand diffusing leaves (you can purchase these on Amazon in packs of 80 leaves -3 different leaf varieties). I’ll also share a pic of how I did the bulletin board one year with the leaves as a wreath for the holiday season below.

Kids colored on their leaf (1 per student) with any colors of the rainbow they wanted (plus teal and pink) with bingo daubers until the entire leaf was colored in. Before they colored, we talked about colors and discussed what two primary colors make secondary colors. I was VERY impressed with my kindergarten students knowledge on this!!

Once they finished coloring, I sprayed their leaf (while on top of a messy mat) with a water spray bottle (about 4-5 sprays) about 12” away from their leaf. Students loved seeing the water spread the ink and watching their colors blend!

After letting the leaves dry in the drying rack black veins were added using oil pastel, then I stapled them on the 3 trees I created earlier. I made them out of crinkling brown construction paper strips and stapling them together.

I love how the trees came out and how it brightens up the hallway for fall!

I’m planning on using the remaining leaves that didn’t fit on the trees, to decorate the edges of my second bulletin board for other “fall” artwork soon!

Here’s a photo of how I used the leaves a couple years ago for the winter holiday!

Thank you SOO very much for following my blog and visiting my website! I know I haven’t been posting on the regular lately but I definitely plan on it this year!!

I have lots of new art lessons that my students are currently working on and I’m EXCITED to share them with you very soon, so be sure to check back and check your email for updates!

Also please be sure to visit my YouTube channel, and subscribe (I was just checking my videos this morning and was surprised and happy to see that my OpArt drawing tutorial video has over 185k views!!!) for more art video tutorials and read-a-loud stories! And you can follow me on Instagram @mammalovespeaches for additional art lessons and ideas!

Thank you so much

This is my 13th year teaching art! 12th year at my current district and 13th year overall!

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24 NEW LESSONS ADDED!!

May 27, 2024 No Comments

I just added 24 new art lessons for grades K – 5! This is the first year in my district to teach art to Kindergarten as well!

They have been added to the bottoms of each page under each grade level page (see under menu options). Lessons include steps, photos, and learning goals.

These are the new lessons added:

Kindergarten

Paper diffusing leaves w/ marker and water
Leaf rubbings w/ textured frame
Bugs in a jar
“Little cloud “ inspired by Eric Carle
Organic and geometric shapes Robot

1st grade

Fall tree drawing
Lines makes shapes “house”
Sunflower drawing inspired by Vincent Van Gogh

2nd grade

April showers brings May flowers
Pumpkin tinfoil prints
Owls at night
Snowman in perspective
Superhero masks

3rd grade

3D heart
Sunflowers inspired by Vincent Van Gogh
Spider monkey inspired by Frida Kahlo

4th grade

Patterned pumpkin with oil pastel
Dotted leaf paintings inspired by Brandon Rollin
Spooky eyeball drawings
Symmetrical name creature
Box of chocolates
Tiger paintings inspired by Henri Rousseau

5th grade

Finish the picture
A love yourself drawing

Please follow our art room adventures …(well, more like art on a cart for one of my schools!) AND

@mammalovespeaches on Instagram! Thanks for following! More to come!

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“The Big Orange Splot” READ-ALOUD

April 22, 2022 2 Comments

I created a new page on this blog of my video read-alouds for kids (I’m calling it STORYTIME), and for teachers to use in their classrooms.

So far I’ve only recorded one book, but I am excited to add and share more very, very soon! I have a ton of books in my collection in my art room and I recently purchased 2 more children’s books!

If there are any short picture books that you would like for me to add to my videos, please let me know (you can email me under my contact page) Thank you! I hope you like it!

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TEXTURED PAPER QUILTS – INSPIRED BY ARTIST SANFORD BIGGERS – 1st Grade

April 16, 2022 No Comments

This first grade lesson took about (2) 40 minute art classes to create.

Students first learned about the artist Sanford Biggers and we discussed his AMAZING artwork. We also discussed how we’d be utilizing the elements of art; Line, Shape, Color, and Texture to create these fun paper quilts.

DAY 1

After reviewing his artwork, students each received a sheet of 8.5” x 11” copy paper with a grid as seen in the photo below.

Then students colored in each corner with marker, and drew a pattern with black sharpie on the edges.

After that students colored in 8 sections with whatever color they wanted using marker.

Then they drew patterns in the remaining 8 sections with sharpie.

Then students drew ”stitches” with black sharpie all around each rectangle and corners.

