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.

Flower Mandala Worksheets - STEAM -

STEAM - Math and Art Lesson

The TpT shop, Cool Classroom Stuff, has a fun art activity for elementary or middle school. It could be used for subs, centers, or early finishers. It includes circle templates that are divided to help design symmetrical floral designs. There is a template for creating a design to a Mother’s Day card as well as one for a larger design.

This radial symmetry lesson is a STEAM lesson as it integrates math and art.

It could be used by elementary and middle school students.

Middle School Art Sub Plans | Name Designs

Abstract Name Designs as Middle School Art Sub Plans

Here's an idea you might use for an art sub or art relief lesson. If you show the visuals provided in this blog post by  Betsy Morningstar, and add a few directions, your middle schoolers might be able to do this one.  Betsy gives step-by-step instructions, so she has provided a lot for you already.  

I would suggest that you make one art visual for each step and include directions. If the sub teacher cannot draw, these visuals should be descriptive enough. The sub can just show each visual, one at a time, and then post them on the board.

You need to do a little prep work, but not a lot of brain work.  Whew!  Yay!  It's a nice lesson even if you don't save it for an absence.

STEAM Art Sub Lesson with Insects

This lesson was created with an art sub in mind. All of the directions have been included for their ease of use. There are multiple ways to use it. It may be printed out so that the sub may present it up close on paper or shown as a PowerPoint presentation.
It integrates science with art in an “ugly bug ball.” Including art history rounds this out even more!

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The lesson begins with a discussion about masterpieces featuring insects by the artists Balthasar van der Ast, Nicolaes de Bruyn and then William Heath-Robinson. 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. 

The materials needed for this lesson are the most simple: paper, pencils and crayons or markers. Here's what another buyer had so say about that: "Great lesson to leave for a sub as everything needed was included and the prep was minimal and used things commonly found in the art room. "

Here's a comment from a buyer:  "The kids produced wonderful drawings and images. The sub used the plans for my intermediate groups grades 3-5 and she loved working with the kids as the plans were so meticulously laid out!"

You may find this lesson here:  TPT Shop: Art Sub Lessons

Bugs and Insects - STEAM Art Sub Plans

Bugs and Insects - STEAM Art Sub Lessons

Now that spring is here, people are interested in nature art lessons. Here are some related to bugs and insects.

Here is one on TPT that was written easy enough to be taught by anyone; art teacher, sub, classroom teacher, or random person off the street.  Ugly Bug Ball

This one is also on TPT.  It could also be taught by anyone. A multipurpose lesson, it could be used as a center activity, an early finishers activity, or an art sub lesson.  Create Insect Designs with Radial Symmetry - STEM/STEAM

This is a coloring/doodle/patterned Monarch Butterfly activity on TPT.

The images in this blog post are great.  As an upper elementart art sub lesson, you could do some step by steps of how to draw a simple insect and add a pattern chart.  Kids could do some beautiful drawings with crayons or markers. This is over at Laura Kelly's blog, Me and My Inklings.

Here's another good one with lots of visuals and instructions.  Still, for a sub, you might want to add a few more step by step visuals unless you have a person who is comfortable doing simple shape drawings.  I would also keep the lesson to just crayons or markers.  It is a nice lesson.  Visit the Laugh Paint Create blog.

KinderArt, always a good place to check out lessons, has a lesson called Bug In A Jar. It was written for middle school art, but could be adapted,  I'm sure.

Crayola is always a good place to get ideas. Often there are plans on their site  you could use as well. This one would need more detailed directions for a sub, but you could write up some step by step ones that would work with this. Crayola

Birds and Birdhouses | Kindergarten Art

Birds and Birdhouses Kindergarten Art Sub Plans

People are always seeking art sub plan ideas for kindergarten and first grade. Here is a project that you could easily turn into a sub lesson for both.  She has complete instructions too.  These are drawn from the most basic shapes. Kindergarteners could easily follow along. And any sub should be able to lead them. 

Check out this lesson from Ms. L's Art Room.

If you are interested in other kindergarten art sub lessons with directed drawings of birds, check out this blog post:  Kindergarten Bird Lessons

Kindergarten Art Sub Lessons | Imaginary Travel

Kindergarten and First Grade Art Sub Lesson

One good place to check when you need art sub lessons is KinderArt.

Here's an elementary art lesson that they recommend for ages 5 - 8.  They include a short write up of a lesson with a sample art work. Your sub would probably appreciate some supplemental material such as picture books that go with the theme. It is a sweet little lesson you can leave for your sub if you have time to add a few more visuals and maybe a book to go along with it.

