Got an "emergency" - Project not working out as planned? Need a break from the more difficult energy draining projects? See what the Art Ed List members recommend. 

This page is dedicated to Linda Woods of St. John's Lower School in Houston. Linda proposed "a list of good ideas for one day projects. You know the kind...when you have NOT been able to get to the prep/set up for your big new project that you really thought you could handle that morning, but 10,000 other things came up. Or when one group gets way ahead and needs to mark time a bit before you get to a new lesson for the whole grade." Add on with your favorite one day saves.

Halloween Drawing - from Linda Woods

Halloween idea for second graders.  I gave them black paper and white colored pencils and we drew a parade of Halloween revelers...trick or treating, all in different costumes, overlapping, details, and spooky houses, trees, graveyards in the background. They loved it, it went home, and we are ready to start a new project next week. 

Chalk and Mountains - from Linda Woods

Great for many grade levels. Use black 18x24 paper (or any color). Tear mountain shapes out of manila paper across the length of the page. Color along one inch wide of the torn edge, lay it on the black paper and rub down with paper towels to transfer the chalk to the black paper. Keep adding new layers down to the bottom of the page. Beautiful color overlays, everyone is  a success. Variation of this - Make Pueblo dwellings. Cut rectangular shapes from manila paper to create the Pueblos. Use torn edges for landscape portion. Accent Pueblos with small windows and ladders. See the work of Dan Namingha (Tewa/Hopi Artist) for inspiration for the Pueblo dwellings landscapes.

Crowd of People from Linda Woods

All faces, heads and bodies are different, including overlapping, pen and ink. Make up a situation/environment/event as you draw them. 

Take a Line for a Walk - from Linda Woods 

Alone or with a partner. Make a line that curves, zigs and zags, has corners, etc. all around the paper. Turn the paper around until you see something that you can develop. Begin adding pattern, turn something into an elaborate eye, add more facial detail, add more pattern, keep going until the page is filled with pattern, thickened lines (from your original lines) to add emphasis, etc. Use for value studies or coloring if time permits.

Pass the Drawing - from Linda Woods

Fun for elementary and middle school. Circle drawing idea. Each person starts drawing something carefully on their page, not trying to fill up the whole page with a scribble, rather make a small interesting area. After one minute, pass to the left. Everyone adds onto the drawing that they just received. Themes may be suggested at first, like Pass the Monster, or Pass the Dwelling, or Pass the Fantasy Vehicle, etc. If drawing with themes, when the monster, dwelling, or vehicle are completed by any one child, environments may be added.

Pass the Collage - from Jeryl Hollingsworth

Another version of the pass and draw lesson is a paper collage. Good to use up all the scraps. Each child cuts one shape and glues it. Pass the paper and the next child adds another shape. Usually they start to take on form and become something or end up really abstract which makes a good beginning for learning about that. Students could also be given a theme fro this fun assignment.

More suggestions from Linda Woods

Small clay animals (this is particularly good to use as a practice macquette for a clay project - sort of like sketching in clay). Blind contour drawings of hands, feet, friends faces, shoes.

Roller Coaster and Skateboard Parks - from Jan Hillmer

I let the kids create a roller coaster or skateboard park using all the leftovers of colored paper. I give them glue (put on a drip of glue - hold and count to 10 - rub a bit between fingers to create a bit of friction to make glue stick faster), one 9x12 of some weird color I can't use, and a few quick lessons on ways to join paper. Then let them go. They LOVE this project. You can require certain heights, or structure styles if desired. I've done this with K - 6 EL. Jan recommends putting out small nut cups of glue and Popsicle sticks for spreading to avoid waste. (From Judy: The science teacher in my former school do a roller coaster assignment with 8th graders - It is the most anticipated lesson of the year. They use Popsicle sticks and lot of hot glue. They they proudly await the test days for their marble runs.

Op Art Lines - from Denise Pannell

This is good for grades 4 thru 6 (probably even 7th and 8th would enjoy it for a day). It might take them more than one day to finish depending on the size of the drawing.  Op Art Line - Bridget Riley: Denise did an Op Art Line project using black Sharpies to make dots & lines. They drew a large rectangle on their paper & placed approximately twenty pea sized dots randomly on the paper. Then, beginning at the bottom of the paper, they drew horizontal lines, making a hump over each dot they encountered. They continued this until they reached the top of the box. The humps begin to form mounds that look like tunnels. They showed movement as well, like a Bridget Riley painting. Denise found this in a drawing ideas book Creative Drawing: Point and Line by Ernst Rottger and Dieter Klante.

Blow Paint Bugs - from Denise Pannell  

Fluorescent paint blown on to paper in blobs. Black Sharpie details added to the bodies. 

Peace Doves- from Denise Pannell

Look at Picasso's doves. Draw a dove using black marker on white paper. Add some lines radiating out from the dove. Fill in each area with pattern, leaving the dove white. 

