Blick Lesson Plans: hundreds of free, original ideas for Art Education!

At Blick, we love those "light bulb" moments when an idea inspires and the creative juices start to flow. Geared for a wide variety of age and skill levels, we offer hundreds of Lesson Plans designed to meet the National Standards for Visual Art Education and bring the value of creativity to any teaching experience. All original. All free. Help yourself!

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Lesson Plan
Description
Grade Level
Punch and Loop Tapestry
NEW! Punch and Loop Tapestry
Students will sketch their designs in opaque watercolor onto Roylco Paper Mesh. Then, using a punch needle tool that they have assembled, students will “punch” loops of yarn into the paper mesh, creating loops with the yarn. The loops can be made to be quite tight, or loose like a shag carpet. The process allows for greater textural variation than traditional weaving. And, once you get the hang of the process, it moves along much more quickly than weaving!
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Grades 5-12
Foil and Oil Paper Collage
Texture and light are the shining stars of this mixed media combo of metallic paper and oil pastel.
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Grades 3-12
No-Stitch Identity Patch
Grafix Double Tack Mounting Film can be used to mount a variety of materials, including fabric, without the use of glue, heat, or activator. Pieces of embroidery floss, laid closely in swaths on Grafix adhesive film, are used to create areas of color and fill in the design. When done, find the perfect surface and make your statement stick!
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Grades 3-12
Automata Toy
An automaton is a simple machine designed to follow a sequence of operations, resulting in predetermined movements. Showcase pieces can move up and down, appear and disappear, move apart from each other, or spin in a circle! A simple automaton can be made with just a few supplies and a lot of imagination!
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Grades 3-12
Squish Mâché
Lightweight mâché mixes instantly into a clay-like dough, then sculpts cleanly beneath plastic film using fingers, tools, or texture plates. Paintable and satisfyingly tactile!
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Grades K-12
Surreal Hand Creatures
Surrealism is based on a degree of realism - we must be familiar with something before we transform it into something fantastic. Students look to the plant and animal kingdoms to morph the shape of their hand into a fantasy creature with the help of collage papers and craft items.
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Grades 1-8
Suits Me
Combine drawing and printmaking to create a suit of playing cards reflective of your unique personality.
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Grades 5-12
Attached to Bontecou
Build a better understanding of attachment techniques while emulating the sculptural work of artist Lee Bontecou.
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Grades 1-12
Modern Chair Design
Experience what it was like to be a Modern designer in the last century. Merge new materials and out-of-the-box thinking to create a chair for a toy "customer".
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Grades 3-12
Fabric Printing with Multi-Sided Relief Blocks
Create patterns on a wooden block using readily available materials, including classroom scraps, chunky yarn, suede lacing, WonderFoam, and cardboard. Each material will print in its own unique way!
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Grades K-12
Bas Relief Plaster Tiles
Combine clay, carving, plaster, and watercolor to create a dimensional tile.
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Grades 1-12
Community Curtain
Create individual strands that express ideas, respond to a theme or prompt, represent a timeline of memories, or express a personal vision. Single strands combine to form a "curtain" installation that grows and gives voice to individuals and communities.
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Grades K-12
Woven Impressionistic Paintings
One scene is woven from two watercolor paintings and two impressionistic interpretations of light and color. Diagonal lines create a dynamic composition with built-in perspective.
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Grades 5-12
Cover to Cover Characters
Characters come to life in readers’ imaginations through written description and illustrations within the book. But what if the character literally came out of the book? Creative writing, saddle bookbinding, and papier-mâché all come together to create this one-of-a-kind readable sculpture.
Grades 3-12
Observe Like OKeeffe
Take cues from Georgia O'Keeffe and sharpen observation skills using mindful practices. Students use a viewfinder to focus in on a subject, explore various viewpoints, and express what their senses discover through mixed media collage.
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Grades 3-12
Treasure Leaves
Celebrate Biodiversity and the vital importance of leaves by sealing them in brilliant metallic color and adorning them with gems, glitter, and artistic designs.
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Grades K-12
Metallic Shadow Book
Abstractly cut paper is folded into a freestanding accordion book, creating shadows and light patterns on the surrounding environment
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Grades 3-12
Color Block Portrait Reveal
Take blind contour drawing to a fun new level with invisible drawing media. Students will use a Sakura Cray-Pas Color Extender oil pastel to draw a contour portrait of a classmate. The line will be nearly invisible, but leave a mark in oil which serves as a resist. Students then apply color, in the form of bleeding tissue paper misted with water, to magically reveal the subject! The process is so fun it will be hard to stop at just one!
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Grades 3-12
Artfully Altered Fabric Design
Breathe new life into shirts, jeans, and more using common drawing materials (that you probably already have). Fabric medium is a clear acrylic fluid that can help make many drawing and painting supplies more permanent and washable on fabric.
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Grades 5-12
Geometric Himmeli Sculpture
In this lesson, traditional Swedish ornaments serve as an educational bridge to learning about platonic solids and more complicated geometric shapes.
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Grades 5-12
Hero Figures
Heroes can be characterized by many admirable traits. Pay tribute to everyday community heroes with this simple wire and wood figure sculpture. A fun and thoughtful way to study human form in 3 dimensions.
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Grades 1-5
What the River Sees
If we take the time to think about what a river sees on its journey, then we can be better friends and neighbors to it. As a collaborative piece, this lesson challenges students to create sections of a real or imagined river that can be joined together to make a linear, flowing storyline. From the river's beginnings in mountains, springs, or creeks to the place where it meets a larger body of water—the delta and wetlands.
Grades 3-8
Screen Printed Band Posters
The American Rock Poster is a genre of graphic design that follows its own drummer. Using a few shared images, a class can learn to screen print a poster about a concert from their own imagination. Speedball Speed Screens expose in one minute without chemicals, processing, or screen coating.
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Grades 9-12
Color Paste Color Wheel
"Color paste" is a mixture of baking soda and acrylic paint that can be shaped with the safe blade of a painting knife and other tools, to. Students sculpt the color paste into peaks and valleys, creating patterns and intriguing textures while experimenting with mixing colors and learning how they relate to one another on a color wheel.
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Grades 5-12
3D Contour Collage
Students create a dimensional line drawing out of flexible wire then cover it with assorted papers and tissues for a whimsical, lightweight sculpture.
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Grades 5-12