online art activities for primary students

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For teachers who are tired of having their Sundays swallowed up by lesson planning, Art Projects for Kids has a free daily email that serves up easy-to-use art projects your students will love — without ever opening Pinterest.

It’s easy to broaden your student’s art education with free art lessons that include common art supplies, like crayons, markers, oil pastels, and watercolor. Many touch on Element of Art themes too!

Join over 55,000 classroom and art teachers who are integrating meaningful art activities into the classroom with 90% less planning time.

Art For Kids Hub

Art projects for kids and the whole family!

Hey, art friends! Welcome to Art For Kids Hub! 🎨✏️

Here, you’ll discover all sorts of awesome art lessons, from drawing to painting, and even some super cool origami. whether you’re a beginner or a budding artist, there’s something fun for everyone.

I’m Rob, and along with my amazing wife, Teryn, and our four creative kids, Jack, Hadley, Austin, and Olivia, we make art together as a family and love sharing it with you. ❤️

Ready to jump in and start creating?

Most of our art lessons are self-contained, so grab your favorite black marker, some paper, and your coloring supplies, and let’s get drawing! 🖍️📒

Join us on this colorful adventure, and let’s make art that brings smiles and joy. Happy

Draw With Art For Kids Hub Book!

Hey, art friends! 🎨✨ We’ve got some AMAZING news to share with you! Our very first book is now available for pre-order! 📚🖌️

A huge thank you to DK Books for making this dream come true. Your support has meant everything to us, and we are deeply grateful.

It’s filled with easy-to-follow lessons that emphasize fun and creativity, allowing kids to draw in their own unique way and be proud of what they create. And with both kid and adult versions of every drawing, families can enjoy being creative together, making art that’s as unique as you are.

Don’t miss out on the fun! Pre-order your copy today and start making more wonderful memories with us. Let’s fill the world with creativity, one drawing at a time. 💖

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Where to watch our lessons.

There are several places to watch our art lessons. Each place provides a different experience and benefit.

YouTube (free/ads)

You can watch many of our art lessons on YouTube for free with ads ( visit our Channel here ). You can watch through a desktop computer, the YouTube mobile app ( Android and  iTunes ), or even through the YouTube app on a smart TV.

YouTube Kids (free/ads)

If you have some concerns with your children using YouTube, be sure to check out the YouTube Kids app for mobile ( Android and iTunes ). You can watch many of our lessons for free with ads on the YouTube Kids app. Visit our channel on YouTube Kids , don’t forget to subscribe. Log in through your YouTube/Google account for more parental controls. Did you also know you can watch YouTube Kids on a desktop? Just visit youtubekids.com !

ArtForKidsHub.com (free/ads)

You’re already here on this website! This site is a great option for more focus and fewer distractions. You can watch many of our lessons for free with ads, just visit our blog page . The videos on this website are hosted and embedded from YouTube. This means that you’ll receive the same ads/commercials you would see on YouTube but you won’t see videos from other channels.

ArtForKidsHub .tv (paid)

Become an Art Hub member and eliminate YouTube/Google ads and YouTube distractions. The membership also gives you access to watch our lessons through our dedicated mobile and tv apps . Save lessons to a personal playlist and download lessons for offline viewing.  Visit artforkidshub.tv to learn more and join.

Latest Art Lesson

Get ready for summer with me as we draw a fun family road trip scene! 🚗🌞 Grab your markers, marker paper, and a white colored pencil, and let’s create a memorable road trip adventure together! Art Supplies This is a list of the supplies we used, but feel free to use whatever you have in […]

To find more art lessons for kids use the search and navigation bar above, or browse through our blog!

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Art supplies.

Would you and your kids like to use the same art supplies we use? Here’s what we love using:

• Marker paper to draw on
• Art For Kids Hub Markers
• Colored pencils (sometimes we also use Prismacolor colored pencils)

If you’d like to purchase the same art supplies we use, visit our Art For Kids Hub shop or our Amazon Art Shop . Each art supply in our shop I have purchased and love. We participate in Amazon’s Associate Program. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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Parents and teachers,.

We hope you and your kids find a love for art and drawing that lasts a lifetime. If you ever have questions, concerns, or even suggestions you can find us on Facebook , Instagram , or even directly through our contact page . Your kind words and support mean the world to us and allows us to continue making art lessons. Thank you!

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Free Online Art Games for the Art Classroom

I’ve been asked the question ‘Where can I find free online art games that I can use in the classroom?’  I’ve been scouring the internet and below is a selection of free online art games that are great fun and might well link to the projects you teach.  They can be a useful extension task if you have computers or iPads in your classroom.  Bookmark this blog post as you are sure to want to come back to it!