DAY 2

On day 2 students cut all around the edges of their paper, creating fringe.

Then students crinkled up their papers into a tight ball and then carefully pulled it apart and repeated crinkling it into a ball and uncrinkling it about 12 times to create texture! Students were surprised they were told to crinkle up their artwork and were amazed that their papers had also shrunk!

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3D PAPER SCULPTURES – 1ST AND 2ND GRADE INSPIRED BY CHARLES MCGEE

April 16, 2022 No Comments

This lesson took ( 2 ) 40 minute art classes to create.

Students learned about the artist Charles McGee and we discussed his artwork. We discussed how we’d be utilizing the elements of art, line, shape, and form to create our sculptures. Then students received a sheet of copy paper with 4 lines pre-drawn and photocopied for the class.

Then using a black sharpie marker, students drew a different pattern in each section, creating 5 sections.

Then on day 2, students cut out each section with scissors.

Students then flipped over each strip, and folded back the ends. They then glued the flaps with a glue stick and positioned the flaps on a piece of 8×8” white cardstock paper and pressed for 5 seconds. Students could place each strip wherever they wanted creating height by placing the flaps closer together, and then gluing on other sections on top of previous ones. They had a lot of fun creating these fun and interesting sculptures!

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COFFEE FILTER FLOWER

April 16, 2022 No Comments

This fun flower lesson was created for my special education class. It’s a 2 day lesson and the materials needed were 3 coffee filters, watercolors, cupcake liners, pipe cleaners, glue sticks, tape and a paper straw.

First students wet the coffee filters down with water using a big paint brush. This allowed the coffee filter to lay flat and also helps absorb and spread drops of paint.

Students then used watercolor paint to paint on various colors of their choice over the entire coffee filter. These 3 filters were then set aside to dry.

On the second day, the filters were folded in half and students drew “bumps” all around the edge to create the petals. Each filter was cut a little smaller than the previous one. Then students glued each opened filter together in the center with a glue stick. A cupcake liner was then glued into the center of their flower. Then using a pipe cleaner, students created a spiral by bending and shaping with their hands. This spiral was then glued into the cupcake liner with a glue stick.

For the final piece, students chose their colored straw and taped it to the back of the coffee filters for the stem.

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ART SHOUT OUTS #4!

June 6, 2020 No Comments

I can’t believe we’re winding down to the last couple of weeks of the school year! Just maybe 1 or 2 more blog entries of “Art Shout outs”!

Here’s round 4!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: **I CAN CREATE ARTWORK INSPIRED BY THE BOOK PERFECT SQUARE !**

In this Google slide, students could view a YouTube video of their art teacher (myself, Kim or Sarah), reading the book Perfect Square by Michael Hall. It also showed steps on how to fold and cut a rectangular piece of paper to make it square.

Students were asked to change the shape of their square paper into whatever they wanted! Students could cut it, tear it, fold it, twist it, rip it, punch holes in it, etc. to transform their square in a creative way! I love their creations!

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES I CAN CREATE: MY OWN MANDALA!

This slide had 6 different mandala examples to look at, as well as a short 3 minute video on how to use the program to create your own mandala online. If you’d like to create your own mandala, click HERE.

My students told me they had a lot of fun creating their mandalas! They turned out amazing too!!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE A TREASURE MAP!

Grab a paper and pencil/marker to create a treasure map. Come up with creative names for places in your own house or backyard. Then go on a treasure hunt with your family! Don’t forget to add color to your map. To make your map look ancient, carefully crumple and uncrumple your map.

In addition, we shared pictures of various maps with buried treasure, and directions on how to age their papers with tea or coffee to make it look like an authentic old map. We also included a 3 minute Youtube video for kids that explains the different parts of a map.

Check out these awesome handmade maps below my students created!

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES I CAN CREATE: AN ORIGAMI SCULPTURE!

Included in the Google slide, was a description about origami and its origins;

Origami is the art of paper folding, which is often associated with Japanese culture. In modern usage, the word “origami” is used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin.

Traditionally, it was believed that if one folded 1000 origami cranes, one’s wish would come true. It has also become a symbol of hope and healing during challenging times.

As a result, it has become popular to fold 1000 cranes (in Japanese, called “senbazuru”).

Also included in that slide were 2 short videos on how to create an origami cat/dog (front and back), a flower, a link to check out additional videos to choose from, as well as how to fold and cut a sheet of rectangular paper to make it into a square sheet of paper.

Students had so much fun creating these, and my student Nolan L. sent me a fun video of his cat/dog below!