Can You Draw What Isn't There? Discover a captivating art lesson designed to ignite creativity in your art room! With our Negative Space Chair project, teaching the fundamentals of negative space becomes a breeze. Watch as middle school and high school students dive into the intriguing concept of drawing by focusing on what surrounds an object, adding their unique twist with patterns and colors. Perfect for Art Sub Plans! NEWLY UPDATED Now featuring 12 additional reference images and an exciting student-centered video tutorial! Is your art curriculum missing a key piece? Mastering Negative Space isn't just about drawing—it's about honing observational skills that set the stage for exceptional artwork. Perfect for all skill levels: Whether your middle or high school students are beginners or seasoned artists, this cost-effective lesson serves as an essential building block, paving the way for more advanced techniques like life drawing. Are you ready to make a big impact without breaking the bank? This drawing lesson is perfect for art teachers working within tight budgets or limited supplies. It's a versatile addition to any art curriculum, seamlessly complementing existing coursework and preparing students for further exploration. TECH NOTE: Don't forget to make a copy of the Google tutorial file links for seamless sharing within your district's server area. Lesson is meant to follow Negative Space Stool Worksheet - found HERE Items Included in the Negative Space Chair Lesson: Project Overview Project Overview Teacher Video Tutorial 18-pages - Chair/Rocking Chair/Plant Reference Photos ½ Page Rubric for Chair Project (without directions) Full Page Project Directions and Rubric “All-in-One” Sheet Additional Chair/Rocking Chair Project Directions TWO Student Video Tutorials (diamond back chair and ladder back chair) – great for homebound students, as a homework assignment, early finishers, extra credit, additional practice) Short video of student work (link above) Supply List: Construction paper – various colors for students to choose from Pencils Rulers Colored Pencils Markers Sharpie Pens Ballpoint Pens Please go to mrstfoxresources.com and subscribe to my Sunday newsletter, "The Weekly Fabulousness" for teacher freebies and much more! There are hundreds of examples of student work on both my Instagram @mrstfoxresources and my Pinterest MrsTFox Resources - be sure and check it out! MrsTFox Resources is now on YouTube! Check out the free content and classroom resources :D Don't forget to leave a review on this (or any) resource by logging into your TpT account - TpT is now giving credits toward future purchases for teacher feedback - yay! :) All my best for a safe and productive school year, Thank you for stopping by! tiffany :)
Teach students about ALL of the Art Elements and Principles of Design in one dazzling art lesson! Engaging organic sculpture lesson 8th-12!
Symmetry of animals is a great way to engage and teach students drawing skills with a fun animal theme. Symmetry drawing is a fun activity and a way for students to practice drawing, symmetry, while engaging with pictures of animals. To learn more about symmetry of animals worksheets, keep reading!
Get inspired for the school year with high school art project ideas. Check out how I scaffold courses, start the first day, and more.
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Art Lesson Plans for Art Teachers to save you time and restore your work/life balance. Let The Arty Teacher do the work for you.
Students learned how to mix tints (a color + white) and shades (a color + black) then used this skill to create an atmospheric landscape with tempera on paper.
Graffiti Name Designs Art Jam! Students will love designing their own tag. 3d metallic block letter & shaded bubble letter handouts included.
These Free Elements of Art activities are the perfect way to support student learning, whether it be middle school, high school or homeschool art students. Students complete activities to demonstrate their knowledge of the Element of Color, Line, Shape, Value, Texture, Space and Form. Color Worksheets: Value Worksheets: Form Worksheets: Texture Worksheets: Space Worksheets: Shape Worksheets: Line Worksheets: I want to take a moment to say thank you for everything you do for your students, whether it's at a large public high school or middle school, or a small homeschool group. You are making a difference in their lives by introducing them to the arts! Click on the image below to download your free resources! Enjoy!
Simple and straightforward practice worksheet for value and shading. It provides step-by-step directions, accompanied by pictured examples for reference.I created this for my high school Art class students, but it can easily be used for middle school or college.
How to draw with colored pencils on black paper: Let's dive into the vibrant world of colors, shadows, and the subtle dance between light and darkness.
It's time to go back to school! With the back-to-school season upon us, it is time to start planning back-to-school activities for the first week of school.
