Art Sub Plans - Silly Sundae Preview

Art Sub Lessons "Silly Sundae"

Find relief when you have an emergency absence. Writing lesson plans for a sub when you are in a rush, feels horrible. Don't stress out when you don't need to.  I have complete no-prep lesson plans already fully formed for you.

This is a preview of my art sub lesson called "Silly Sundae." I thought you would get more information from a preview of this lesson than just from one or two images. Find this fun elementary lesson at my TpT Shop: Art Sub Lessons. 














This lesson is no prep and can be taught by anyone.  All someone needs to do is to show each page; read the script, and follow the directions. Subs love my lessons because there is a lot of content and they will keep the students engaged for the entire class period.  

Silly Sundae - Elementary Art Sub Plans

Silly Sundae - Art Sub Plans

This art lesson for kids is easy to teach. Substitute teachers only have to read the script; ask the questions; and show the pictures.  It requires no prep. This lesson gives students an opportunity to use their imaginations and create a fun product that they have never seen before. 

A no-prep lesson, it uses the most basic supplies: pencil, crayons or markers, and paper.

Check it out at the TPT shop: Art Sub Lessons.

Insect Mandala - STEAM/STEM - Art Sub Lessons

Art Sub Lesson Plans for STEAM | Art and Math

Cool Classroom Stuff’s TPT shop has an art activity that could be used with an art sub, a center, or an early finisher activity. This could be used by elementary, middle, or high school students.  Create Insect Designs with Radial Symmetry - STEM/STEAM

This activity may be set up as a classroom learning center; an activity for early finishers; or as a teacher or sub led lesson.

This PowerPoint includes:

-Four drawing templates featuring spacing guidelines and lightly drawn insects. (Butterflies, spiders, crickets, and bees.)

-One drawing template featuring spacing guidelines without insects so that students may draw their own insects.

-Five sample drawings, showing a variety of media. They may be hung in the class as visuals for a lesson or hung in a learning center. 

-One sheet with a composite of the sample drawings that may be hung in a learning center.

-One sheet of sample ways to divide a circle into a design of radial symmetry.

-Three sheets that include information about radial symmetry and directions on how to do the design.

The designs may be created with pen, crayon or marker.

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 Plans - Art Cars

Elementary Art Sub Lesson about Art Cars

Here's an elementary lesson that I taught as an art sub recently.  It is based on sculptural art cars.  Famous art cars include the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile and painted cars by Warhol, Haring and Lichtenstein. Students are lead through photos of famous and not so famous art cars and come up with ideas for their own art car.

I created this as a lesson to be used by an art sub but it certainly may be used by art teachers or classroom teachers as well.

You can check it out here at my TeachersPayTeachers shop.

I always write my sub lessons so that they use the most simple materials, pencil, crayons and paper, in order that they can be put together quickly.

This would be great for an emergency art plan since all you have to do is hand the printed slides to the sub or have them show the
PowerPoint lesson.  It is complete from start to finish.

And best of all, the students find this lesson highly engaging.  That's an important thing when you have a sub in the classroom!!!

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.  

Emergency Sub Plan- Captivating Castles

Students are captivated by castles. Their imaginations soar dreaming about the romance of medieval times. In this lesson, they will learn about castles from medieval Europe, including the exterior architecture and the reasons for their design. It includes illustrations from the early 1400's by the Limbourg brothers and photos of castles that still exist.

After going over the lesson, the students will draw a castle of their own design. They will utilize architectural elements they have learned but are encouraged to invent their own as well.

It was written in great detail for use as an emergency sub lesson but could be used by an art teacher or classroom teacher.

This PowerPoint may be used in two ways. It may be printed out and shown page by page to the students or shown as a projected PowerPoint.

The supplies needed are simple. The student will need paper, pencil, crayons or markers.

This lesson is written so that it may be taught completely by following the prompts in the slides. It written for use by grades two through five, but certainly could be used by older students. 

Find it here for $3.50 on TeachersPayTeachers:  Captivating Castles - Emergency Art Sub Lesson Plan  No one wants to spend hours writing lesson plans in an emergency.  My shop takes care of that.  Lessons are written so they are ready to hand over to the sub.

Clowning Around - Emergency Art Sub Lesson

I have left this lesson with my subs for a couple of years now.  They seem to do well with it.

I have uploaded it to TeachersPayTeachers here:  Art Lesson for Subs - Clowning Around

As with all my sub lessons, all you need to do is to print out this 20 page PowerPoint and leave it for the sub.  The only materials they will need are paper, pencil and crayons.  All the directions and visuals for your sub are included.  The sub just needs to read the questions and comments on each slide, and that will direct your students.

The lesson begins with photos of clowns through history.  In order to make an art history connection, I have included a medieval masterpiece of a court jester. Each slide includes questions and statements for the students to think about while creating their drawings.

