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Snowy Owl Collage – Kindergarten

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“Snowy Owl Collage” with Kindergarten started last Thursday at one of my schools (11/13/25)! 

I brought this one back out from the vault with a new twist! I decided this time we’re going to add white tempera paint to the branches AND use a toothbrush to flick snowflakes all around the sky! My kindergartners today were like “whaaat? A toothbrush??” Haha a little confused on that one,  but they were very excited to be able to flick paint! 

So far on this fun 4 day lesson, Kindergarteners learned what a collage was and strengthened their fine motor skills by tearing small pieces of brown paper for the branch ( I drew the outline of the owl and branch ahead of time with a white colored pencil on black Sax brand paper). 

We talked about how to glue the back of the torn paper, not the black background paper, (so we don’t put glue where we might not need it), overlapping, as well as texture. 

Later on in the lesson, on day 4, they’ll be working on their fine motor skills even more with tracing circles and cutting them out with scissors for the owls eyes, and using a toothbrush to create falling ❄️❄️❄️ 

By the time they finish these, who knows- – we could very well be seeing some snow falling ourselves! I can’t believe Thanksgiving is already in less than 2 weeks? It feels like it wasn’t that long ago that I was just out walking with a pair of shorts on?!?! 

I’ll be posting more details on this lesson with more photos of students working on them, and of their finished work in the next few weeks! (it’ll probably take 4 (40 min. ) art classes to complete. Stay tuned!!

Below are pics from previous years where students used a white crayon to add snow details rather than paint. 

Learning Goals:

  • Continue to strengthen fine motor skills (tearing, gluing, cutting, drawing)
  • Can create a collage using torn pieces of paper, and define what a collage is 
  • Can define texture and show texture within their artwork 
  • Can define overlapping and show this in their artwork
  • Connection to science/ Learn about owls

If you are someone new to visiting my website go below to my search tab below and copy and paste

Elementary Art Lessons: A quick glimpse of my website! To view a variety of art lessons in one quick swoop!

Please also check out my most recent blog posts by copying and pasting the title below in my search bar to go directly to that blog post

  • 1 Point Perspective Cityscapes
  • Mixed-Media Leaf Impressions
  • Art on a Cart
  • Dotted Leaf Paintings
  • Drawing a Victorian House

Also, what YouTube tutorial would you like me to make next? Any suggestions from any of my art lessons you see here on my website …or something else?
or you can drop me a line by adding a comment below!

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“Pumpkin’s Starry Night” – K and 1

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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

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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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“Dotted Leaf Paintings” -4th Grade

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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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Mixed-Media Leaf Impressions -5th Grade

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I’m excited to try this new lesson out with my 5th graders soon (once they finish their “1 Point Perspective Cityscapes”)

These are my teacher examples. I knew I wanted to do a leaf lesson and was playing around with some different ideas recently

I was out on a nice walk today and collected some leaves to bring back home to test out some ideas.

I had a lot of fun creating and testing out a few options and really like this one! I did a bunch of black crayon rubbings of various leaves on 80# paper (I actually didn’t have anything else at home, but I think that 60# might be better to get more details within the leaves veins for this)

Then used watercolors to paint over them (I’m thinking kids will choose either a warm color palette or a cool color palette

Then on a sheet of 80# white drawing paper cut to 9×9” I did multiple leaf rubbings of the same leaf going in different directions and overlapping each time. I think this will allow for any minor movement and be a bit more forgiving since they’ll overlap anyhow.

Then once the painted leaves are dry, kids will carefully cut them out and then glue down on top of their 9×9” layered leaf rubbing. thinking about what they want their composition to be.

I’m thinking they can choose from 3-5 leaves to cut out and glue. I’d better get on it and start leaf collecting! I will have 4 classes of 5th graders- and will need to flatten them in a few books so they won’t be crinkly or curled!!

Im thinking (3) 40 minute classes for this. Day 1- leaf rubbing with black crayon. Day 2- paint the 3-5 leaves they rubbed. Day 3- cut out and glue. But possibly 2 days?? I don’t want to rush this process though. And I think collecting the leaves ahead of time and pressing them will help with the time frame of completing this. ( Plus the possibility of a bad weather day if I have kids go leaf hunting/ plus the possibility of chaos near the playground / on top of wet leaves being an issue! Haha!)

Please check out my previous posts if interested!

  • ”Owls at Night”
  • ”Art on a Cart” (that’s me haha!)
  • ”Pumpkin’s Starry Night” (I added new photos to this one with an update on the progress!)
  • I added a new page recently “Art Rules and Routines” as well as “Art on a Cart” in the drop down menu
  • I’ll be posting more artwork on 4th grade this week!
  • I’ll be posting finished artwork from 5th grade on “1 Point Perspective cityscapes” on Thursday evening 10/30/25 (I can’t wait to share finally!!!)
  • And finally -Please visit my TpT store for 50% off on my NEW Victorian architecture PDF resource packet among other updates! (Link to my TpT store is in the drop down menu on the home page)

Also you can just type in any of the above blog post titles in my search bar and find them that way!
Thanks so much for visiting my site today and reading this! I hope you have a great night!

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“Owls at Night” – grades 2 + 3

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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

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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! 

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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

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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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SPLATTERED PAINTBRUSHES – 5th Grade

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This lesson idea is from art teacher Lauralee Chambers @2art.chambers on Instagram

This was such a fun lesson to teach my 5th graders! It took about (3) 40 minute art classes to complete.

DAY 1

We discussed how we would be utilizing the elements of Art; Line, Shape, Color, Texture, and Value to create these paintings.

I gave students a double-sided sheet of various paintbrush drawings to use as a reference while drawing their paintbrushes.

Students drew at least 6 large paintbrushes on 12×18” 80# paper with pencil. In their drawings I asked that the following be included ; at least 2 of the brushes had to overlap one another, at least 2 be drawn diagonally, and at least 1 drawn so the bristles pointed downward. Students could add also their own brush details within the handles.

Once all drawn in pencil, students traced over their pencil lines with an ultra fine point black sharpie. I showed students how to use the straight edge of a scrap piece of paper to keep their sharpie lines for the bristles from going into their paintbrush handles.

DAY 2

Students finished drawing if needed, then used a black oil pastel to draw a thick line along only one side of each brush. Only on all the brushes left sides or only on all the brushes right sides. Then using one finger gently smudge the oil pastel going in the same direction to create a shadow.

DAY 3

On the final day students used watercolors to create the splatter effect. I showed them how to use a watercolor brush to apply the paint only halfway up each brush towards the tips, and then add only water on the ends a little to dilute the color and help spread the paint where it meets the paper. Then using a medium sized tempera brush, they dipped into the same paint color and then flicked the bristles close to their papers to splatter. They also used the watercolor brush to splatter paint as well by shaking it or tapping their brush handle against another one.

I absolutely LOVE how they all came out and students had a lot of fun creating them!

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