This game is a great way to consolidate knowledge about hue, saturation, complementary, analogous, triadic and tetradic colours.  If your students do not know these terms part of the task can be to look them up.  I wouldn’t normally teach about triadic and tetradic colours. You have to match the colours on the screen which is harder than you think.  At the end of the game, you are given a score and therefore the excuse to play again as you have something to beat!

This is Sand

Challenge your students to make a landscape with ‘This is Sand’. This would make a great homework if you are teaching a project on landscapes. It is a simple idea: students sprinkle digital sand in layers to create images. They can subtly change colours and download their creations.

Street art is a game by The Tate.  I have mixed opinions about this one as it’s quite limited, although I do like the wall background and the spray paints.  What do you think?

Inspiral Web

Are you old enough to remember the old fashioned spirograph? Well, this is the web version. You can choose different disks and different colours and save your creations.

Jig zone is an online puzzle site with an art section.  Students do the puzzles by dragging the pieces into place.  A simple activity to fill the end of a lesson if you only have 5 minutes left and starting something else would be unwise at that point.

Quick, Draw!

‘Quick, Draw!’ is interesting as it asks the question ‘Can a neural network learn to recognize doodling?’  It asks you to add to the worlds largest doodling dataset.  You have 20 seconds to draw the items it asks for.  I think the learning here is simply opening children’s minds to the idea that a computer can learn.

Auto draw’s main feature is that you start drawing and it tries to recognise what you are drawing.  You can then click on the picture and your drawing turns into that picture.  There is a useful tutorial if click on the menu in the top left-hand corner under ‘How to’. You can add text and shapes.  There are more colours than you might think in the colour picker.  I think you could use the shapes and colours and text to teach colour theory.

Weave Silk is a wonderfully therapeutic game that involves symmetry. Simply use your cursor on the screen to make symmetrical patterns. It has a slide where you can change to rotational symmetry and colours can be blended. Challenge yourself to make flowers, birds, bats and if you’re feeling ambitious – faces!

If you teach graphics you will love this game.  Kerning is the spacing between letters or characters in a piece of text.  This game teaches students to create the correct spacing by eye.  Great fun!

‘Shape Type’ is a letter shaping game.  Students need to move points on the letter to try and get a pleasing shape to the letter.  Super tricky but quite addictive!

50 Famous Paintings

‘Can you name the 50 Famous Paintings’ is on the ‘How Stuff Works’ website and has many easily recognisable paintings.

TriviaPlaza

TriviaPlaza is a quiz site which has an art section.  Be warned – they quizzes are difficult.  Suitable for frustrating bright students aged 16+ or for art teachers to test their knowledge!

I’d love to keep adding to this blog post, so if you know of any cool free online art learning games, please comment below.

Don’t forget to check out all the Free Resources on The Arty Teacher!

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The Arty Teacher

Sarah Crowther is The Arty Teacher. She is a high school art teacher in the North West of England. She strives to share her enthusiasm for art by providing art teachers around the globe with high-quality resources and by sharing her expertise through this blog.

15 responses to “Free Online Art Games for the Art Classroom”

Thank you for the ideas of online games!

You’re welcome.

Great resource during this chaotic time of distant learning. I’ll send on some of these art challenges to my students.

Thanks Scott. I’m pleased you’re finding it useful.

Thanks for all the goodies! kleki.com is a great online painting tool!

Thank you for this! Unfortunately, my district blocks websites for no apparent reason and a couple of the games won’t work for my students.

Hi Edward, It’s unfortunate when schools block useful websites. I’ve checked all the games and they work on my computer, so I suspect your student’s computers might need a flash plugin or some other sort of update. Thanks for your comment, Sarah.

Great website!! One of my personal favorites!!! ❤❤❤

Thanks Jaylynn, It’s lovely to hear that The Arty Teacher is a favorite! Sarah

I’m a student looking for good art games. This was so helpful!

That’s great to hear. I’m glad you found this post helpful.

awsome sight

Thanks Jada 🙂

Great site, very helpful

Hi Kath, Thanks for your kind comment 🙂 Sarah

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The 10 Best Interactive Online Art Games for Kids

Art games can be a fun introduction to the world of color. Check out these interactive art websites for fun with your kids.

Online art games for kids could be a fun introduction to the world of color. Most of us leave the drawing pencil or the crayon behind while growing up. Maybe, our own dreams of turning into fine artists won't come true. But maybe we can inspire the kids in our lives to pick up where we left off.

