These 3 experiences inspired the spring lesson I’m sharing about today - Insects and Flowers. I love it when a plan comes together and with this one, it sure did!

My SPRING bulletin border I used in this display is available HERE.

There’s something about combining insects and flowers that just clicks for younger students. They are fascinating by these tiny creatures and about the way that they make their homes in flower gardens.

Because prior knowledge is already there and natural curiosity creates student engagement, my role becomes more about guiding students to turn those observations into something more intentional. All while building their art knowledge and fine motor skills, and developing individual creative confidence.

Materials we used:

Acrylic paints (or your preferred paint), liquid water paints, oil pastels, wet grade art paper

The process:

1. In this project, we build up our artwork over several lessons, making each element separately. We could’ve painted a background too, but the student pieces were so cute and bright that I didn’t want to distract from them, so I went with black cartridge. This made the elements really pop in the group display.

   

2. We started with the flowers first, on precut square wet grade paper. This was a lesson in colour values, colour mixing and analogous colour families, while working on our painting skills in tool control.

   Teacher Tip:

   Students re-dip their brush after each petal stroke, into a new colour, working their way around the palette. The colours mix beautifully in the bristles and unique petals form as the brush is pulled across the paper.

3. While these dried, we explored close observation with our guided drawing lessons. The fabulous Art for Kids Hub YT channel supported us here. All students practised all 3 insects, then chose one to enlarge onto their art card.

   

4. Students also experimented with sponge painting and back-scratching techniques on their leaves, using a range of green values.

Students finished their projects by carefully cutting out their own flowers, insects and leaves (and yes the masking tape bandage was on hand at the bug hospital). Once composed and glued into place, students could adjust petals, leaves and wings to add a high-relief aspect in their work.

These artworks look stunning up on display. And that’s the balance I’m always aiming for:
👉 just enough guidance for personal success
👉 plenty of freedom for creativity

What I love most is the variety in the final results. Even though we follow the same process, no two artworks ever look the same.

It’s one of those lessons where:

• students stayed engaged

• the room felt calm and focused

• and the learning growth was spot on

If you’re planning your Spring art curriculum, this is a lesson I can recommend. Adjust down with basic insects and adjust up with more detailed insects - all covered in the guide. Read about my other spring lessons on my Blog - Here or about more insect themed lessons on my Blog - Here.

Need the step-by-step teaching guide?

I have written out and photographed all the steps in a ‘ready to teach’ guide you can use immediately with your own students. See it here in my TPT store and save to your wishlist for when you need it.

Step-by-step guide

Next week I’ll share about a beautiful Earth Day art project I teach regularly. My 4th-5th graders just finished these and they are stunning!

Te Aroha

Mea x

But this week - I just had to share these super cute ‘Happy Cows’ recently finished by 1st -2nd graders.

Materials we used:

A5 art card, liquid watercolour paints, felts and small pieces of packaging cardboard.

The process:

This was one of those end-of-term, keep kids engaged lessons and still I love them so much. Students took 3x 40 min lessons due to the paint drying component. James Rizzi (1950–2011) was an American Pop artist famously known for developing a unique form of 3D pop art and 3D printmaking. We used his work ‘Moo, moo, moo’ for our inspiration. Such a fun project for the students, they just loved looking at his work.

1. We made the pop-ups on a separate art card. This involved some basic guided drawing to achieve a suitable size for each element. Students were encouraged to follow their own ideas along the way.

2. Next we worked on creating the meadow for our cow.

3. And we finished by cutting everything out and composing our artwork.

   

Teacher tip:

I set up 2 painting tables that students moved between as they were ready for that stage - one for the cow and sun colours and the other for the meadow. Students had lots of warm colour options for their cow. They also had 2 values of blue and of green, to encourage choice and variety in the meadow. These became an unexpected cuteness factor for our upcoming, art show display.

Need the step-by-step teaching guide?

I have written out and photographed all the steps in a ‘ready to teach’ guide you can use immediately with your own students. The focus of this lesson is to introduce or consolidate the art element of SPACE.

This is #5 in a series of art lessons covering the elements of art. See it here in my TPT store and save to your wishlist for when you need it.

Step-by-step guide

Teacher reviewed: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I am no artist and found this resource to be helpful. Gives me an idea/ directions on where to start and things to cover.”

Next week I’ll share about a beautiful Spring art project for early elementary, that draws on inspiration from flowers and insects in our school gardens.

Te Aroha

Mea x

Why is clay a problem?

Mould can grow on wet clay. While many potters swear that this is great for the clay, you or some of your students may have allergic reactions to the mould. These days I cut away any mould on the surface of my new clay as I open it and dispose of it.

Dry clay on the other hand causes other issues. As students work with the clay, small bits of it ‘crumb’ off (their artwork or hands) and these can crush into fine dust particles that you and your students breathe in. I developed a sinus infection and irritable cough caused by this dust a while back and that is what made me tighten up my processes for handling clay, a lot.

Room set up:

If you have a sink, ask for a clay trap to be installed underneath it and to be changed out regularly. Clay dust is safest when wet so it needs to be washed from all tools and surfaces, and washed down the sink - but not into drain pipes! I am lucky to have 2 large trough sinks in my room - one lower for K-2 and one higher for older students and to save my back :) Both now have clay traps installed.

Ideally a Hepa filter vacuum cleaner is also useful to have on hand, take care when changing the filters/ bags. I quickly run it over the floors and tables at the end of each clay day.

I always schedule all my classes to make their clay projects during the same week. I call this ‘Clay Week!’ The art room is fully set up for this media and nothing else happens in my room during that week. This keeps the mess contained and limits the amount of set up and pack down I need to do between classes.

