elementary art – Art with Mrs Filmore

Mixed Media Watercolor Self-Portraits – 5th Grade

May 30, 2026 No Comments

***UPDATE: I just added my “Summertime Art Lessons” page under the main menu! I’ll be adding a dedicated “Fall Art Lessons” and “Winter Art Lessons” page soon as well! I’ll also be adding more 5th grade “Mixed Media Watercolor Self-Portraits” below and under 5th grade on Tuesday 6/9/26!

This 3 day art lesson is inspired by the artist Cecilia Paredes. Besides my “Winter Northern Lights” and “1 Point Perspective Cityscapes”, this is definitely one of my top 3 favorite art lessons to teach 5th grade! I LOVE them so much and my students are really enjoying the process and are thrilled with their work as well! Only 2 (of my 4) 5th grade classes have finished so far. I’ll be adding more once finished!

I love his expression in the one above and it has a comic book illustration quality to it, doesn’t it?!

This lesson takes 3 (40 min.) art classes to finish— although some students finished up on day 2

DAY 1

I showed students a few of my examples first and then introduced them to Cecilia Paredes’ artwork— Below are screenshots of my Google slides.

Below are my teacher examples

We reviewed what mixed media meant, then I explained that we’d be creating 2 abstract paintings using watercolors (and oil pastels if they wanted) for their background. They would later on choose only one of their paintings for their finished artwork. I then demonstrated a variety of ways they could paint. On their (2) 9×12” 80# white papers they could do any of the following:

Paint random lines, shapes and colors with watercolors

Splatter paint only

Splatter paint and then scrape the paint while still wet

Draw with oil pastels first, then splatter paint on top and then scrape

For scraping, I had kids use the side of a plastic texture rubbing plate. Students were given one sheet of 9×12” to start, and when the first sheet was complete, they put it in the drying rack and then got a 2nd sheet. I encouraged kids to experiment, and to explore 2 different methods to create their background paintings.

My students had so much fun and thought it was so cool when they saw their results from scraping their paintings!

There was definitely some horsing around in art class that day! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

While kids painted, I went around and took each students photo. Kids could pose any way that they wanted, but I shot from their chest up so it would be more close-up.

Later on, I edited their color photos to black and white, and then printed them out on regular 8.5” x 11” copy/printer paper at home. Then I slid their pictures in a plastic sheet protector (see pic below).

DAY 2

On day 2, I brought in all their photos inside the sheet protectors and demonstrated under the document camera how to trace over all the contour lines using a black fine point sharpie.

I showed them that if you make a mistake anywhere with sharpie on the plastic, how to erase their marks. This is such a cool trick too! All you have to do is draw with a dry erase marker right over the mistake and then use a q-tip (or tissue) to rub it off!! LOVE that hack!

Once all the contour lines were traced with black sharpie on the plastic sheet protector, they took their photo out and flipped it over to the white side, and placed it back inside with the white side facing up. This allows you to see your lines clearly and see colors more accurately when coloring.

Then students colored in their hair, eyes, lips, and clothing with colored sharpies. They could use any colors they wanted. The only parts they couldn’t color in was their skin. The dry erase marker trick works on the color sharpie as well btw.

These are the sharpies I purchased off Amazon for this lesson. Nice bright, vibrant colors and was fairly cheap too!

One thing I explained to students though was to be careful when coloring near the black sharpie lines. If you get colored sharpie right on top of the black contour lines, it dissolves them. So I just told them to be careful and to go right up to the black contour lines, but try not to go over them.

DAY 3

Students finished coloring in their drawings and once complete, they tested out their plastic sheet drawing on top of both paintings. The cool thing about this project is you can flip the image over and try it out that way too! You can also turn the abstract painting upside down and see how the self-portrait looks as well! So many possibilities! That’s why I had them paint two paintings —not only to experiment more with painting techniques—but this way they had more than one option for their background.

Once students positioned their self-portrait drawings the way they liked it on top of their selected painting, they paper clipped the painting and self-portrait together. Then later on, I trimmed the edges of the plastic sheet with scissors (to remove the sealed edges and the 3 ring binder holes) and stapled the artwork together.

Also—When kids finished, they could keep their 2nd painting and their black and white photo and some students created additional art using them. One student made a really sweet birthday card for her dad using the photo and painting!

I’ll be adding more student artwork here once my other two 5th grade classes finish!

