Elementary Art Sub Plan - Desert Cactus Directed Drawing

 2 in 1 Art Sub Lesson

In my quest to try and make a teacher's life a little easier, I created a lesson that can be taught in kindergarten through 4th grade. It is a directed drawing but with plenty of room for personal expression.

The lesson starts out with step-by-step instructions for how to draw a patterned pot with a prickly pear cactus inside. That is for the kindergarten and first grade students. 

After they are led through how to draw that and color in neatly, the lesson for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade begins. Those grade will add a desert landscape to their drawing. 

By combining them all in one, your substitute teacher only has to attend to one lesson plan all day. (I subbed for a while after I retired, so I know how important it is to make the sub's life as uncomplicated as possible!!!)

The drawing uses the most simple materials: paper, pencil, and crayon.

It is no prep. All you have to do is print out the lesson or set it up to be projected. It can be taught either way. 

Check it out here at my TPT shop:  Desert Cactus Creations: Patterned Pots and Scenic Backgrounds for K-4

Back to School - Free Still Life Set Ups

Free Art Lesson Plans - Still Life Set Ups

This isn't a sub lesson, but it might be helpful to you at the beginning of the school year.

When I am teaching contour line drawing to my fifth graders, I lie to use still life set-ups that include objects familiar to the students.  That age group is not that far from the age of sleeping with stuffed animals, so I find that they feel comfortable trying to draw them.

I put together a small collection of public domain photos in PowerPoint that would work nicely as still lifes for elementary drawings.  You might use them all at once in a lesson or save them to show individually as warm-up exercises.

If you would like to have a copy of the PowerPoint, you may download it for free at my TPT shop:

Art Sub Lessons:  Back to School Freebie-Still Life Set-Ups