12 Winter Art Sub Plans and Early Finishers

 

12 Winter Art Sub Lessons and Worksheets

This time of year so many people need art activities for early finishers, art sub plans, and just plain art lessons, that are not specifically Christmas themed. Here are seasonal art lessons that will excite your kids in December or the winter.

First off are a couple of free directed drawings I posted on this blog. The first one shows how to draw, step by step, a gingerbread man. The second one shows how to draw a Christmas tree.

How to Draw an Gingerbread Man

How to Draw a Christmas Tree

Art Sub Lesson - Beyond the Gingerbread Man

"Great engaging sub lesson. I teach choice art but only 

leave choice prompts for subs and this was perfect. No unhappy campers!"

— Kristen J.

Rated 5 out of 5

"I have bought several of these sub lessons and have loved 

every single one. This has made this year of frequently needing 

subs so much less stressful. Subs love them too. Thank you!"

— Jordan B.

Rated 5 out of 5

Art Sub Lesson - Ugly Christmas Sweater

"This was a super fun way to start an art project where we made "ugly tshirts". 

The students and I really enjoyed it!"

— Kim H.

Rated 5 out of 5

"My students enjoyed this classroom activity to fill a little time at the end 

of the semester before Christmas break. Very satisfied!"

— Stacey L.

Rated 5 out of 5

Draw a Gingerbread House

"Such a fun lesson! I use this each year as a sub lesson. Def keeps kids engaged!"

-Michelle

"Good for a substitute lesson or quick activity."

-TpT Seller

Radial Symmetry Drawing for Winter

Rated 5 out of 5Extremely satisfied

"Great resource to have. Students enjoyed it."

-Amanda

"Great resource right before the holidays!"

-Kelsey

Art Sub Lesson - Robots in Winter

"My fourth graders are loving this! The sample robot shapes and details sheets 

are a great reference for helping them to draw."

-Alison 

"This lesson was great for a sub lesson and the students really enjoyed it. 

The examples and ideas pages really helped them be successful. Definitely a keeper!!"

— Kim 

Rated 5 out of 5

Art Sub Plan - Doodle Monsters in Winter

Not Yet Rated

Art Worksheet - Create an Elf in Disguise

"Awesome! Wonderful resource for class project. Love it!"

-Shelby

"This one was flying off my counter during December!"

-Julie

Art Worksheet - Winter Mittens

Not Yet Rated

Art Worksheet - Create a Gingerbread House

"This was great for early finishers in my Art class during the holidays."

-Laurie

"My younger grades love this and the other products like it. They are 

so excited when I pull them out."

-Julie

Art Worksheet - Create a Reindeer in Disguise

"Perfect for right before winter break."

-Laurie

"My younger students love this one! I've seem some really cute finished products."

-Julie

Art Worksheet - Create a Christmas Stocking

"Super fun! I used these as a pattern to make hanging stockings."

-Karen

Art Worksheet - Create a Nutcracker

"Engaging for kids. Easy activity. Loves that the base model was a 

simple enough template that kids could turn it into any nutcracker they wanted."

-Kristen

"Good activity for early finishers! Using this in my music class during my 

Nutcracker unit. Thank you!"

-Cassandra

Art Worksheets for Winter

Winter Worksheets

During the month of December, there are always reasons you can't get through a complete class period. Assemblies. Extra kids added to your class for a day. Sub lessons. You are left scrambling to find something easy enough for kids to do at the spur of the moment but interesting enough to keep them engaged.

I created art worksheets to help you out with those circumstances. KIDS.....LOVE.....THESE....THINGS. And for .99, you will love them too!

Here are some of them made just for winter.

Create an Elf in Disguise

Create a Reindeer in Disguise

Create a Gingerbread House 

Create a Panda in Disguise

Create a Yeti in Disguise

Art Sub Lesson Plan - How to Draw a Monster

How to Draw Doodle Monsters

This is the time of year that kids are most intrigued by monsters. They're everywhere you look in the stores and on TV! At school though, you don't want your students to work on grisly, bloody creatures. So, I like to teach them how to draw doodle monsters.

Doodle monsters are friendly looking and not at all scary. Drawing a doodle monster lets kids be creative and draw as crazy a creature as they can imagine.