Learning Goals:

Students can utilize the Elements of Art: Line, Shape, Color, Value and Texture to create their art and can define each element

Students learn about Cecilia Paredes and can identify her artwork

Students can define mixed media

Students can define abstract art and create an abstract painting

Students can demonstrate various watercolor painting techniques

Students can define what contour lines are and can create the contour lines for their self-portrait

If you didn’t already see, I recently created a “SELF-PORTRAIT” page listed under the main menu with a variety of self-portrait lessons for grades K-5 (and was updated on 5/31/26!)

I also added a NEW page “Every Art Lesson Since 2017” under my main menu the other day and actually edited it today (5/31/26) so that all these post links are in some kind of order! I put them all by grade level and one miscellaneous category. Now it’ll be easier for you to locate stuff I posted! YAY!

I also plan on adding “summer art lessons”, “fall art lessons” and “winter art lessons” pages soon too!

And finally, I just added an “OP Art”resource sheet in my TpT store for my 5th grade OP Art drawing lesson. My TpT store is HERE!

Thanks so much for visiting my website today!

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“Mixed Media Bouquet of Flowers” by 4th grade

May 17, 2026 No Comments

Finished artwork is 9×12″ with an 11 x 14″ white paper border.

This 5 day ( 40 min. each class) mixed media art lesson focuses on 6 of the 7 Elements of Art; Form, Line, Shape, Color, Texture, and Value. This art lesson is inspired from a combination of two art teachers- Laura athttps://www.paintedpaperart.com and @amymcreynolds on Instagram with some variation.

You may have seen this lesson before on my 5th grade art lessons page. It’s basically the same lesson except in 4th grade we used 10 year old, up-cycled messy mats for either the vase or table rather than bubble wrap printing! I love the texture, beautiful mark making and fun pops of color with these messy mats!

Here’s a few from 5th grade with the bubble wrap printing.

To see my full blog post on the 5th graders mixed media bouquet of flowers artwork with bubble wrap printing, you can click on my link HERE

This is the first year I decided to teach it to 4th grade ( at just one of my two schools because I only teach ONE 4th grade class there). I would love to teach it to my 4th graders at my other school, but I’m on a cart over there (4 days a week) and I have FOUR 4th grade classes, so it’d be a bit much. Between the clay, storing the clay flowers to dry, the splatter painting, painting the clay flowers, all the cut paper and glue and hot gluing of all those clay flowers…it’d be a real challenge off a cart!

BUT…that being said…I’m really glad I did teach it to one class, and my students had a blast creating them! AND they’ll be displayed alongside all my other 4th graders artwork (Enlarged flower drawings inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe) at the newly annual “4th grade spring showcase celebration” that specialists (art/music/P.E.) put on in a couple of weeks! This 4th grade spring showcase started just last year, and last year I displayed all 4th graders Victorian houses.

For this lesson we used white Model Magic clay, splatter painting with watercolors on 80# white paper, tempera paints to paint the clay flowers, flower’s stems and leaves, colored railroad poster board paper, up-cycled messy mats, and scissors and glue sticks.

DAY 1

Students splatter painted with watercolors on one 12×18” 80# white drawing paper each. They could use any colors they wanted. This painting would then be used for either their table or for their vase later on. That painting day was fun but SUPER messy haha, as you’ll see in the photos below!

DAY 2

Students each received a 1 ounce small packet of white model magic to create 5 flower heads. To make 5 flowers, we used two 1 ounce packets in total, but we started off with just one so I wouldn’t have to wrap any left over clay or throw it out.

I demonstrated under the document camera ways to create a bunch of different flowers, but students could make any kind they wanted as well.

I showed students how to roll a small chunk of clay into a small circle, about the size of a ping pong ball, then flatten the ball with their palm (to about the thickness of an oreo cookie), then using scissors, cut small triangular sections out all the way around and then shape the remaining sections with your fingers to create the flowers petals.

From there they used their fingers to shape and point the ends if they wanted, or leave them more straight on the ends. They could also cut up into each petal at the end and create a fringed edge. Then the leftover clay from the triangle cut outs were balled up and flattened a bit to make the flowers center. They could poke little dots in the flowers centers too for added texture with a pencil as well.

Other balls of clay were made into tulips, buy repeating the same steps as above, but then stretching the circle out a bit to an oval, then cutting two triangles out from the top to make three points for the top of the tulip.

I also showed how to layer one finished flower on top of another to add more dimension, circle “button” flowers, and roses. To make the roses, take a very small amount of clay and create a ball, flatten it out so it’s fairly thin, and shape into a small oval. Then roll the clay into itself starting at one end to make the roses center (where petals are the tightest). Then take tiny amounts of clay, roll into small balls (the size of a pea) and flatten with your finger in your palm to make additional rose petals, and attach to the rose in layers all the way around.

