Teaching European Explorers in Elementary Art

Teaching European Explorers in Elementary Art Class 

"There Be Monsters!" is a fun and open-ended elementary art sub lesson that integrates the study of early explorers with mapmaking and sea monsters.  

There are 21 slides that include many from maps from the age of Columbus.  There are lots of strange sea creatures on these maps!  The students will talk about what they see in the slides and then create a map of an imaginary place with their own unique sea monsters.

It was written with an art sub in mind, but can be taught by classroom teachers and art teachers as well. 

You can find this lesson in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:  Art Sub Lessons.

This particular lesson was written for 3rd through 5th grade, but if you are interested in an early explorers art lesson for middle school, check out this lesson:  Explorers and Sea Monsters

Art Sub Lesson for Kindergarten - Dragon Dance

Now that I am retired from full-time art teaching, I substitute teach from time to time.  I realize how important it is for a substitute teacher to be given good plans. Art teachers know to leave a sub-plan that can be taught by anyone, but they also need to leave something in which the students will be interested.

This is a lesson that I taught for many years in my own classroom.  I have created this PowerPoint so that all a sub needs to do is to read the information on each slide as they show the pictures.  Questions are included to help lead the students through a discussion. 

The lesson introduces the students to Asian dragon costumes as they might be seen in parades and festivals.  Along with background information about the mythical dragons, students observe decorative details used in these festive costumes.

Using the most basic art room supplies (paper, pencil, and crayons), students will create their own imaginative dragon costume.

This lesson may be taught as a PowerPoint projection or printed out and each page shown, one-by-one.

This would be perfect as an emergency sub lesson or as a lesson to be taught by a teacher at any time.

You may find this at my Teachers Pay Teachers shop.