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 🙂