DRAW!- from Denise Pannell

I write a sentence a the bottom of their paper & they illustrate it- black Sharpies and then colored pencil. Ex: My Messy Bedroom, Help! I'm Caught In A Video Game!, Princess Peony and Her Pet Frog Herman, Inside My stomach After Lunch, etc. (I have a huge list I made up) Kinda like the Anti-Coloring Books. 

Mistake Paintings- from Denise Pannell

Read the book "A Big Mistake" by Lenore Rinder about a girl who turns a blob of paint into a picture of a circus. They make a mistake on their paper, then trade with a neighbor, who must turn the mistake into something.

Styrofoam Plate/Marker Printmaking - from Jeryl Hollingsworth

Here is one that is adaptable to many grades. Styrofoam printing plate stamps could be made to do the Islamic Pattern printing lesson that is on Incredible Art Department (glue Styrofoam stamps to blocks of wood). 

This great with 1st grade on up -- printing with Styrofoam plates and markers. We look at the Albrecht Dürer print of the rhinoceros and talk about the lines and patterns and shapes he used. They love the story about how his friend wrote him a letter about the rhino he saw on a trip to India and Durer made the wood cut without ever having actually seen a rhino. We talk about wood cuts. I have a huge supply of meat trays that I got new from a grocery store. They draw a simple animal with a dull pencil into the Styrofoam (add texture lines ) and then color over it with a marker. Press a piece of copy paper on the Styrofoam and rub. Magic - the picture appears! They love it even more if they use two colors of markers and  stripe it (try some analogous colors). I left this lesson with a sub and she loved doing it.

Kindergarten - Letters of the Alphabet - from Jeryl Hollingsworth

I do a lesson each week that correlates with the letter the kindergarten class is learning. When it is "r" week , I read them the book Plant a Rainbow or another rainbow book. I use the big paper roll and draw a large rainbow on blue paper. I write the color word in the correct place on the spaces (while the students are watching) This is stuck up on my dry erase board with magnet strips. Then the students cut pieces from magazines to fill up the rainbow. They love doing it and can usually fill up a good sized rainbow in 45 minutes. They use glue sticks (white glue would run). "H" day is paper hat day. They sure were proud of their Paper Hats. More letters of the alphabet to come. 

Hand Design - from Tammi

I had the kids trace a hand, then draw 5 lines anywhere on the paper (I left that open-ended. The lines could go from one edge of the paper to the other but didn't have to, the lines could be straight or curved, etc.) Then, they had to create a different design in each of the new spaces created. This can be done with markers, colored pencils, or crayons. Students can color if time remains. Students learn patterns and explore line. Good for any elementary grade.

Contour Name Design - Tammi

One lesson my students love is the contour line name design. Write your name large on a sheet of paper. Choose 3 colors (skinny markers work best, but we've also done this with the twist up crayons). With one color, start on the left edge of the paper, about half way down, and draw a line headed toward the right side of the paper. When you are about to bump into your name, go up and around it, following the contour of the letters, then finish the line across to the right side of the paper. Pick a second color, and do this again but go on the bottom of the name. Continue the lines from left side to right side in a pattern using only the 3 colors (learn radiating line). I always
have 2 samples to show - one completely finished with no space for any more lines, and one with about an equal amount of lines on the top and the bottom of the name to show that it can be a finished product even if you run out of time. If time remains, students could color the spaces between the lines. 

Parts of Speech Mix Up - from Tammi

This is a lesson for ALL grade levels - fun for high school, too. I've never tried this one yet, but it's in my bag of tricks... I'll get to it some day! Have each child write a noun (or be more specific and say it has to be an animal, or an object which can be found in a classroom, or whatever) on a slip of paper, a verb on another slip, and an adjective on a third slip of paper. Put them in 3 separate bowls and pull out one of each. The class has to attempt to draw it! Examples: slippery cat jumping, bumpy pencil running... Good lesson for colored pencils - or any drawing medium.

Create a Species - from Tammi

Good for elementary and middle school. Small group activity: Make groups of 5 (can be adapted to fit 4 or 6 instead as needed). Write the following on slips of paper for each group: head, body, tail, legs, wings. Each person in the group pulls out a word and draws ONLY that part of a new species of bird (this could be to create a new species of any kind of animal - doesn't have to be limited to birds). Cut out and glue together to make one bird (or animal). They can put the slips back in the bowl and draw words out again, continuing until clean up time - or until each member has an animal/bird. If you want equal groups and have students who are "left over" (or if you have a couple of kids who just don't work well in groups AT ALL), these extra kids can make background scenes or trees for the birds to all live on once they are completed. Students could use the mixed up animals then to refine for a drawing project (work on scale and proportion since having all students drawing individual parts probably end up not matching up to scale). 