Students could create a variety of 5 flowers, or they could be a combination of repeating just a few! Students were very creative and came up with some fun “pac-man” shaped flowers, delicate lavender, and other unique flowers!

I asked the cafeteria staff if I could buy a bunch of styrofoam lunch trays for this lesson and they were so nice to just let me take an entire sleeve (probably 100 trays!)

The clay sticks to paper plates and many other surfaces so it’s important to use a non stick surface for this lesson. You could use tinfoil over a plate which would work too. I like the fact that the lunch trays have 5 individual compartments though, so the flowers don’t touch each other and stick to one another as they dry. Then kids just wrote their names with a sharpie along the edge of the tray. Highly recommend styrofoam lunch trays for this!!! Plus- they easily fit in the drying rack being on the trays, without hurting any of the flowers!

Flowers were stashed away in the drying rack to harden until the next art class. To completely harden it takes a couple of days depending on the thickness of the clay.

DAYS 3 – 4

Students painted their flowers with liquid tempera paint. This took 2 art classes to finish painting all 5 flowers because a bunch of kids were absent on day one of painting, and some kids just needed more time.

I put the paints in ice cube trays (you can buy these silicone ice cube trays with hard plastic lids on Amazon as seen below), to separate colors and for ease of sharing at tables.

I had to give some of my tempera paint brushes haircuts for this lesson. I thought I had smaller tempera brushes somewhere in my art room but I didn’t. So…I improvised!

Students could paint their flowers any colors they wanted! I added the whole rainbow of colors as well as mixed blue and green paint to make teal, and red and white paint to make pink.

Kids started on the petals first, leaving the center last, in order to hold them while painting. They rinsed their brush well in water and wiped on a paper towel between changing colors. Some students decided to paint their flowers with the whole rainbow of colors!

DAY 5

On the final day students assembled everything together!

To prep —after school one day, I cut the railroad poster board paper into 9×12” sheets from 22”x28”sheets (giving me 4 -9×12” sheets per large sheet). Then I hot glued all students 5 flowers onto each sheet of 9×12″. One year I did this lesson and the pack included light pink paper, but this time it did not FYI.

Teachers out there reading this- this took a bit of time (a little over an hour per class of 27 students). I picked out the color for the paper, wrote each students name on the back and had 2 hot glue guns going as I worked. After, I placed all their papers with flowers in a large cardboard mason box to disperse in class later.

I also cut their 12×18” splatter paintings in half to 9×12” and paper clipped together. Then I cut beautiful old (10 years old?) messy mats into 9×12” sheets to use as either the vase or table.

I also created 5 different vase templates for students to trace over either their splatter painted papers or the cut messy mats. I think including a tracer was helpful, since getting the sizing right to fit the vase under their flowers might have been a bit tricky.

I just added these 5 vase templates in my TpT store for only $2! My TpT store is HERE!

Students also each received a 4”x9” tagboard template to use to trace over either paper for their table. Last time I did this lesson with 5th graders, I had them use rulers to measure for their table and then cut. But this year with 4th graders I just wanted to make sure we were able to complete the lesson on day 5. Plus using the table tracer allows kids to select an area from wherever they want on their paper, rather than just measuring from the bottom of the paper.

First students choose a section from one of their splatter painted papers or from a section of a messy mat sheet to create their table, using their table tracer. Once that was cut and glued into place they used one of the vase tracers to trace on either paper.

I suggested they use both papers (one for the table and a different one for the vase) for more visual interest, but they could use the same paper if they really wanted.

For a final step, students used 2 different shades of green liquid tempera paint (a dark green and a lighter minty green) to paint flower stems and leaves.

They all turned out so lovely! I love the variety of flowers, textures, colors AND unique artistic decisions!!

LEARNING GOALS:

Students can define mixed media

Students can demonstrate 3D sculpting by manipulating, rolling, and attaching Model Magic to create form and dimension

Students can apply the elements of art; Line, Shape, Color, Form, Texture and Value in their artwork and explain where they used them

I’m thinking I might make a YouTube tutorial on this lesson—or at the very least, on how to make clay flowers. Before I do though, I’m curious to know if it’s something people would be interested in—if you’d be interested in watching it please send me an email (through the contact section on my website on my “contact” page) or you can DM me through Instagram.