Online art games aren't a replacement for formal art lessons for kids. So, don't make them drop the palette and the brush, but do check out these interactive art websites for fun with your kids.

1. PBS Kids Coloring Games

Any search for online activities for elementary students will land you at PBS Kids. The network is the most popular platform for children's programming and content in the United States.

The PBS Kids portal is filled with interactive art games for kids so you will be spoilt for choice. This particular link leads to online art activities of all kinds.

2. Sesame Street

The Art Maker on this PBS site is another popular online destination with cool art games. They can paint Elmo the furry muppet or go against the Cookie Monster with a coloring brush in their virtual hands.

It is all online, but you can show your kids how to paint with crayons, oil paints, or watercolors, etc, and light the creative fires in your kids.

3. GirlsGoGames

This site has a collection of casual art games designed for girls. But it need not be gender-specific because it's all about having fun with color and craft.

Try fashion makeovers, decorate a friend, or turn into a hairdresser with a click on the Play button.

4. Smithsonian for Kids and Teens

Smithsonian doesn't take half-measures when it comes to science, history, nature, and even pop culture. This section of their vast site is dedicated to virtual art games and craft activities for kids of all ages. Many of the resources are part of the Smithsonian Learning Lab.

For instance, you can help your kids make an ArtBot, an art-making robot with detailed instructions on the site. There are milder activities like coloring sheets and collage work too if you would like to skip the robot.

The Smithsonian can be a fun art website but you will get more out of it as a serious educational resource.

5. Tate for Kids

Art appreciation can begin early with visits to museums like the Tate art museums in Britain. But you can do a lot from home too. For instance, Tate has an entire section devoted to free art games, art activities, and fun quizzes on its site.

Kids can make art like Andy Warhol or paint virtual walls with graffiti on Street Art . There's no one to stop them once they begin their art adventures.

6. Toy Theater

Toy Theater is a clean little site filled with educational activities for elementary school students. Head straight to the collection of fun online art activities which will help your children develop visual learning skills, abstract idea expression, and design awareness.

The activities are a great fit for early learners from kindergarten to the third grade.

7. Artsology

Artsology is another collection of 107 art games for kids of all ages. Start by spray painting the walls of New York City with graffiti and make your way through surrealist art with an arcade game.

There are some games marked with the Flash logo. You can give them a miss as Adobe has stopped updating Flash.

Drawize can replace Pictionary as it's a similar "guess what I drew" game. Your kids can draw and take part in the daily drawing challenge or go online to play with friends or a stranger anywhere in the world.

The drawing and guessing game is also available on Android and iOS.

Download: Drawize for Android | iOS (Free)

Related:  The 10 Best Drawing and Painting Apps for Android

9. Quick, Draw!

This Google A.I experiment will keep kids engaged for 20 seconds at a time as they keep playing against the neural network and its image recognition prowess.

It's an amazing research project, but you can also use it as a quick doodle drawing game like Pictionary. The game uses its neural engine to guess the drawing. If it guesses correctly, the "game" is over.

The twenty-second timer will also make your kids draw from their intuition rather than pause and deliberate about their drawing. The drawings don't have to be perfect, and that means anyone without artistic ability can join in and have fun.

10. AutoDraw

Auto Draw is another A.I powered game from Google. It is a bit different from the above game because the automated bot will "guess" your doodle and suggest a more polished piece of clip art to replace it.

Children can also see in an instant if their own doodles are close enough to the suggested drawings that have been done by icon artists.

AutoDraw is a nifty little tool for non-artistic kids because they can swap their rough drawing for nicer clipart and use it in any art project.

A Few Other Art Websites for Kids

Many online art games for kids can now be found as mobile apps. But here are a few more art sites your kids can enjoy in the browser.

• Color With Leo
• Beautiful Curves
• NASA Coloring Books
• Crazy Games---C0loring
• Disney Junior Coloring Pages
• Son of String Art

Spark Creativity With Art and Drawing

Interactive art games can prompt kids to just free draw. After all, they aren't wasting paint on canvas or paper and making a mess of things. In fact, art is just the space kids need to jumble up stuff and see what comes up.

These interactive art websites are perfect for kids, and then there is the ocean of drawing and painting apps, and some even masquerading as games on Android and iOS. Point your kids towards sites that teach the basics of drawing and they will start building the foundations of a great hobby.

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Ready-to-go lessons that inspire kids to love art!