Grades 4 thru 6 - I take small (2" squares) scraps of construction paper and hand them out to the students.  They are to tear them into 3 pieces of any shape.  They glue them down, away from the edges, onto a 9 x 12 sheet of white paper.  Using fine point felt tip pens, the students begin to trace around the first shape....slowly.  They gradually spiral out from that shape, keeping all of their lines as evenly spaces as possible (about 1/8" apart) until they "run into" their next torn shape.  When they get to the next shape, they simply trace around that shape and continue on following the contour lines until they "run into" their third shape.  These are a great exercise in self control, and fine motor skills,  or how a line creates a shape, good intro to optical illusion art.  Kids 4th - 6th love to do these and have great results.  They can normally complete one carefully in about 30 min or so.

The Shapes Our Hands Create - from Patti Cailoa

Grade K thru 6 - I have students trace their hands 3 times on a piece of 9 x 12 white paper with a pencil.  They overlap their hands each time, trace right over the hand they just drew.  I emphasize that they will get the best results if they overlap their fingers each time.  Then they trace over their pencil lines with a marker (fine point, Crayola black crayon works in a pinch).  When the tracing is complete, they are to fill in each space with a different color... much like a coloring book.  They have to try and not color two spaces next to each other with the same color.  This is a great exercise in planning out your design, discovering new types of shapes, etc.  When all of the shapes are colored in (I have them use crayon to color) then they choose ONE color and completely fill in the background (large space around their hands) all one color.  When completed, these look like modern stained glass windows.  This I have tried with K - 6 and have had success with each grade...You just have to slow it down a bit with the little ones.  The students can complete one design in approx. 45 min.

Spacescapes - from Patti Caiola  

Grade 3 on up -- Using black construction paper and Gel FX colored pencils/crayons, or construction  paper crayons, I have the students draw their own outer space pictures.  I show them how to shade a circle to turn it from a circle of color to a 3-D sphere by using light on one side, dark on the other and a medium color in between.  We talk about color mixing/blending/shading.  I show them how to draw rings around planets as well.  We can include comets, eclipses (black circle with light around the edges), phases of a moon, small rocket ships, a flag on a planet claimed in the name of the USA, aliens, the Milky Way, etc.

Fill up the rest of the space with tiny stars in many colors.  Kids really get into this one, love using the black paper.  Great tie in with introducing the shading of 3-D forms, value, color mixing, and science integration.  I have done this one with 3rd on up and have had good success.  Kids could draw these for days, but using 12 x 18 paper, they can complete one "spacescape" in approx 40 - 45 min.

Cursive Name Aliens - from Patti Caiola  

With the 4-6th graders I have used this lesson from www.kinderart.com , now it is one of my subs favorite lessons to do: Name Aliens and Monsters - Drawing - KinderArt .  They actually have many good ideas for elementary - check it out.

Fuzzy Animals - from Patti Caiola  

Using construction paper and glue with my K - 3rd graders we create a fuzzy animal of the day.  Light browns and tan scraps on hand...Make a lion with a great big fuzzy mane made by layering smaller bits of torn paper for the mane, scraps for the ears, long torn shapes for the body and legs, etc.  Make "Tear Bears " teddy bears http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/elem/elem45.html.  (I did the fuzzy tear bears with my Kindergarteners  the first year I taught and they were very successful - so I decided to use the same technique for any type of fuzzy animal) Use black, white and tan to make fuzzy calico cats, or a spotted dog.  The possibilities are endless.  I use this as a fun one-day project to introduce the word "texture" into their vocabulary.  Whichever type of animal you create, if you break it's body shapes down in to simple squares, rectangles, and ovals the kids catch on quick.  They love to rip the paper, and when you rip the paper...there are no mistakes.  You can always fix it by gluing pieces together on your paper. The finishing touch is to use a crayon to draw in their eyes, nose and mouth.  If time allows, they can color in a background as well.  This project took 45 min with my kindergarteners,  and my 3rd graders were able to complete the animal (as well as a background/sky) in 45 min.

Chasing Shadows - from Betsy Larson

[One day] I grabbed a book that I had, (Chasing Shadows). It is about shadows that look like monsters, but when you turn the page, it is really just something normal, like grandma putting up laundry. The pages have transparent windows that allow this visual game to work. We took two pieces of paper, one black and one white -both 6 "x 9", and then drew an irregular shape on it- ( we reviewed this -- many suspiciously turned out like dogs....) Students had to cut out both shapes - then color the white one so that it became a person doing something, an animal, building, etc. and then they glued the shadow of it on one side of a 9x12 colored construction paper, and the drawing on the other side in the same place on the paper. Then they would ask me, " What do you think this is?" showing me the shadow side, and I always said a monster, and then they would giggle and turn the paper, and show me their drawing of a house, animal, person, etc. They thought this was so neat. Some of the best lessons come from 'out of the blue'.