Please check out some of my previous posts by clicking on the links below!

4th grade “Enlarged Flower Drawings” and 5th grade “Splattered Paintbrushes”!

Mixed Media Cake inspired by Wayne Thiebaud

Mixed Media Watercolor Self-Portraits – 5th grade

One point Perspective Cityscapes – 5th Grade

NEW YouTube Art Tutorial! “April Showers Brings May Flowers” -2nd Grade

2nd Grade “Thinking of Summer Self-Portraits” and 1st Grade “Dream Houses”

Winter Northern Lights! 5th grade Art Lesson

Blackout poetry – 5th Grade

Draw your own Inventions – 1st Grade

KINETIC ARTWORK BY 3RD GRADE!

GRID DRAWINGS inspired by Chuck Close! -5th GRADE

Winter Cardinals -4th grade and Superhero Masks – 2nd grade!

(The masks would be a great 1-2 day project for the end of the year art lesson! Kids LOOOVE making their own unique masks and could be for any grade level! And I have 4 PDF Printable mask templates in my TpT store for only $2.50!)

The link below goes directly to my “Springtime Art Lessons” page (39 art lessons listed w/ pics!)

https://www.artwithmrsfilmore.com/springtime-art-lessons/

Thanks so much for visiting my site today! I’ll be posting again soon on 5th graders “Mixed Media Watercolor Self-Portraits” as well as “K and 1 Self-Portraits”!

My TpT store is HERE!

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Blackout Poetry – 5th Grade

March 21, 2026 No Comments

First, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my subscribers—thank you so much for following along my art room (well…art cart) adventures!

I love sharing all the beautiful creations that my students make and steps for the lessons. I hope that my website is a great resource to all Art educators, K-5 classroom educators, parents, students, and aspiring art teachers alike! And well… anyone really!!

I created this website in late 2014 and it’s been steadily growing ever since. I’ve recently gained over 100 NEW subscribers in just this past month alone- that’s pretty big for me! So, THANK YOU!! (I hope that doesn’t come across as sounding boastful— that’s not me— I just wanted to share my happiness about it and express my gratitude! Art teaching is my passion, and I love sharing what I love to do!

Here are some of my 5th Graders amazing #blackoutpoetry

Many of these are still works in progress, but we are finishing up this lesson this week. I just couldn’t wait to share what they’ve created so far! I hope you enjoy! Steps and directions (with screenshots) that I show my students from my Google slides are below the artwork as well.

”We are always in the process of becoming new

Our minds are exercising “

”I can make a difference”

”Major colors can be taken further into a mound of textures”

“He is over there

She is sitting over there

They now come together”

This student wanted to do a Haiku and found almost all the letters she needed for what she wanted it to say. We used a teeny tiny bit of whiteout to add in one or two letters for it to work. I love her dedication and perseverance to create this. Look at how many letters she had to find?! It’s so simple but so beautiful!

”In the dark, there is light”

“A special space large enough for me to dream

It was something special for me

Just for me”

”Explore life

Make purpose”

”Hope

or opportunity “

”Images create the world

Making images express us and life”

”She is telling

I’m thinking

It’s time to get outside and live out there for as long as you can. I’m out in the backyard with the rest of you”

”Without response. Sinking. Fast and gone.
Flooded.
Shattered”

”Deep in

More vivid imaginations

Will arise”

”We

can’t

control the

universe”

”She copied the wisdom of a higher grade to be big”

”A human means

to touch, explore, and

create the world”

”I dream unique

fascination

I become something special

A new part of history”

Somehow I always manage to screw up the spacing whenever I hang up artwork?!!?Anyone else have this issue?? ? Hahah—-I like the letters punched out that way though! I used one of those old school / hand crank gizmo’s -called a “Cricut cuttlebug” to cut the white paper to create the letters for the board. The bulletin board is black underneath.

These are the my Google slides I show my 5th graders students throughout the process of the lesson—-This is one of my teacher examples below on the LEFT (in the box) and in the following picture BELOW as well.

These are some slides showing some examples of Austin Kleon’s blackout poetry taken from his Instagram account

And these are slides I show my students with previous 5th graders artwork and poems to give them some more inspiration. This was when I taught the lesson using only black sharpie to illustrate their poems (maybe about 10 years ago???!)

This was a 4 day lesson (taking 4- 40 minute art classes)

I thought originally it’d probably take 3 art classes, but then realized on day 3 that students needed a day 4 and I wanted to make sure I gave them the time to finish.
I have always loved incorporating writing with art lessons and I was excited to try this one again after so many years. I honestly am not sure why I stopped for awhile? Im glad I did though! Sometimes I think it’s something inside me nudging me to start writing myself.

