Several years ago I needed a lesson to cover a week's absence after a planned surgery. I wasn't sure if I'd get an art sub, and started getting that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. What if they let the kids trash the room or waste supplies? It wasn't fair to assign a week of bogus activities or make the sub feel like a babysitter. The compromise was to have students create a monochromatic postcard with watercolor pencils. All the joy of painting with limited supplies and clean up hassle. As I looked through my previous lessons to select which I would keep, tweak or toss for this year, I kept coming back to this lesson. There was something really fun for the kids about working small, so I thought...what if we went smaller than a postcard? A polaroid is smaller than a postcard and it gave them a fun connection to instagram. We rarely work with squares, so that was an added compositional challenge. After an intro to color theory and some painting practice, I was concerned they wouldn't be able to show off the many techniques they were learning, and decided a series of 3 would help. They can fit four on a page, so it gives them an extra space for an "oops." And perhaps, because it's almost Christmas the theme of polaroids past, present and future sprung to mind. Both lessons are available in my TpT shop if you'd rather skip the preparation.