Elementary Art Curriculum

If your experience as an elementary art teacher has been anything like mine, then you’ve probably never had a full elementary art curriculum at your fingertips. You’ve likely been piecing bits and bobs together scouring the internet trying to find just-right activities and crossing your fingers that it all comes together into some meaningful over-arching experience for your little artists. Sure, this freedom can be fun, but it can also be a bit daunting.

That’s exactly why I created Kids Art Projects 101. In the 20+ years I’ve been teaching elementary art, I’ve tried it all and I’ve finally fit together an elementary art curriculum sequence that I know students love and teachers enjoy teaching. A few years ago I started sharing these art lessons online, and the feedback has been amazing.

Teachers often say things like:

“This is an amazing lesson set. The slides and handouts were a perfect combination. I can’t wait to try more of their lessons!!!”

“My students loved learning about this artist and completing the activities. They were engaged and were excited to complete art each week. Their final piece of art work looked amazing and reflected the the artist. Thank you”

“Great activities for my students. Super easy to follow!” 

Intrigued? Let’s take a closer look. Enter your information below, and I’ll email you your own copy of the curriculum map with clickable links to each resource.

Pre-K Process Art Curriculum

If you teach Pre-K at your school, then I do have process art focused pre-k curriculum that you can use with those children. I also use some of the process art lessons with my students who have varying exceptionalities. See the pre-k art curriculum here .

K-2 Elementary Art Curriculum: Famous Artist Series

Introduce children to famous artworks and details about famous artists through an ongoing series of detailed unit plans for K-2 art teachers and homeschool families.

Inside each unit you’ll find a  PDF unit guide  full of information and tips for teaching the series of art lessons.

Each unit is broken down into three or four  40-minute sessions .

For each session there is a  guided digital presentation  that has already been prepared for you and can be used via Google Slides or PowerPoint. The presentation also introduces and guides you through completion of a  studio project  and follow-up activity.

While the units in the K-2 Famous Artist series can definitely be used in multiple grade levels if you prefer, I choose to divide them out into a distinct sequence as outlined and explained below.

By doing so I am able to focus on an overarching goal for each grade level and provide some continuity between projects as we progress through the year.

The complete K-2 curriculum sequence (aside from the clay units since they require access to a kiln) is available as one primary art bundle if you’d like to have them all in one set.

I’ve outlined the overarching goals for each sequence in the individual grade level sections below.

Kindergarten Art Curriculum Sequence

These are the lessons I typically present to kindergarten students.

The overarching goal that drives the selection of artists and studio projects in this sequence is:

Students will be able to play and experiment with mark-making and material manipulation.

While I am sharing a huge part of what I use, it is important to note that the unscripted transitions between projects are also of tremendous value to the flow of this year-long curriculum. 

Before and after each unit, I revisit this overarching goal with students and reflect on the ways in which play and experimentation have influenced these artists. While we pace through example after example, I challenge the students to think critically about how the artist’s approaches are similar and different from one another. I encourage them to find examples of other artists/people playing and experimenting and am constantly on the lookout for personal or trending connections to the ideas in each unit. 

Of course, I also continuously encourage the students to fully embrace play and experimentation!

HOW TO BUY THE KINDERGARTEN ART CURRICULUM: The kindergarten curriculum can be purchased as a whole or in individual units in our shop , OR you may get access to all units as a member of Kids Art Projects 101 .

First Grade Art Curriculum Sequence

These are the lessons I typically present to 1 st grade students.

Students will understand that imagination is a driving force for artists.

I use these actual resources (I do!!), but it is important to note that the unscripted transitions between projects are also of tremendous value to the flow of this year-long curriculum. 

Before and after each unit, I revisit this overarching goal with students and reflect on the ways in which imagination has influenced these artists. While we pace through example after example, I challenge the students to think critically about how the artist’s approaches are similar and different from one another. I encourage them to find examples of other artists/people being influenced by their imaginations and am constantly on the lookout for personal or trending connections to the ideas in each unit. 

Of course, I also continuously encourage the students to fully embrace their own imaginative thinking!

HOW TO BUY THE FIRST GRADE ART CURRICULUM: The first grade curriculum can be purchased as a whole or in individual units in our shop , OR you may get access to all units as a member of Kids Art Projects 101 .

Second Grade Art Curriculum Sequence

These are the lessons I typically present to 2 nd grade students.

Students will understand that nature has been a captivating influence for artists throughout time and across cultures.

