Springy Sub Lesson for K-2

2nd Grade Artist

Needed a sub one day last week and this was the lesson I had my sub do with my K-2 students while my older students (3-6) did complete the drawing sheets. Here is the lesson I left for the sub...a brain child/lesson of my own creation, no Pinterest needed! Go me! Maybe a little inspiration from Alice...

Disney's Alice in Wonderland

Expression Flower Faces

Have a discussion about Emotions and Expressions and how what we feel can usually be seen by others because of what our faces look like. Then list 10 or so different emotions and have them act out/show that expression to you. Remind them they should be just SHOWING and not using sound.

HappySadExcitedAngrySuprisedScaredSickSomeone who just got a complimentSomeone who just won a million dollars**Anymore you can think of**

Then for work time hand out a circle tracer to each student and have them trace a circle 4-6 times and draw just a face showing an emotion. Let them know they will be turning these into something so they shouldn’t do anything outside the circles. Show them my example with just the faces.

When the first student finishes you can reveal to them what they are going to be doing with those faces. They will be creating flower people out of them for spring! You can then show them my example with the circles turned into flowers. Feel free to hang it up on the board. Each circle should have petals, stem, leaves, and be interacting with the other flower people and be growing out of either the ground or a flower pot. They can use sharpies for outlining faces and crayons/colored pencils/or markers to color the rest.

My Example

From Kindergarten

From 1st Grade

From 2nd Grade

Big fan of this project, I may have to do it as a real project next year :)

Go to Sub Activity for 3rd through 6th Grade: "Do You Doodle?"

I lied, one more thing to share from last year before the year begins!

I get really nervous about substitutes, like I am sure most of you do, so I like to have something simple, yet really fun for the kids to do when I'm gone. I was at a huge book store looking through clearance when I found this guy --> Do You Doodle? by Nikalas Catlow. At the time, what I am using it for now wasn't my intention, but man I am glad I figured this one out!

There is a lot of complete the doodle books out there but this one is great because it is all black and white and easy to photocopy. There is a small start of a drawing and a written prompt for each. I did have to shrink the pages down in the copy machine but once I did it one time I filed them away so I don't have to deal with doing that again.

The first time they have a sub I have the sub give them a folder to keep these in throughout the year to work on when I am gone....building sort of a mini-portfolio. Then I have the sub show them my examples and put emphasis on using multiple materials and a large amount of detail. They should only complete 2 or 3 TOPS per class. I have about 20-30 different ones photocopied so they have a lot of choice and can't say "I don't like any of those". This year I will put out new ones to the old collection. They got to take the mini-portfolio home with them at the end of the year, but not before I looked through almost 500+ of them to find my favorites to photograph. It was a great surprise for me because I wasn't there when they did these and didn't look at them at all during the year!

I only do this with 3rd-6th and come up with something else for K-2 when there is a sub but I might try these with 2nd this year too...

Just look how seriously awesome some of these are!

Morbid but awesome.

Color Extension and Sub Activity with K-2

I love to have an extension after each project not only because it occupies the early finishers but because it is using what we are working on in another way. The more connections the better!

Per usual, I got my inspiration from a  Pin on pinterest of a turtle with the shell as the color wheel, it linked to this awesome stuff.

Great thing about this? It worked as a sub project/lesson for my little ones the class after we did our color mixing birds and talked about the color wheel :)

As an extension: With a 1 minute intro for what to do, when my 2nd graders finished their umbrellas, they grabbed the blank color wheel printed on card stock and created some awesome color wheel creations....

As a sub lesson: I have a pretty good color DVD that I'm sure most Art Teachers have...

It was a planned absence so I re-watched the movie myself and found to what chapter was appropriate for K-1.

I had the sub show them those chapters and review with them what they learned previously and just re-learned in the movie before showing them my example. My sub was a retired art teacher so I trusted she did a good job, you could have something outlined for the sub of what things to review with them if you are hesitant to let them do it on their own.

Some other ideas for this: I thought about the possibility of next year having this as an activity for a pre and post assessment? Should something as simple as this have an objective/ I CAN for students?

Thoughts?

I asked the sub to hold on to them and I had the kiddos that did it as an extension leave them behind because I wanted to take pictures. I could of taken a picture of everyone, some were so hilarious...