Here's one of mine that has a similar theme, but there 17 pages with visuals; a script for the sub to follow; and instructions. 

Here are a couple of comments from teachers who have used this lesson:

"As a regular classroom teacher tasked with teaching art I love your lessons - makes me more confident that I am sharing some art insight."

" Great lesson for subs - easy, engaging, and very relevant in the art room! My sub loved it, and the kids did too. They all wanted to finish their images the next week."

Find my lesson is at TeachersPayTeachers shop: Art Sub Lessons.

Kindergarten Ideas for Art Sub Plans

Kindergarten Art Sub Plans Ideas

As an art teacher, I always found kindergarten to be a tough grade to write art sub plans for. Thinking up lessons that would be simple enough for any random sub to teach took a lot of planning. Sometimes it took a lot of prep too.

After I retired, and art subbed for a while, it reinforced my thinking that I better have a lot planned to keep a class of kinder kids, engaged. I don't mind singing and dancing and doing a lot of movement activities. Little kids are usually up for as much of that as you can provide. After as much of this as I could do and keep them interested, I would do a super simple art lesson.  No cutting.  No gluing. No paint.  And I would try to find lessons that were "no fail."

I would also have videos on hand for when kids would start finishing up their work. The early finishers would clean up, put their work away, and do whatever they needed to do at the end of a lesson.  Then, they would come to the floor and watch videos that I had previewed and thought were fun. I tried finding art videos that the students would like, but mostly the videos needed to be fun.

I do, by the way, have a blog with videos I have previewed.  Art Room Videos  I don't tend to it much anymore, but there are a lot of good videos in there. Some are great artsy ones and some are just pure entertainment for crowd control.

I would suggest that you have sub ideas on hand for kinder lessons.  Those were always the hardest to plan for me.  You might look around at this blog and save some ideas.  I will go back and tag the ones "kindergarten" that seem appropriate.  Print some things out. Go check out some ideas on TpT. I have a shop but there are plenty of others too.

Good luck and take care!

Art Sub Lesson Idea - Doodles

Art Sub Plan Idea - Doodles

Here is an easy lesson project from Andrea and Jantje at KinderArt.  They have given you examples and instructions, so if you know your sub has a skill for just teaching, they could totally follow this!

Check out the blog post here:  Doodles: Drawing Lessons for Elementary School Children

Here's a blog post about the work of a famous artist, that looks like doodles, but is actually more thought out than that.  Visit this blog post about the artist, Reggie Laurent. 

Reggie is renowned for his use of color.  

Check out the webpage for his original artworks here:  Laurent Originals

You can buy an art sub plan about Reggie and his art at my TPT shop: The Colorful and Fun Paintings of Reggie Laurent 

Through this art activity, students learn about geometric and organic shapes and how Laurent uses them in his abstract paintings. They then create a drawing of their own, based on Laurent’s work.

The lesson contains full directions for teachers and students. There are many photos of paintings by Reggie Laurent and visuals of student samples. There is a link to a YouTube video about the artist, but it is not necessary for teaching the lesson. (All photos of Reggie Laurent's work have been used with the permission of the artist.)

Funky Fish Idea for an Art Sub Plan

Funky Fish    Art Sub Plan Idea

I adore this blog post by  2 Soul Sisters. Their students created this fun piece for an art auction. I would totally buy it!

They used paint and 3D treasures, but I think the image idea could be sub lesson friendly for elementary students. I wouldn't leave glue and paint for a sub, but the basic design is marker and crayon-friendly.

Ideas for a Sub Lesson

You could leave a chart of basic fish shapes or imaginary fish shapes for students to copy.
You could draw simple fish shapes and make copies of them for students to fill in with designs.
Provide charts or handouts of patterns or textures for students to use to fill in their funky fish shapes.
Display more designs of funky fish to inspire kids.

And since this guy reminds me of Rainbow Fish,  a picture book might be a nice addition to the lesson!

Head over to their blog to get the details on this awesome piece.

No Prep, Fully Scripted Art Sub Plan

If you are looking for another funky and fun art lesson, but are less interested in putting it all together yourself, head over to my TPT shop and look at: Silly Sandwich. That is my most beloved art sub plan at my shop.  

This fun, no-prep art lesson was created for substitutes but may also be used by art and classroom teachers. Students learn art history and use their imaginations to create a silly sandwich.

Kids love this lesson. Subs love this lesson. And teachers love this lesson when they are putting together emergency art lessons.