Art with mrs Filmore – Page 2 – Art with Mrs Filmore

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“Dotted Leaf Paintings” -4th Grade

October 30, 2025 6 Comments

I have FREE Leaf templates/Tracers of these exact leaves (3 leaves total) for this lesson in my TpT store HERE

Details on this lesson below the photos

This is my third year teaching this lesson and it’s one of my favorites for fall. I love the contrast of the bright colors against the black paper background.

This lesson took 6 to 7 (40 minute) art classes to complete.

On the first day of the lesson students looked at artwork by contemporary artist Brandon Rollin as well as some Aboriginal dot paintings for inspiration.

Students each got an 11×11” sheet of black construction paper. They then chose one of three leaf templates to trace on their black paper with pencil and then drew the leaves veins.

From there, students used the END of a paintbrush to dip into paint starting with white all along the outside lines of their leaf then added white dots all along the inside for the leaf’s veins.

Once the white was complete, they used only warm colors to paint dots inside of the leaf.

In between each color change, students used a wet wipe to clean the end of their paintbrush so paint colors wouldn’t mix in the tray or on their art.

Once the inside of the leaf was finished with warm colors, they used only cool colors to dot the paint in the background starting at the edge of their leaf.

If students dripped paint where they didn’t want it, we’d wait until the next art and they could hide it by going over the dot with black sharpie.

I love the variety on these. Some students created their designs with patterns…some color blocked sections of their leaves…some color blocked sections in their background…Beautiful results all around!

They really enjoyed this painting process, took their time with this, and I’m very proud of their hard work and creativity!

Btw- I bought the ice cube trays below a few years ago from Amazon and love how they have lids to keep the liquid tempera paint from drying out, and are stackable-—-A total game changer for any lessons that require paint when you’re teaching art off a cart!

I have Leaf templates/Tracers for this lesson in my TpT store HERE

I was planning on adding a new blog post tonight on K and 1st graders new “Pumpkin’s Starry Night” paintings, but unfortunately I can’t. I was scheduled to see my students today to have them finish, but there was a special author/illustrator presentation for grades K-2 during our art times 🙁

All my other K and 1st grade classes are starting on painting tomorrow and next Monday….BUT- I will definitely post them here after they finish next Thursday 11/6/25!

Also I was going to post “1 Point Perspective Cityscapes” by 5th grade tonight, but I am honestly too wiped out. I am so excited to share these though, and will do so either tomorrow evening 10/31/25 or Saturday morning 11/1/25- So please stay tuned! Thank you for visiting my site!

Please scroll down to check out my previous post on “Mixed-Media Leaf Impressions” for 5th grade 🙂

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“Owls at Night” – grades 2 + 3

October 26, 2025 4 Comments

Loving these SWEET owls by my 2nd and 3rd grade students! In the past, I’ve only taught this to my 2nd graders, but I never did the lesson last year- so I had 3rd graders do them as well.

This was a 3 day lesson (40 minute art classes each)

DAY 1

I showed them step-by-step under the document camera how to draw the owl on a sheet of 9×12” 80# drawing paper with pencil.

DAY 2

Then they colored them in (just the moon, owl, and branch with leaves) with crayons, making sure to press down hard as they colored. They could color in the owl with whatever colors they wanted .
Then they added stars to the sky with a yellow crayon pressing hard, and outlined everything except the stars with a black crayon pressing hard as they outlined.

DAY 3

Then they painted the sky black with watercolors going right over their stars, creating a crayon wax resist.

I love how they all come out so different even though they are all drawing the same thing!

Would you be interested in a YouTube tutorial on this lesson?

Thank you for visiting my website! I will be posting another one today

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”Pumpkin’s Starry Night” YouTube tutorial

October 17, 2025 No Comments

This crayon wax-resist painting lesson is inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”. It’s a 22 minute video and is suitable for grades K-3. I discuss his work briefly and also talk about various types of line, overlapping, texture, and crayon wax resist in the video.

I am currently teaching this lesson to my Kindergarten and 1st grade classes, and will be posting their artwork soon!

I’d love to hear your feedback on the video and hope that you can use it in your classroom soon!

Please check out my previous post below on another YouTube tutorial on Victorian architecture!

ALSO- I just added a NEW page titled “ART ROOM RULES AND ROUTINES” to my drop down menu on the main page.

UPDATE: Here are some of my K and 1 students artwork in progress! 2 of my classes got to paint on Thursday 10/23/25, and I LOOOOooove how they are coming out so far! It was Kindergartens FIRST time painting with me in art too!
They still need to add another layer of crayon details over their painting next week to complete them, but I couldn’t wait to share!

This lesson can still be created after Halloween (just don’t have your students draw a face!)

Look at these adorable pumpkins! My students really paid attention and erased the pumpkin bottoms where the grass is in order to show overlapping. I’m so proud of my Kindergarten and 1st grade students!

I will be posting their final artwork this Thursday evening 10/30/25! I can’t wait to share their beautiful artwork- they’ve been putting in a lot of hard work and effort into their Pumpkin’s Starry Night paintings!

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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