Before and after each unit, I revisit this overarching goal with students and reflect on the ways in which nature has influenced these artists. While we pace through example after example, I challenge the students to think critically about how the artist’s approaches are similar and different from one another. I encourage them to find examples of other artists/people being influenced by nature and am constantly on the lookout for personal or trending connections to the ideas in each unit. 

Of course, also continuously encourage your students to seek their own inspiration from the natural world.

HOW TO BUY THE SECOND GRADE ART CURRICULUM: The second grade curriculum can be purchased as or whole or in individual units in our shop , OR you may get access to all units when they are released as a member of Kids Art Projects 101 .

3-5 Elementary Art Curriculum: Coming Soon

The 3-5 elementary art curriculum will be released in the coming years. As I mentioned before I am actively teaching and using these lessons with my students, and I’m eager to share them with you. It just takes a bit more time than you might imagine to get them ready for you, and of course, I want them to be as close to perfect as possible.

If you become a member of Kids Art Projects 101 now, you’ll continue to receive each new lesson plan as it is release for as long as you are an active member. Click here to learn more about getting started as a member today .

Need Art Lesson Ideas FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR? ➡️ Click here to Grab my Ultimate Year-Long Art Making Guide

Ms Artastic

Discover Powerful, Creative, and Relevant Art Education Lessons & Resources.

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Art instruction has become a challenge with the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. In this post, I will provide you with the Distance Learning Art Resources and Activities that I have created for you to use for instructing your students. From Distance Learning Art projects that can be used with any mediums or materials to my Full FREE Art Lessons on my YouTube Channel that I’ve created for you, my goal is to alleviate the stress of planning and creating for you and to provide your students with quality art ideas and at-home lessons.

This blog post will be updated and added to as I continue to create new resources for you so please check back each week for updates.

As well, I will provide links to my free resources that I have created and other resources I created in the past that could be used as take-home workbooks for students to work on independently for art at home.

List of Free Art Resources:

-Gray Scale and Line Scale Template -Postcard of My Imagination – Primary Lesson -Trace Lines for Primary Students, Fine Motor Practice -Artastic Coloring Pages -Funnel Your Ideas, Brainstorm Graphic Organizer -Ocean Birds Art Tutorial -Back to School Art Tutorial: Journey of My Summer -Growth Mindset in the Art Classroom FREEBIE -Pencil Directed Drawing Sheet (1 page) -Halloween Line Art Project -Autumn Leaves Art Tutorial -Christmas Art Project, Holly

8 Free Art Worksheets for Kids

Click here to download my free templates that you can print off and use for exploring art at home or in the classroom. Kids can use the templates to shade forms, create value scales and a color wheel, Finish the Picture, an art scavenger hunt, and more! Click here to download the templates for free, or click the image below!

Distance Learning Art Project Ideas

These are resources I created specifically with this crisis in mind. They can be created with any mediums and materials and have simple instructions both written and visually to allow students to explore art and experiment at home. This can also be  used for Art Subs or put in Sub Tubs for Elementary Teachers, or as a take-home art resource  during emergency situations like the Coronavirus (COVID-19) closures, or if you can’t print it off, they can be created on whatever paper a student has available to them and they can view the directions digitally.

Grid Drawing Distance Learning Art Activities:

WHAT IS GRID DRAWING?

Grid drawing is a low-tech way to reproduce or enlarge an image.  Grid drawing can provide an artist with lots of practice in drawing and observational skills.  Grid drawing can be an intensive method of drawing or painting depending on how large you reproduce your image. Grid drawing means the artist will draw grid lines over an image. They will then draw a grid of equal ratio over their work surface. Then the artist draws the image onto the work surface, copying the details of one square at a time until the image has been completely transferred. Once transferred, grid lines are erased and the image can be filled in with a medium of choice (such as pencil, charcoal, paint, wax crayon, or pencil crayon).

This can also be  used for Art Subs or put in Sub Tubs for Elementary Teachers, or as a take-home art resource  during emergency situations like the Coronavirus (COVID-19) closures, or if you can’t print it off, they can be created on whatever paper a student has available to them and they can view the directions digitally.

Ms Artastic YouTube Channel

I have been creating a video each week for kids to create art with. I already have a lot of drawing tutorials on my Channel, but since the crisis has started, I have changed to offering FULL Art Lesson for FREE that will focus on the Elements of Art and Principles of Design to allow curricular content to be taught by an art teacher in your student’s homes.

Please support my channel by subscribing my channel to help me get to 100,000 subscribers by the end of 2020! I would greatly appreciate you subscribing as it will help me continue to create these video’s for y’all!

