Explorers and Sea Monsters - Middle School Art

Art Sub Lessons: Sea Monsters 

Who wouldn't love learning about sea monsters! If your students are learning about the "age of exploration" or "European explorers," they will enjoy this art lesson plan. Students will learn about maps created by ancient navigators and the sea monsters that often appear on those maps. Then they will create a drawing of their own imaginary sea monsters. 

It was written with substitute teachers in mind, so it is written with a full script and tons of visuals.  It can be taught successfully by anyone. It is no prep and uses the most simple materials.  Paper and pencil. Crayons, pens, and markers could be added. It is presented as a PowerPoint but can be converted to Google slides if you want to use it in that manner.  Make your life a little bit easier with this already prepared activity.

Here’s Where You Can Find This Lesson

This is where you can find the middle school lesson:  Sea Monsters.

If you are interested in an elementary lesson about early explorers, click here:  Art Sub Lesson - There Be Monsters! It is another fully ready; easy to teach; no prep art lesson that will be fun for your kids.

 

Art Activities That Students Can Do At Home

Elementary Art Sub Activities to do at Home

If you are looking for easy options for teaching art at a distance, here are some suggestions.

I found this drawing prompt generator. artprompts.org  You select a category and then a prompt appears for that. There are ads at the top but look down at the bottom to see your prompt. Get a new prompt by clicking on "refresh." You can make your own template and then insert drawing prompts for each week.





Crayola has art worksheets that you can download.


If your students have access to the web and YouTube, there are some sites that they can access easily.  

Here are some you might check out.

The Kennedy Center
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems

Mr. Pstudios is an art teacher. His YouTube channel includes drawing activities for kids.

The blog, Art Room Videos, has links to lots of individual art videos that have been previewed for kids.

The Dad Lab has lots of videos. Your students may have access to lots of materials, so check out his entire channel. For those whose students may have limited supplies, here are some videos that might work for you.
Crayon Rubbing with Legos 
Shadow Drawing
Draw with Your Feet
Tree Bark Rubbing

Young Rembrandts They have some directed drawings. They also have an online course that you can pay for that is off of YouTube

Art for Kids Hub  They do a lot of directed, step-by-step drawing.  

Mark Kistler is a long-time favorite for kids wanting to draw better. I would suggest these for upper elementary and middle school.  Many of his videos are hour-long, which I suspect will not work for most kids.  Finding the shorter videos, I sorted by "most popular." I saw a lot that was around ten minutes long.

The Art Project has lots of videos you might like for older kids. His drawing prompt videos are the perfect length for kids drawing at home.

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In case you need some art lesson ideas to print and send home with your students for a few days, these would work great. Written as early finishers activities, they are worksheets with directions and lots of details that kids can draw from on their own.

"Create a Leprechaun in Disguise"

"Create a Silly Monster" Worksheet

"Create a New Character" Worksheet

"Create a Silly Troll" Worksheet

"Create a Turkey in Disguise" Worksheet

"Fill a Claw Machine" 

"Create a Penguin in Disguise"

"Doodle Birds"

"Create a Monkey in Disguise"

"Create a Bunny in Disguise"

"Coloring Sheet - Monarch Butterfly"

"Create a Panda in Disguise" Worksheet

"Create a Yeti in Disguise"

"Create a Turtle in Disguise" 

"Create a Frog in Disguise"

"Create a Little Red Riding Hood in Disguise"