This lesson would work well as an emergency sub plan as the materials are basic and the directions are complete.  The lesson will save you great amounts of time over the years.

Take care.

Elementary Art Sub Lesson | Fairy Tale

There's a Giant in My House | Art Sub Plan

Little to no prep art sub lesson!

I have many art sub plans on my TeachersPayTeachers site.  They are perfect as emergency sub plans but certainly could be used as regular lesson plans.  My sub plans require only that you have paper and crayons for supplies.


This lesson may be viewed in two ways. It may be projected as a normal PowerPoint or it may be printed out and used as you would a book. If it is to be printed out, the teacher would just have the students come to sit near him/her as the lesson is taught.

It was written with a substitute teacher in mind, but certainly could also be used by the classroom or art teacher.

This lesson was written so that all of the prompts and visuals are included. To teach the lesson, all one has to do is go from slide to slide (or page to page.)

The materials needed to complete the assignment are intentionally simple; paper, pencil, or crayon. For this reason, this lesson would serve well as an emergency lesson plan.

The lesson could be augmented with the reading of the story, "Jack and the Beanstalk," but for the time given, it is intended as a stand-alone lesson.

Art Sub Plan - A Tree House for Me

A Treehouse for Me

As I am entering the later part of my art teaching career, I am trying to figure out how I can both continue in art education and fund my retirement.  Plus, in a year or two I will probably start subbing in art classrooms and will need an arsenal of good lessons to teach.  I've started putting together art sub lessons in PowerPoint as if I were going to substitute teach from them.  They've taken hours of work to put together and most of them have been tested in the classroom.

I am going to be selling them cheaply so that when you need an emergency lesson plan you can buy one from here:  Jan's Shop at TeachersPayTeachers  A lesson that has taken me hours and hours to work on, you can download in a minute.  You don't have to spend all those agonizing hours writing your own art sub lesson plans.

The lessons all use the most simple supplies:  crayon or marker, pencil or pen, and paper.  All your sub has to do is to read each slide.

Since my subs most likely don't feel comfortable using my technology, I have created the slides so that you can print out each slide.  The sub will just bring the class close as if they were reading a book to the class, and they will show each slide that has been printed.

This particular lesson was written with third, fourth, and fifth grade students in mind.

Ugly Bug Ball - Elementary Art Sub Plan

 Ugly Bug Ball - Art Sub Plan 

I created this lesson for its ease of use.  It is complete with visuals and simple directions.  The materials needed are very simple.  It is for sale at TeachersPayTeachers.

This lesson was created with an art sub in mind. All of the directions have been included for their ease of use. You may print this out so that the sub may present it up close on paper or show it as PowerPoint presentation.

The materials needed for this lesson are the most simple: paper, pencils, and crayons or markers.

The lesson begins with discussion questions regarding a masterpiece by the artist, Balthasar van der Ast. This painting includes many interesting insects crawling around a beautiful still life. The lesson then leads the students to create an imaginary scene of insects at a party. Each slide includes questions and statements for the students to think about including in their drawing.

I have taught this lesson to all levels, K through Fifth. My subs who have used this lesson have left feedback that they and the students thoroughly enjoyed the lesson.

I hope that this will be a well-loved lesson for you and your students and that it helps you when you are in need of a sub lesson.

Elementary Art Sub Lesson - Ugly Bug Ball

 I created this lesson for its ease of use.  It is complete with visuals and simple directions.  The materials needed are very simple.  It is for sale at TeachersPayTeachers.

This lesson was created with an art sub in mind. All of the directions have been included for their ease of use. You may print this out so that the sub may present it up close on paper or show it as PowerPoint presentation.

The materials needed for this lesson are the most simple: paper, pencils and crayons or markers.

The lesson begins with discussion questions regarding a masterpiece by the artist, Balthasar van der Ast. This painting includes many interesting insects crawling around a beautiful still life. The lesson then leads the students to creating an imaginary scene of insects at a party. Each slide includes questions and statements for the students to think about including in their drawing.

I have taught this lesson to all levels, K through Fifth. My subs who have used this lesson have left feedback that they and the students thoroughly enjoyed the lesson.

I hope that this will be a well loved lesson for you and your students and that it helps you when you are in need of a sub lesson.

Kindergarten Art Sub Plan - Gingham Dog Calico Cat

Kindergarten Art Sub Plan

This is a lesson that I created years ago and it has been an old favorite. It goes with the book/poem "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat." I wrote it specifically for primary art subs. It's over at TeachersPayTeachers.  

I tried to make it as simple as possible. If you have the book and simple supplies, you are ready to take a day of leave. = )

This is a great solution to a day when you have an emergency and need a sub lesson immediately.  Everything you need is here.