Art Resources that can be used as “Take Home” Distance Learning Materials:

I love you all Artastic Nation. Please email me at msartastic (at) gmail.com if you have any specifics of what you’d like to see. Know that I’m still making more Distance Learning Art Resources and so it is a good idea to check back each week as I add more resources to this post.

Kathleen, Ms Artastic.

Read My Latest Blog Posts

-Learn How to Fuel your Creativity at Home -Learn About How to Walk a Creative Path in your Everyday Life -How to Encourage a Maker Mindset in your Classroom -Exploring the Elements of Art at Home with ANYTHING! -10 Reasons Why Arts Integration in Schools is Important -How To Guide for First Year Art Teachers: 10 Steps to Success -How to Teach Art Classroom Rules and Routines in a Fun and Engaging Way

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15 Fun One-Day Elementary Art Lesson Ideas

We have all been there, standing in the art room, wondering, “What do I do with my students today that will only take today ?” In addition, there is the desire for authentic learning and creativity, making the planning process seem very overwhelming.

In the elementary art room, the schedule can be rather unpredictable, to say the least. Often, students attend art once a week. This seemingly standard protocol can be interrupted by special events, snow days, substitute guest teachers, that last random day with students before summer break, and really—you name it. These challenges may necessitate one-day art experiences for student engagement.

Consider these fifteen one-day art prompts, activities, and practices for the elementary art room.

1. oops box.

Elementary art teacher Sarah Rough facilitates a TAB-based classroom for her students. One of her ongoing practices is an Oops Box. This box is where students put drawings they aren’t satisfied with for other students to discover later. A new student can be inspired by a misshapen cat form or a hand drawing that didn’t turn out “right.” The “oops” becomes part of someone else’s creative experience. By establishing a process ahead of time, students can be self-directed for one-day artmaking experiences. Read Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg to introduce the concept.

Sarah also has a Painted Papers bin for abandoned paintings. Students can discover papers to use in collage or as their own painting surface. Turning one person’s “oops” into another’s creativity may be a one-day experience but is a lesson that is transferable throughout life.

2. Shape Monsters

Many of us have some variation of the Oops Box or the Painted Papers bin. Scraps of paper seem to be everywhere in the art room. Establish a container for student artists to collect usable scraps of paper for other students to use in their work. Why not turn scraps of paper into monsters?

For this lesson, students locate a paper scrap that interests them. Glue the scrap to a background paper. Using drawing materials, turn the scrap shapes into monsters. The greatest thing about monsters is that they can take on any unique form. Embellish with google eye stickers for emphasis.

Some great reads to accompany these creative creatures are:

• If You’re a Monster and You Know It
• I Want a Monster!
• Monsters Love Colors

3. Calendar Monsters

Cut paper monsters aren’t the only monsters that students can explore. How about monsters drawn with permanent markers sneaking through photographic landscapes? Collect outdated landscape calendars or purchase a set from a dollar store. Students spend the class time using permanent markers and white gel pens to add monster figures to their chosen background. This is a great artmaking experience for home or at school. To read more about this lesson (with more similar ideas), check out the article 5 Lessons That Are Effective at Home or School .

4. Exquisite Corpse

The Exquisite Corpse is a famed Surrealist drawing exercise. Today, it can engage students for one day and inspire them for much longer. Students work in groups of three and fold rectangular papers into three sections. Each student draws the head of an animal, monster, or person in the first rectangle of their paper. They all fold their drawn portions over and pass their pages to the right. Then, each of the three draws a torso on the middle section, unknowing of what type of head lies beneath. The three students fold the torso beneath and pass their papers. In the final round, each student draws feet for the unknown figure below. After everyone is done, the figures are delightfully revealed. The students can add backgrounds, color, texture—or simply begin the fun process again.

Use the History of the Exquisite Corpse handout below to get started. For more resources like this, check out Digital Photography Basics found in FLEX Curriculum .

5. Jim Dine Hearts

A single day is a perfect opportunity to work on complicated yet necessary skills like cutting. Develop scissor challenges for students or a lesson in symmetrical cutting. It is surprising how many students do not know how to cut shapes, such as hearts, by folding a paper in half.

Introduce students to the heart-infused work of Jim Dine . Teach students how to cut out a symmetrical heart and tape this shape to black paper with a piece of masking tape. Students use oil pastels to draw lines and shapes that begin in the center of the heart and extend to the background. They can remove their cut paper, revealing a heart in the negative space. For more Jim Dine-inspired ideas, take a look at this article .