Are you looking for an engaging and easy-to-follow mindful art lesson idea for middle or high school? This neurographic art project was a huge success.
3 Essential Downloads for the First Day of School Expectations % %
These 5 geometry projects for middle or high school are a great alternative assessment for your student. Project-based learning is so important to...
Looking to enhance your art class curriculum with engaging activities? Look no further! Our Negative Space Drawing Worksheet is designed to elevate your middle or high school students' artistic skills while providing them with an enjoyable learning experience. "Great simple drawing worksheet for getting kids to look at negative spaces. Easy to use as an intro lesson, but also could be used as a last minute sub plan! Will use again." — Lacey B. - Rated 5 out of 5 "Awesome skill builder for Negative Space. Kids loved it." - Allison M. - Rated 5 out of 5 "This was a great lesson. All students could be successful and also it furthered their skills and knowledge on composition and space - would also be great substitute teacher plan!" - Created to Create (TpT Seller) Here's why teachers say our worksheet stands out: Practice Makes Perfect: Reinforce Negative Space drawing techniques effectively with this hands-on exercise. Versatile Use: Whether you need a quick activity for early finishers, a substitute art lesson plan, or an extra credit assignment, this worksheet fits the bill perfectly. Easy Grading: Bid farewell to the hassle of misplaced rubrics! With the rubric conveniently located at the bottom of the worksheet, grading becomes quick and effortless. Encourages Creativity: Students are encouraged to infuse their unique creative flair into the negative space, fostering individuality and self-expression. Explore more on mrstfoxresources.com and subscribe to "The Weekly Fabulousness" for teacher freebies and updates. Find hundreds of student work examples on Instagram @mrstfoxresources and Pinterest MrsTFox Resources. Discover exciting free mini-workshops on YouTube cover Drawing, Painting, Classroom Management, and more, complete with valuable classroom resources. Don't forget to leave a review on TpT – your feedback earns credits for future purchases! Thank you for stopping by and enhancing your art curriculum with MrsTFox Resources! Tiffany :)
I read once that Albert Einstein remarked it is a miracle curiosity survives formal education. This observation has stuck with me: a pesky stone in my shoe. Somehow, amongst all the curricular demands, standardised testing, graduation requirements, examination preparation, and everything else which pulls at me, I desperately want to instill a sense of wonder, curiosity, and excitement in my students. I desire for them to love learning, to ask questions, to be curious about what they see, read, and hear. And one of the best – and simplest – ways I have found to do this, is the use of lesson openers which excite and engage. Inspired by the concept of provocations in the Reggio Emilia Approach1, I open learning experiences in an open-ended way which provokes student exploration, discussion, creativity, and ideas. This way, when we move into the content of the lesson, students are already engaged; their curiosity is hopefully piqued, and they’re more receptive to learning. Below are five simple ways I open classes in order to provoke engagement, discussion, and curiosity. Click here to get a downloadable version to stick in your daily planner, or on your desk as a reminder when lesson planning! INSTRUCTIONS: Place an object (which links to the lesson content) in the center of the room. For added intrigue and curiosity, place it under a cloth to ‘reveal’ when students are settled. Then use the exploration of this object to springboard into the lesson of the day: through a discussion, writing exercise, word association game, etc. For example: for a writing class about using varied sentence types, the object could be a bowl of sweets, and students write about the experience of eating one for the very first time. Or, it’s an informational text lesson, using a newspaper article on how social media impacts beauty standards, the object might be a pile of make-up, and students discuss their personal associations with these products. [Nouvelle ELA has a similar lesson for analyzing symbols: get it here] IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Wait a while before you explain the presence of the mystery object: perhaps even have students spend time thinking about it and making predictions for why it is there (you may want to give them one or two clues). Equally, if appropriate, have the desks arranged in groups and place different objects on different desks. For example: in an introductory lesson for a unit on ‘Identity’ place different pieces of fruit around the room, and have students move to the one that most represents them, and then encourage them to explain their choice. WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: Any time you add a little mystery or present something unexpected in the classroom, it will pique students’ curiosity. When they are intrigued and curious, they’re primed to engage and learn. Indeed, the emotion of curiosity has long been recognized as a vital motivating factor driving learning2. INSTRUCTIONS: Write a provocative statement on the board which links to the lesson content. (e.g. If