Handprint Tracing as Art Sub Plans

Hand Tracing Art Projects

Kids seem to love tracing their hands. It’s easy to do and mostly a no fail way to start a drawing. 

I looked online for different art lessons using hand tracing, that would be successful as an art sub lesson. There are plenty of them out there. Here are a few.

This is a drawing, a doodle really, that I did after looking at the blog post from Hingham Art Dept. The teacher had multiple ideas for hand traced drawings. They were all easy to do and attractive to look at. The lesson was geared towards second and third grades.

Click here to see the lesson, “Lend Me Your Hand.”

Miss Heather’s channel on YouTube has a video lesson on tracing your hand and filling it with designs relative to the students’ lives and interests. I like it when students really personalize their work. 

I suspect that Miss Heather made this video for her students during the pandemic.

Click here to see: Miss Heather’s YouTube Lesson

The next blog post includes another video. “The Craft Train” blog shows you how to design a patterned and colored hand design. Likely, if I left this for a sub, I would skip the cutting and pasting part, but do all the rest.  

Click here to see: Handprint Doodle Art by The Craft Train

JoAnne Gonzales has a blog post showing three different hand tracing ideas. There are plenty of directions there for you. Click here to visit:  3 Fun Hand Tracing Drawings

So, there are some fun ideas for your kids, but they are fun doodles to do yourself.

If you would like to see another of my blog posts about hand tracing, check out this blog post: Hand Creatures 

If you are interested in a fully formed lesson for a sub, that uses doodles, check out: People in the Style of Romero Britto. It’s in my TpT shop; easy to hand to a sub; and is easy to teach.

Kindergarten Art Sub Plan - Klee’s “Cat and Bird”

Kindergarten Art Sub Plan - “Cat and Bird"

When creating a sub plan that needs only simple instructions and materials, Klee's painting, "Cat and Bird," might be just the foundation upon which to build.  

Paul Klee Idea Emphasizing  Shape, Pattern, and Warm and Cool Colors 

The teachers at Jamestown Elementary, Ms. Worden and Ms. Teitsma have written a blog post that suggests rich resources from which to teach this lesson. 

Since my older students would often ask if they could do a lesson that the little kids did, I know that sometimes they like the simple lessons too. The perfect time to let them do one of those simple lessons is when they have a substitute teacher in art.

Check out this lesson at Jamestown Elementary Art Blog.

Paul Klee Idea Emphazing Color and Shape

Another take on this lesson can be found at the blog, Art at Miquon.  Ms. Batchelor, at The Miquon School, taught a unit on Klee for multiple grades and this blog post shares the inspirations for that in this blog post. Again, this is a lesson that could be easy enough for anyone to teach with the right resources. This is no cookie-cutter lesson and each drawing is unique.

DreamHouse - Art Sub Plans Elementary

This is an easy lesson that I would adapt to middle school art lessons as well as elementary ones. Mrs. Filmore has an idea for a first-grade architecture drawing lesson. I like open ended lessons as sub lessons, especially for subs who are not confident enough to draw.  Check out her lesson called "Dream House with Patterns."

If you have time to plan ahead of time, I would leave drawings or photos of a variety of types of houses to go along with this lesson. Also, I would have a sheet or poster board depicting a variety of patterns that the students may be inspired by; and a few student examples. 

Her blog is named, "Art with Mrs. Filmore." This lesson idea is near the bottom of a blog post called, "1st Grade Art."

More Lessons that Integrate with the Study of Architecture

A Home with an Onion Dome

This lesson focuses on the beauty and uniqueness of this architectural element and shows how architects from the past and present have used this element in a variety of ways.

Captivating Castles

In this lesson, students will learn about castles from medieval Europe, including the exterior architecture and the reasons for their design. Students will draw a castle of their own design utilizing architectural elements they have learned.

Free Art Sub Plan - Shoe Prints

Free Elementary and Middle School Art Lesson - Shoe Prints

This attractive artwork was done with simple supplies. Paper and crayons. If your students can trace their shoe, they can do this activity.

First, they trace their shoe on their paper. After observing the tread that is on the bottom of their shoes, they will create a pattern on the traced shoe. (Sneakers are likely to have patterned tread.)

Next, they will trace that shoe again in the background and add pattern to that shoe drawing.

They will continue to repeat that until the paper is full. 

Color in.

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If you liked this lesson idea, you might like this 26 page, fully formed and scripted lesson on TPT.  Click here to see this lesson on TPT. 

This elementary and middle school art sub lesson includes slides about the artist and two projects for the students to draw. It is great for teaching elementary and middle school students about abstract art and the artist, Bruce Gray. 

Written for a sub, it may also be taught by parents, classroom teachers, art teachers, and homeschool teachers.

Supplies needed for the art lesson are pencils, paper, markers or crayons, rulers and circles of various sizes.

These lessons may be taught in several ways. You may project it as a regular PowerPoint. You may print it out and have the students sit close as if you were reading them a book. You could print out the slides and project them from a document camera.

You or your sub will only need to read the script and ask the questions given, then allow the students to respond. Visuals and directions are given for each step in creating the artwork.

Landscape with Patterns - Art Sub Plans

Patterned Landscapes for Elementary Art Sub Plans

Here are some visuals for a landscape lesson that anyone could teach. It could be great for an art sub.

I have drawn 4 stages of a patterned landscape lesson that you are welcome to use in a lesson with your own students.

Here is a video that you could use with older students.  Patterns and Landscape Video.

Other Lessons Idea on my Blog about Pattern

Easy Art Lesson for Elementary and Middle School

Put a Pattern on It

Complete Lesson at My TPT Shop: Art Sub Lessons

The Colorful Art of Bruce Gray

***Originally I had linked to a lesson about patterned landscapes on a site called "Relief Teaching Ideas," but that site no longer exists.

Mardi Gras Mask - Art Sub Lesson

Mardi Gras Mask - Art Worksheet Printables

It is hard to imagine that it is this time of year already!!! If you would like a Mardi Gras mask lesson, Center and Early Finishers’ TPT shop has one. It could be a nice lesson for an art sub.

Here’s how she describes the lesson:  “ This Mardi Gras activity may be used as a learning center activity, a filler art lesson, or a creative activity for early finishers. Students will doodle patterns in the template of a Mardi Gras Mask. The supplies needed to complete the artwork are simple: crayon, pen, or marker.

This activity includes: 
1 mask template
4 sheets of directions for different media
4 sheets, each with a mask done in different media
1 sheet of suggestions for how to divide the space
1 sheet of sample patterns
1 sheet showing an example of how you might set this up as a learning center”