Day 1: I showed them the slides above, explaining what blackout poetry is, and telling them about Austin Kleon’s work, and showed them his examples. I also showed them a few examples that I created and then showed them my previous 5th graders examples with their artwork too.

Then I explained how I photocopied a bunch of random pages from books that I had at home, a few books from the school library, as well as an article from a food magazine I had laying around. I randomly selected 3 pages out of the bunch and paper clipped 3 random pages together x30 per class.

I explained to students to look through each page and without reading the entire page, just look for words that jump out at them. Then to choose one page, and start selecting words with their pencil, making sure the words read like a book – from left to right- top to bottom— by drawing large rectangles around each word they wanted to include in their poem.

Once all words were selected in pencil, they traced over all their rectangles around each word with a super fine point sharpie marker.

Then they wrote their entire “found poem” out along the bottom of their paper in pencil. Then placed a sheet of printer paper under their poem paper (to protect their desks) and used a bigger “Fine point” sharpie marker to start blacking out all the other words they didn’t need in their final poem.

After that, on DAY 2–students started to draw a picture on 9×12” 80# paper with pencil that somehow connected to their poems. I explained that they could draw something very abstract (just focusing on lines, shapes and colors) to capture the feeling their poems represented or something more literal. They had a choice of what to color with —either markers, chalk pastels, colored pencils, or crayons.

Learning Goals:

Students can see how art and other disciplines, like English Language Arts can be interdisciplinary and helps generate new ideas and supports creative thinking

Students learn about the artist/writer Austin Kleon and his blackout poetry

Students develop a blend of critical reading, creative writing, and visual art skills

Students can create images that directly support, mirror, or enhance the meaning of their chosen poem

Students explore creative expression, using art to emphasize their found poem to create a personal, artistic piece

Students can reflect on how their chosen words and images express their own thoughts, feelings, or interpretations

Here are some photos of students creating both their poems and artwork!

I’ll be updating this blog post when students are finished with their artwork very soon!
I’m also going to post this under the “5th grade art lessons” page soon at the bottom, where it’ll permanently live.

I’ll ALSO be posting a collection of my SPRINGTIME ART LESSONS within the next couple of days as well FYI – so please be on the lookout out for that!

Also— haha— yep, moooore also’s…. Have you checked out all my site has to offer? Click on the MENU on my home page and see if anything else suits your fancy 😉
I added a NEW PAGE under my menu called “OPEN HOUSE or P/T CONFERENCE NIGHT IDEA” – be sure to check that out!

I’ll be posting SPRINGTIME ART LESSONS sometime this week ( as well as some other new fun art lessons that I haven’t posted before!)

Thank you so much for visiting my website today!

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Winter Northern Lights! 5th Grade Art Lesson

February 15, 2026 2 Comments

WINTER NORTHERN LIGHTS – kids artwork included!

( My teacher example above )

Students artwork below!

This is a NEW art lesson that I created on 12/17/25. I’m SO excited on how these turned out! This is definitely a keeper in my curriculum and kids really loved creating them!! Such a fun process and I’m very proud of my students work (as they are too!)

The only materials needed are 12 x18” black paper ( I like to use Sax brand “Black Colored Art Paper” because of how saturated the color it is, and doesn’t have spotting or inconsistencies within the paper), 6” x 18” black paper, 12 x18” white paper, colored chalk pastels, white chalk pastel, scissors, a glue stick, a toothbrush, a plate for the paint, and white tempera paint.

I knew I wanted to create a fun landscape using chalk pastels for a winter art lesson and kept playing around with ideas in my head for a few days, then started experimenting at school. I really love how the northern lights came out and how the snowy trees pop against the black and all that vibrant color!

This lesson takes (4) 40 minute art classes to complete.
This winter lesson can be created throughout ANY of the winter months! December-January-February….March even! (If you live in New England, March is like the loooongest cold month (besides January of course haha!)

Day 1: Create the Northern Lights

On a sheet of 12×18” white drawing paper, draw 5 random wavy lines across the paper with pencil to create a template for the northern lights. Make sure no lines are overlapping.

Then cut along that first top line and toss that first top section away in the recycling.