6. Pixel Magnets

Space Invader is a street artist who creates pixel characters out of ceramic tiles and hides them in locations around the world. Photocopy small grids of squares for students to develop their own pixelated characters using markers. The small scale allows students to try out different characters. The grids can be cut out and attached to a mat board with a magnet on the back. Students can move their invaders around onto magnetic surfaces. Alternatively, attach a pin to the mat board to make wearable street art.

If you want to take this lesson one step further, use the marker renderings as a reference for future paper mosaic invaders. Hide them throughout the school for students to discover.

7. Origami Boxes and Patterned Animals

While we enjoy origami, we may struggle to see how these skills fit into a more significant lesson. Take the day and inspire students to create their own future possibilities. Share an origami tutorial video with the class, hitting pause to check for understanding. An origami box has many transferable uses, including Instant Comfort Pocket Boxes . Try covering sheets of origami paper with hand-drawn designs to create origami animals with original patterns.

8. Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters

Based on the true story of penguins on Phillip Island, Australia, this book chronicles the knitting efforts of well-meaning individuals worldwide. After an oil spill impacted penguins, knitters created tiny sweaters for the birds. Despite this fun challenge, the goal is always to provide a way for penguins to be naturally penguins in healthy, clean environments. Use this story as a catalyst to discuss conservation efforts and why people create art. Inspire students to design sweaters for penguins or other arctic animals.

9. Feathers for an Art Wings Installation

Provide each student with a feather reproduced on cardstock. Students decorate their feathers with colors, images, and designs that represent them as individuals. The feather becomes a self-portrait of each student and member of your school community. The feathers can later be combined to form a set of wings, speaking to the strength of the collective community. It’s also a great photo op for a school art show.

Some great reads to share with students are:

• Perfectly Norman (Big Bright Feelings)   by Tom Percival
• Wings by Christopher Myers
• After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again)   by Dan Santat

10. Birds on Postcards

The artist Geninne Zlatkis is well known for her illustrations of birds. She works with and on various media, including vintage postcards. Pulling inspiration from this artist, provide students with postcards, permanent markers, and paint markers. Students use the postcards as a background matrix to create their own feathery friends.

11. Leaf Painting

Collect dried or fake leaves as a drawing surface. Students use paint markers and the elements of art to decorate this unconventional drawing surface. The leaves can stand alone mounted on paper or attached to a branch wrapped in yarn. For a more detailed discussion of this lesson and other artmaking experiences centered on trees, check out the article “When I Am Among the Trees”—8 Prompts to Inspire Artmaking .

12. Contests and Challenges

As art educators, we often hear about design competitions, including Doodle for Google or the school’s yearbook cover design contest. Use class time to explore principles of design and their application to create impactful compositions. Instead of sharing these opportunities in passing, discuss them intentionally.

I had the honor of helping to design a Google Doodle for Teacher Appreciation Week in 2018. You can learn more about my experience and share it with students by visiting this article .

13. Notes to Teachers

Print encouraging statements on cardstock or watercolor paper. Make sure the papers are cut to standard frame sizes. Prompt students to explore materials such as oil pastel and watercolor resist around the outside of the text. Frame these pieces as gifts for staff during Teacher Appreciation Week or other days or recognition. To learn about other ways to recognize teachers, check out the article Why Teacher Recognition Is So Important .

14. Blind Contour Drawing

Students practice their skills of observation and perseverance by engaging with blind contour drawing . Students study an object or one another and do their best not to look at their papers. Instead of focusing on perfection, they can learn about the item they are drawing. The final drawings can stand alone as works of art or prepare students for future artmaking endeavors.

15. Not a Box

The book Not a Box by Antoinette Portis sparks creative thinking when a bunny reimagines what a cardboard box can become. Provide students with printouts of various-sized squares or cubes and prompt them to think creatively about what these different shapes can become. Want to go even further? Students can transform actual small cardboard boxes into untold possibilities.

Assemble ahead of time by organizing resources, books, and supplies for possible one-day creative experiences in a single location. You never know when your preparedness will come in handy for those unexpected moments. The next time you face the challenge of engaging your students for a single day of meaningful artmaking, try one of these fifteen fun ideas.

What makes a one-day art lesson meaningful for your students? 

How can you prepare now for a one-day artmaking experience later?

What potential scheduling interruptions are on the horizon at your school that will necessitate a one-day art lesson?

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

Jonathan Juravich

Jonathan Juravich, an elementary school art educator, is a former AOEU Writer. He is a social-emotional learning enthusiast and explores this essential concept with his students and fellow art educators.