Step-by-Step for Drawing a Monster

When I have kids drawing doodle monsters, I like to have lots of visuals around. Having examples of cartoon eyes, noses, mouths, ears, hair, arms, bodies, and legs is key. Examples give kids a good jumping off point. They are less likely to have  artist's block when they can see so many options.

Doodle monsters are made of such simple shapes, anyone can draw them. 

Let me show you how to draw a super simple one.

Step 1.  Draw a simple shape for the monster's body. Using a variety of lines makes it look interesting.

Step 2.  Draw simple eye shapes. It can be one eye, or many.

Step 3. Draw a mouth. It might be toothy or not.

Step 4.  Color in the monster. Start by outlining the shape.

Step 5. Color in the shape neatly.  To make it look more three dimensional, color more heavily around the edges.

One monster, DONE!

They can fill a whole sheet with these simple creatures. Varying the shapes, lines, patterns and colors will make the drawing more interesting. The more examples you have around to inspire the students, the better.

Get the Lesson Plan and Visuals

I love teaching how to draw these monsters, so I have created lesson plans for teaching doodle monsters during the different seasons. They were written for a sub, so they are fully scripted; use simple materials; and have lots of examples.

Here are some visuals from the one I created for Halloween. I have made versions for kids who want to draw Halloween monsters and another for kids who want to draw fall monsters. (Not all students are allowed, nor want to, draw Halloween imagery, so I have taken this into account.)

Here's where you can find my lesson and all the visuals:  Art Sub Lesson - Doodle Monsters at Halloween. It's only $4.00 and will save you hours and hours of time.

Blog Posts about Doodle Monsters

Check out these blog posts about Doodle Monsters at other seasons:

Doodle Monsters at Christmas and Winter

Doodle Monsters at Valentines Day

9 Halloween Art Sub Lessons

9 Halloween Art Lesson Plans Easy Enough for a Sub

Here are some fun lessons for October. I’ll add some that can be adapted for those kids who cannot use Halloween imagery for religious or personal reasons.

First, here’s one I just created. Kids love drawing “doodle monsters.” They are easy shapes to draw and there are so many options for adding fun details. 

In this art lesson, I gave examples of doodle monster drawings that are either Halloween focused, with mummies, ghosts, witches, and the likes plus an example of one with none of that. It has footballs, fall trees, hot cocoa, and warm clothes. Kids will appreciate that options are given for either direction.

You can find that lesson in my TpT shop:  Doodle Monsters at Halloween.

At the Mrs Art Teacher Lady blog. you can find a directed drawing. "Halloween Bats and Frankenstein Monsters" is a lesson that both upper and lower elementary kids will have fun drawing. It uses simple materials, so would be great for a substitute teacher.

The TpT shop, "Cool Classroom Stuff" has an activity that would be super easy for your sub to teach. This one is focused on Mexican Sugar Skulls. Your kids will be engaged and happy to work on this one.

Here's another one at "Cool Classroom Stuff." This is a fall themed one and would be good for fourth grade through middle school. 

This radial symmetry lesson has templates and sample templates to help kids out.

Amy, at Makes and Takes, gives step-by-step instructions and many visuals for this lesson. She used black paper and oil pastel, but this could easily be done with crayons on lighter paper.

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At Panicked Teacher, Susie gives you step by step instructions on how to make this patterned pumpkin.  I believe she is a classroom teacher who has to supplement art instruction in her class for most of the school year.

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This lesson, at ArtfulNest, was written for middle school.  You could write it up as a fifth-grade lesson or a sixth-grade one.  You could also bring it down to the upper primary grades with a change of media.  Leave your subs some good visuals.  They could teach this!           

 

This Halloween art lesson is fun for students and easy to teach. The prep for this is minimal. Students will need paper; one black crayon per student; and assorted other crayon colors. I call it a “print and go” lesson as that is all you need to do.

It includes full instructions and visuals. You could even post it as an art learning center in the classroom.

“Creating Silly Monsters” is a fun lesson about monsters that you could use in an art center; as a regular art lesson; or for an art sub. It is super easy to teach and kids will love it. Check it out at TPT Shop: Centers and Early Finishers  It would be timely around Halloween but could be taught any time.

This lesson was posted on a blog called, “Clown and Poodle.” It appears that it no longer exists. However, I had written a blog post inspired by the original, and that still exists. You can see that complete lesson in my blog post here: Purple People Eater