you’re studying Romeo and Juliet: It is possible to fall in love the first time you meet someone. Or reading Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’? What about: Your dignity is always within your own control.) Then place tape, or indicate an imaginary line, across the room, with one end as “Completely Agree” and the other as “Completely Disagree.” Give students a minute to consider the statement and then have them stand on the line to indicate their opinions. [You might also want to check out the Daring English Teacher's blog post on Introducing Complex Ideas to Students] IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Once students have taken their places, ask a couple of students on opposite ends to speak to each other: to debate and defend their positions. Or, have students turn to the person next to them and discuss, seeing if they really are in the right places, or if they should switch (if they feel stronger than their neighbor on the line). Finally, at the end of the lesson, why not do the activity again and see if any of them have changed their positions? WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: This not only gets students thinking critically about key themes and issues, but it is also an effective way to make their thinking visible, and to push them to take a stand. Moreover, requiring students to give reasons for why they picked where they did, helps them back up their opinions with evidence and reason. INSTRUCTIONS: Think about the content of the lesson, and then try to mimic something of the mood/setting/theme in the classroom environment. While pinterest-worthy classroom transformations are wonderful, that’s not what I am talking about here. You can set the mood in quick and easy ways, which will engage students’ senses when they walk in the door. For example: when studying Lord of the Flies, visually project a jungle screensaver on the board, with ambient sounds. This doesn’t have to be just for literature lessons: if you’re spending the lesson writing, have students enter with ambient coffee shop sounds, or stormy weather (great for writing horror stories!). Check out the website A Soft Murmur for this: go play around with their sound settings. IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: If possible, engage more senses: play with lighting, images, smells, touch, etc. Or – to really engage students’ imaginations – before playing the ambient noises, have them settle down, and close their eyes. Then give them a scenario to imagine as you slowly turn up the volume on the ambient sounds. For example: in a lesson on Emily Dickenson’s “The Railway Train,” start by playing the sound of a train and ask students to imagine this sound as an animal: what would it be and why? WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: Engaging the senses is a powerful learning tool: when we create a multisensory experience in the classroom, not only does it pique students’ curiosity, but it can also make the learning more memorable. Indeed, when engaging multiple senses, we optimise the learning mechanisms in the brain, and tap into the many different ways different students learn best3. INSTRUCTIONS: It is as simple as this: play a current song or music video, show an extract from a current TV series, use a trailer for a recent movie: anything which links the content of the day’s lesson with students’ interests and lives outside of class. For example: before we studied The Great Gatsby (click for resources), I played Lorde’s Royals and asked students what the song meant to them. Before telling students anything about Lord of the Flies, we watched the trailer for The 100 and discussed what such a situation would be like. IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Have students suggest the media you present: at the end of a previous class, explain the broad content of the next class (themes, main topic, etc.) and ask students to suggest appropriate songs, video clips, games, etc., which would make for engaging lesson openers. This way, they too are making connections to their learning, and you are making sure the references are highly relevant! WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: When we incorporate students’ personal interests and entertainments in the classroom environment, their learning becomes more relevant, engaging, and multi-dimensional. The key here though is making sure it is really something which students’ are currently interested in: not just what we might assume they will be interested in! And the best way to ensure this, is to really spend time building relationships with students, finding out their interests, and knowing what’s currently popular. INSTRUCTIONS: Before class, think about the key theme, topic, or skill which you aim to explore or develop. Then, think of 3-5 key words related to this; write these on the board, or around the room. When students enter, draw their attention to these words, and instruct them to work in pairs to construct a question using the words. For example, before a lesson on Fahrenheit 451 (click for resources), you might use “knowledge” “future” “technology” and “books.” A possible question students might generate: In the future, will books become useless, as we use technology to access knowledge? And this doesn’t have to be limited to lessons on literature: in a lesson about essay writing, words such as “style” “structure” “opinion” and “voice” might generate some engaging questions. IDEAS FOR GOING FURTHER: Once students have formed a question, provide the means for discussing or answering the question: this might be through small-group discussions, through accessing online sources, or through analysis of a text. The key here is you need to be flexible and open to going where students’ questions take the lesson. Why not even ask them how the class should proceed in terms of answering their questions? WHY IT IS EFFECTIVE: Too often, by the time they reach middle/high school, curious questioning has been replaced by incessant answering: students become adept at answering questions, but often lack opportunities to inquire and question. Developing this ability to ask questions will help with developing critical thinking skills, and engaging discussion proficiency. Moreover, students will be hooked from the start of class, and invested in finding out the answers to their questions. So that's it: if you have ANY questions, please feel free to reach out: come find me on Instagram, or email me at [email protected]. Looking for other high-interest, provoking lessons to excite and engage? Check these out: Active Learning Exercises for Reading & Writing by Room 213 READING Escape Room (Activities, Trivia & Puzzle Games for High School ELA) by The Classroom Sparrow MAKER CHALLENGE - Team Building Activity by Presto Plans RESOURCES: 1Strong-Wilson, T., & Ellis, J. (2007). Children and place: Reggio Emilia's environment as third teacher. Theory into practice, 46(1), 40-47. 2Markey, A., & Loewenstein, G. (2014). Curiosity. In International handbook of emotions in education (pp. 238-255). Routledge. 3Shams, L., & Seitz, A. (2008). Benefits of multisensory learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(11), 411–417.
Looking for high school rewards or middle school rewards to motivate students? Tired of finding reward ideas that are more applicable to elementary kids than your 8th, 9th, or 10th graders? No need to look any further. As a language teacher, I'm always searching for high school incentives to get my trickier classes to speak
High School Art Projects that Students LOVE!
Looking for a way to get students to have fun learning new words AND remember them longer? Try these brain-based vocabulary activities.
Illustrate data! Use the shape of a line graph as inspiration for kids’ art. I first came across the of idea of illustrating data, or using a line graph as the inspiration for an artwork, when an awesome barrier reef line graph artwork by Jill Pelto popped up on my Facebook feed. Not only is …
Starting a new semester— whether at the beginning of the school year or calendar year— is a time of tough transition as we begin to restart our minds and work habits. Here are SEVEN engaging activities for the first week back to school in middle school and high school English Language Arts.
You’re welcome! Here are 15 TED talks for the classroom that are sure to prompt discussion, writing, and reflection...
Are you looking for a stress-free first week of ELA activities for high school classroom? Look no further! Keep reading for ideas, tips, and lesson plans for the first week (and beyond)! #backtoschoolactivities #elateacher #highschoolela
Two truths and a lie, storytelling edition is one of the best ideas for ice breaker activities in the high school English classroom.
Much like students who spend more hours on the hook of an essay than they do the bulk of an essay, I often found myself with a case of English teacher writing block when it came to planning my first day of school activities. Though I have ten years (x two semesters each) of ... Read More about First Day of School Activities for High School and Middle School English
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In this Aquarium Perspective Lesson, Middle School students will dive right into learning about the principle of perspective while designing an aquarium.
A round up of over 15 great STEAM projects – where math concepts are used to make pieces of art!
Looking for a fun vocabulary activity? This extension is perfect for middle and high school to help encourage critical thinking and associations.
A fun and engaging Geometry Project on Measuring Angles where students design a Putt-Putt Course. Examples, rubrics, worksheets, and more included!
Olympics Inspired Art Project - inspired by the 2016 Rio Olympics, this colourful multi media art project uses simple, easy to find materials and is suitable to preschoolers to middle school | you clever monkey
FREE rewards that teachers can give their students that will not cost any money, while at the same time, promoting a fun and interactive classroom atmosphere.
Are your students disinterested and tired of the traditional ways of learning characterization? Have you been searching for a really fun, student-centered, interactive way to eliminate their boredom? Well, look no further! I present to you a wonderful student-collaboration activity that will get your students involved and excited for a character analysis for any novel, […]
At some point in their education nearly every student will make a cell model, it might as well be fun! Check out these 10 awesome ways to make a cell model!
10 Creative Art Activities for Kids, including free printable drawing prompts and art collages, plus many more creative art ideas!