Then place the remaining paper (template) on top of the 12×18” black paper, lining up both papers. Then using various colored chalk pastels, draw right on the edge of the white paper -AND- on the black paper, going back and forth to create a thick line and to create a lot of chalk dust. Use a variety of colors and switch colors as you move along the edge of the white paper. Overlap colors where they meet as well. Then once the entire edge is colored, use your finger to smudge upwards from the white paper onto the black paper. (I did try to use a different finger as colors changed here and there, but even if I didn’t and they blended a little, it was completely fine. I guess that really just depends on what effect you’re going for color-wise and what colors you choose.)

Blow on your paper to get rid of any residual chalk dust. Then cut along the second line, toss the top section out, line the two papers up again and apply the chalk along the papers edge in the same way as mentioned above, then smudge upwards. Repeat these steps until it fills the black paper (see photos BELOW). Then use your finger to smudge the bottoms of each line of color created, to soften the lines and blur them out a little bit.

***TIP***To get rid of any smudges / finger prints afterwards, wipe your fingers on a damp paper towel with water (or use a baby wipe) lightly rub your fingers together for a second or two to get rid of excess moisture, then use your slightly dampened (juuuust barely!) finger to wipe away any smudges you don’t want—— that trick really works great!

DAY 2: Add the stars/snow

On day 2, finish creating the northern lights with colored chalk if needed. (Not a lot, but some of my students needed to finish). Then dip a toothbrush into white tempera paint on a plate, (I use Crayola Tempera Premier), not too much! And rub your finger along the toothbrush bristles to help spread it evenly. Then flick all over the black paper with northern lights creating stars in the night sky (– or snow falling, depending on how you see it). Once complete, set aside artwork in the drying rack to dry.

DAY 3: Create the trees

On day 3, students each receive a sheet of black paper cut to 6” x 18”. Using white chalk pastel (no pencil sketching first) create trees by drawing an upside down “v” first for the top of the tree along the left side of your paper (forming each tree LEFT to RIGHT as you draw them).

Then draw lines going up and down only (overlapping the lines as you draw and leaving a jagged edge along the bottom).

Leave some black paper showing in between the next series of tree branches.

Then move onto your next tree. Create trees that are close together (they can actually overlap too) with varying heights all across the paper.

Also blow on the paper after each section of branches are complete to get rid of any residual chalk dust.

DAY 4: Cut out trees and glue on

Finish creating trees if needed. Once complete, cut out the trees as one piece (keeping them all attached near the bottom) but leave a small bit of black paper showing all around each tree as you cut. About a 1/2” all around trees.

Then flip over carefully and glue the back all over with a glue stick (making sure to cover the entire backside, especially the edges).

Then place along the bottom of the black northern lights paper lining the edges up before placing down. Make sure the paper is facing the right way first—-so that the northern lights are trailing UP not down. Press along the very bottom only—where there aren’t any trees—to attach, and then use another CLEAN sheet of 12×18” white paper to then lay on top of the whole thing (sort of roll it on over the trees) and press where the trees are to help reduce any smudging of the trees while gluing into place.

***TIP***To get rid of any smudges / finger prints afterwards, wipe your fingers on a damp paper towel with water (or use a baby wipe) lightly rub your fingers together for a second or two to get rid of excess moisture, then use your slightly dampened (juuuust barely!) finger to wipe away any smudges you don’t want—— again, that trick really works great!

LEARNING GOALS:

Students can create a sense of space within their art, when creating the size and placement of their trees

Students can see how art and other disciplines, like science, can be interdisciplinary and helps generate new ideas and supports creative thinking

Students can demonstrate an understanding on how to blend colors, create texture, and show value changes using chalk pastels

https://youtu.be/w7SMAeyaTM0?feature=shared

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and try it out with your class at school or at home with your own kids!
Please tag me and refer back to this website if you are sharing your creations on any social media, thank you!

I’ll be posting a NEW art lesson for 5th grade very soon!
If you haven’t already— please consider subscribing to this site below! Thank you ❤️

And to all you teachers out there reading this, I hope you have a great rest of your February break!!! Enjoy!

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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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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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ART SHOUT OUTS #5!

June 25, 2020 No Comments

HAPPY SUMMER BREAK EVERYONE!!

PHEW!

WE MADE IT!!!

I never would have thought this is how the school year would end, and I’m sure all you teachers out there (AND PARENTS!!) thought the same.

Our official last day of school was Monday June 22nd. Going into school on June 10th wearing a mask and gloves, to close out out my classroom for the summer and sort through supplies felt so surreal. It was like walking into a time capsule from that last day we were all there on Friday March 13th. Unfinished projects were still in the drying rack, my examples were still up on the board for the following day, and notes to myself on my desk were still there for the following week of March.