Lesson set up:

I line all my tables with paper I cut from a large roll. The one I buy has one waxy side. I attach these to my table tops with large crocodile clips.

I prepare the clay ahead of time. Because I always test every lesson out before teaching it, I know exactly how much clay each student will need. I have large baking sized plastic tubs with lids that I line with damp kitchen cloths, and I line between each layer of precut clay too. With the lid on, I can prepare this the night before, ready for the next day.

At the end of each day, the left over clay from that day’s classes is reformed into useable pieces for the next day’s lessons. Layered between damp cloths, it rehydrates easily overnight. Each table will have a small container of water, a slip pot and basic tools to share.

Teacher tip:

I never put out the water until we are well into the building phase and I’m ready to teach skills for smoothing the cut edges of clay, or removing cracks from stressed clay. Otherwise students can use too much and end up with very soft and floppy clay.

Need a guide to help you set up a clay station?

I have written a set-up guide for teachers. See it here in my TPT store and save to your wishlist for when you need it.

Clay Station Guide

Next week I’ll share about the cutest ‘cow’ art my students just finished. I will also continue with more information about clay lessons in a future post, and write about Student Set Up, so stay tuned for that.

Te Aroha

Mea x

Materials we used:

A golf ball sized ball of clay per students at each lesson, a variety of cookie cutters, water, slip, wet cloth, needle tool (we use skewers), student work mat.

The process:

These only took 2 single lessons to build.

1. We made the bottom petal layer and added a tube shaped stem sleeve to fit a stem later.

2. We made the smaller, top petals and the pollen ball for the middle.

I made these flowers with first grade so older students should be able to complete in 1 lesson.

Teacher tip:

A new idea I tested this year to make glazing easier for the younger students, was to set each part of the flower to dry and bisque fire separately - no joining with slip, just dry stack and bisque fire. This way students could glaze each piece separately without colours transferring between sections - something elementary students struggle with due to still developing their fine motor skills. Students finished glazing within a single lesson.

When I returned the flowers to glaze fire, students had stacked them at hand-in time and, during the firing process, the melting glaze fused the separate pieces together. We only had one (large) pollen ball separate from its petals upon returning to students but an overnight application of gorilla glue and all was well.

Adding stems:

I used gorilla glue again to secure a stem into each flower. I bought cheap chop sticks because they taper at one end, giving me options for a good fit into the sleeve.

Only one flower had a squished sleeve that wouldn’t fit a stake but I managed to rescue that one with a stiff florist wire that I folded in half and glued the 2 ends into the sleeve. Viola!

If you are also lucky enough to have a kiln and looking for fresh project ideas, this one will work for any year level. We used cookie cutters with 1st -2nd grade to help make the flower petals. Older students could create their own petal shapes from clay slabs.

Need the step-by-step teaching guide?

I have written out and photographed all the steps in a ‘ready to teach’ guide you can use immediately with your own students. See it here in my TPT store and save to your wishlist for when you need it.

Step-by-step guide

Next week I’ll share about the set up I use for teaching clay, to limit the mess.

Te Aroha

Mea x

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Spring Sneakers and Blossoms

I saw a photograph recently of a bird-eye-view of a pair of shoes. This inspired my new mixed media art project for spring. I tested it with my 1st - 2nd graders but I truly think all elementary, even middle schoolers would love this one. I plan to try it with upper elementary next.

Materials we used:

Oil pastels, liquid watercolour paints, felts and coloured pencils.

The process:

I started with the guided drawing component for the shoes. With younger students, stencils were essential to help students start with a useful size and shape they could base their shoe designs on. I’ve included this stencil in the teaching guide for you.

Giving students opportunity for choice at every step, the drawing plans soon began to take shape. We moved onto applying the oil pastels and paints to experiment with wax resist. Students developed their skills with value blending in the blossoms and we even sprinkled salt onto our water for a cool ‘bubble’ effect.

We finished the projects this week by drawing a unique design onto our shoes. These artworks look stunning up on display and will be kept safe until our whole school art show in term 4.

And I’ve now thought of an idea for my upper elementary students, inspired by this project, to keep them engaged over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for that one.

Need the step-by-step teaching guide?

I have written out and photographed all the steps in a ‘ready to teach’ guide you can use immediately with your own students. See it here in my TPT store and save to your wishlist for when you need it.

Step-by-step guide

Next week I’ll share about the clay companion project we just finished, to match our Spring Sneakers artwork.

Te Aroha

Mea x

While my Help Me Learn website has served us for over a decade, its time has come to retire. As a full-time educator in the classroom, I have to think carefully about where I can invest my time.

For me, being a teacher author and content creator has always been about serving other teachers. I love sharing learning experiences that work well and save you time. The best way to do that is to consolidate my efforts into running just 1 store - my original one, here on TPT.

One Teacher's Journey on TPT

And I want to continue sharing authentic, classroom based practise with you all. Rather than throwing glitter at glue and hoping some will stick, I want to reach you, my art teacher community, directly.

That is where my new home, here on Substack, comes in. By following me and subscribing with intention, you will receive my content directly to you inbox, not randomly delivered by an algorithm.

Try it out and if its not for you, simply unsubscribe. What have you got to lose?

While this channel grows, you can still read great teaching content on my One Teacher’s Journey blog, here.

One Teacher's Journey BLOG

My next post will cover great project ideas for Spring. I will have suggestions for a range of grade levels, so keep an eye out for that one in your inbox.

Te Aroha

Mea x