BUT….. we made it through! We all figured it out, and I’m very proud of my students and how they rose to the challenge with remote learning.

Here are the final “Art Shout Outs” from learning remotely during these past 3+ months of school closure. As well as a few pics from the last day of school’s 5th grade clap out celebration!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE WITH: STICKS!

In this Google slide, students could watch a 6 minute video on the book “STICKS” written and illustrated by Diane Alber.

If you’ve never read this story to your students or kids, I highly recommend it. I have and love, many of her books. Her stories are great and help open up discussions about empathy, kindness, perseverance, and fitting in.

Amazon writes; “Sticks is a story that almost anyone can relate to. It’s about finding yourself in a situation that didn’t turn out like you expected and having your friends and family help you find he courage to pick yourself back up and persevere.”

Next to the video, we added 6 different photos of artwork created using popsicle sticks. From dragonflies, to rainbows and clouds, to bird feeders and people, animals and airplanes… kids were encouraged to create whatever they wanted, using sticks!

Below are some screen shots taken from a video sent to me from one of my 2nd grade students! He designed a really cool plane and decorated the sticks and paper for wings with markers.

**POPSICLE STICK AIRPLANE BY PRANEETH J.**

Nick created this super sweet popsicle stick rainbow with clouds below!

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: I CAN CREATE MY OWN ART MATERIALS AND USE THEM TO PRODUCE ARTWORK

So for this slide, we included a 2 minute video link to watch the “science of art materials” to give kids a better understanding on how art materials are made, a simple recipe on how to make your own air dry clay, and then 3 short videos; how to paint with mud, paint with coffee, and how to make your own sidewalk chalk from home!

Students loved experimenting with creating their own art materials!

Sam D. Created some cool paint by letting skittles dissolve in water!

Brielle R. Created her own coffee paint as well!

GRADES K-2 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: SUMMER FUN! SELECT ONE TO COMPLETE: ICE PAINTING, DRAW AN ICE CREAM CONE, CREATE YOUR OWN AIRPLANE!

For this slide we included the following; a 50 second video on ice cube painting, how to draw an ice cream cone in 9 simple steps, and a short video on how to make a paper airplane. This was the last week of art activity suggestions, and we wanted to keep it really simple, fun and summery!

An assortment of ice cream treats by Sofia D.

Praneeth sent me another fun video on how he created his airplane and also a super fun slow-mo video on his plane and his brothers plane flying! Below are some screen shots taken from that video.

GRADES 3-5 ELEMENTARY VISUAL ART ACTIVITIES: ARTIST’S CHOICE! SELECT ONE TO COMPLETE! POINT OF VIEW LANDSCAPE, RE-DESIGN A LOGO, OR TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR AT THE MET.

Point of view landscape- draw what you see when you look out your window! We included a pic of a landscape drawing as well as a seascape drawing in this google slide as examples.

Below is a drawing Taylor sent me of her viewpoint looking out her window to her back yard!

Point of view landscape artwork by Taylor M.

Re-design a Logo; We posted 7 different logos to look at in this section of the slide for ideas. Kids had the option of selecting one of those 7, or select one of their own, and to change the colors, image or font!

LOGO RE-DESIGN BY SAM D.

LOGO RE-DESIGN BY PRANEETH J.

LOGO RE-DESIGN BY JACOB B.

LOGO RE-DESIGN BY JORDAN R.

LOGO RE-DESIGN BY BRIELLE R.

Although I have no art to show for this art activity suggestion, the last activity choice was to go online and take a virtual tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for kids. Kids were asked to “hop in the time machine” for some interesting art exploration! Click on the link to check it out!

More lovely art sent to me from my students!

And now for a few pics from the last day of school “5th grade clap out celebration”! …

To those of you reading this that aren’t teachers, students or parents from the North Attleboro school district, normally on the last day of school we line up the hallways inside the school, and all the 5th graders walk down the hall while teachers and staff clap, cheer and hi-five the kids to celebrate their last day at the school. Of course with Covid-19 and social distancing, that had to change. So all the teachers and staff lined up outside the school, 6 feet apart, wearing masks, while families drove by as we all cheered and clapped. It felt so nice to have positive closure for such a bizarre year. And of course it was so nice to see my 5th graders one more time before the school year was over. I’ll miss them!! If any of you guys are reading this, I wish you all the best of luck!! Keep creating, and please stay in touch!

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap pics at Amvet but managed to remember to pull out my phone at Roosevelt later that morning! Some pics below were taken by other staff as well.

Pic above taken behind the school at Roosevelt. Cars all parked here after the clap out to receive awards, t-shirts and yearbooks.

(above) The sign I made for the 5th grade celebration

Teachers signs for the 5th grade celebration

I’m excited summer break is here, as I’m sure all of you are too!!

Enjoy, relax, and have fun!!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the fall!!

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ART SHOUT OUTS! #1

April 17, 2020 No Comments

With remote learning well underway, I thought I’d share the artwork students have been emailing me while creating art from home!

I, along with the two AMAZING elementary art teachers in my district (Kim and Sarah YOU ROCK!), have been collaborating on creating weekly art activity suggestions for our students. One weekly art activity suggestion for grades K-2 and one weekly art activity suggestion for grades 3-5.

I’ve gotten a bunch of artwork via email from my students. Awesome work guys! Keep creating!

Some artwork below was created using one of our art activity suggestions for inspiration and some they came up with on their own.

Students below created some excellent positivity posters to hang in their windows in their homes. This was one of the 3-5 art activity suggestions “I can design: A Kindness Poster!” Create a positive motivational poster to send encouragement to others in the world around you. Then, display your poster where you live. You might even hang it in a window to send a positive message to others!”

Here are some sculptures made from nature inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy! This was one of the 3-5 art activity suggestions “I can create: A Sculpture made from nature” Go on a nature scavenger hunt and collect natural materials. Arrange them in a symmetrical design. Take a photo and show off your design!

This was one of the K-2 art activity suggestions “I can Build: A Robot Using Recycled Materials” Create a shape robot using any cardboard you are able to use. Cereal boxes and cracker packaging work well!

Below are some aliens students created. This was one of the K-2 art activity suggestions “I can Create: Draw your own alien” What shape is the body of the alien? How many eyes does your alien have? Does your alien have scales, fur, or something else? What name would you give it?

This student created a cool 3D alien from materials around the house!

This student had fun creating their alien from clay and pipe cleaners!

Below are from one of the K-2 art activity suggestions “I Can Create: Draw a picture of how you would look at age 75?”

These two students used a variety of materials creatively to create themselves at 75!

Below are two students that drew along with me in my YouTube video on “How to Draw 2 Dogs on a Hill”! Nice work!!!

Here’s some more artwork students created!

I will be adding more student artwork very soon!

Students: If you would like to share anything you have created at home please send them to me! I’d love to see it and will post it here on my blog! Email me at mfilmore@naschools.net

Can’t wait to see what you all create!!!!

Take care everyone

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All You Need Is Love!—Mixed media hearts by my Special Education classes!

February 7, 2018 No Comments

My students in my special education classes created these AMAZING mixed media hearts for their Square 1 Art papers!!

I LOVE how they came out!!

This took 2- 40 minute art classes to create with a little left over time each class.

First, students traced a heart on 80# paper, then glued pieces of pre-cut tissue paper with watered down white school glue, overlapping any of the following color combos-red, pink, purple, yellow, and orange.

On their Square 1 sheet, they then traced their heart again and drew lines with oil pastels in whatever colors they wanted coming out from the heart, then painted over their lines with watercolor paint creating a resist.

Once dry, on day 2- the hearts were cut out, glued in place on the Square 1 sheet, and either red or pink oil pastel was added around the rim of their cut hearts!! ❤️❤️❤️

To view other art lessons for special education please click on “special Education” in the drop down menu at the top of this page!

Thanks for visiting my blog!

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Open House Photo Op!

October 10, 2017 No Comments

A wee bit late posting this…. I created a little photo op spot in the gym during open house at Roosevelt School (which was almost two weeks ago!) But O-well! Better late than never right?!?

I thought it’d be fun to create a fun, silly photo opportunity for kids to strike a pose for that evening, while parents went to their children’s classrooms! Kids were playing basketball too, so it was kind of a crazy space to try to photograph– BUT…even amidst all the craziness and chaos with balls flying everywhere the kids had fun!

I made a giant frame from foam board, cardboard and model magic, a quick splatter paint backdrop, a couple of speech bubbles, as well as painted giant paintbrushes and a paint palette for props. There weren’t too many kids that night but the ones that did come with their parents (or ones that were hosting a table with info. for parents) had a blast posing for a quick pic!

NEXT BLOG UPDATE COMING THIS WEEKEND!