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Glitter Meets Glue

Sparkling Art Teacher Resources

21 Distance Learning Art Projects & Resources

52 Comments

Yet, many art teachers around the globe will have to deliver instruction this way for the very first time due to inclement weather, school closures, or other extenuating circumstances.

And whether your school calls it distance learning, remote learning, e-learning, or online learning, likely you’re quickly figuring out how challenging it can be. Art ideas for online learning: whoever thought we’d need this?!

Home-based learning requires not only a broad sense of technology (internet, video conferencing, Google Classroom), but a new skill set for delivering instruction. Ever watch yourself on video give a demonstration?

Every breath, twitch, eye roll, and mispronounced word feels like the longest moment in time. If you’ve recorded yourself for a teaching portfolio, you know what I mean!

But for art teachers who deal with physical materials, teaching via distance learning can be downright difficult.

It leads to practical questions like, “How do I relay content to my students?” And “How am I supposed to take attendance and grade them?” to “What the heck am I supposed to teach them?”

Quick Links

• Adaptive Distance Learning Policies for Art Teachers
• Best Practices for Distance Learning

21 Distance Learning Art Projects for Kids

• Issues Handing in Artwork During Distance Learning?

Conclusion on Distance Learning

Adaptive during distance learning policies for art teachers.

And yet, art teachers are the most adept at creating amazing art projects on the fly with little or no resources available. I think it’s the nature of what we do. We’re creative beings. We see art in everything because everything is art to us. Scraps normally thrown in the trash are our treasure. And nature provides a heaping amount of tools, materials, and inspiration, too.

As artists, we’re also used to restrictions. Any teacher who went to art college can relate to being given an assignment on short notice with few or no materials. Or even strict requirements for a project that while constraining, helps bring out amazing ideas due to those constraints. So while distance learning might seem like a high bridge to cross, it’s not impossible. With some tools, tips, and advice, anything is possible.

Best Practices for Art Project During Distance Learning

Before I get into some of the ideas for actual art projects, I’d like to address some best practices for distance learning. These tips are meant to make your journey into remote learning more successful. 

Art Materials

Art teachers should be writing lessons assuming that some children will have nothing but a pencil. That doesn’t mean you should only provide pencil and paper ideas, because some will have more. It just means you need to think about the lowest common denominator in terms of available materials and work from that point forward.

Some of the ideas below will work for many teachers and students and some won’t. Your students might live in an apartment building in a city and can’t get ahold of found objects in nature.

Other students could be in a situation where they’re living between two homes. What’s available at one home isn’t at the other. The idea here is to know your students and what items they can find for art projects.

A word about equity. When considering projects that require the use of food, avoid making those art projects required. You will no doubt have a student whose family struggles financially.

Using food as a required source for lessons sets up some students for failure. Be sure to encourage your students to ask permission to use any food items.

Workload for Art Projects

Keep your lessons simple. The easier they are, the greater the chance students will do them. Remember: they’re at home. Think about how you are at home. Do you want to be all cozy in your pjs, curled up on the couch, and have to think about a huge pile of work that’s due?

Be realistic about your expectations. The longer they are in a remote learning situation, the less you should expect of them. If your school is closed for a couple snow days, reduce the work a little. If you’re out for a whole month or more? Even more so. What you might accomplish in a once a week art class, you should expect it to take 2 – 3 times as long depending on the complexity of the assignment.

Low Tech Art Projects Best

I’d like to state that now isn’t the time to teach students about new technologies your students don’t already use. Yes, you as the art teacher might be learning some new instructional technology to deliver your art projects, like designing a virtual Bitmoji classroom .

You might need to pick up some basic video editing skills using phone apps. Or how to mount a phone camera to shoot overhead video. You may even be told you have to get on learning about Google Classroom (and actually use it!). But don’t expect students to spend time learning new technologies while distance learning. Your focus should be getting content to them. 

Some art museums have opened their virtual doors to teachers, students, and parents. And you should absolutely take them up on these learning opportunities. Just don’t make it required.

You will have students who have to share their device with a sibling and likely a parent(s), too. They may not even have a good internet connection (or one at all). In these instances, refer to your school district’s distance learning policy. You may have to deliver packets or make pre-recorded phone calls to get the instruction to them. Some schools have robocalling software like Honeywell that may be a viable option for you.

Consistency is Key

Whatever means you decide to deliver instruction, whether that be via unlisted YouTube videos, Zoom meetings, or paper packets, be consistent. Kids need to know where to find your assignments and how you’ll engage with them. Your school district likely has guidelines on instructional delivery and you should absolutely follow them precisely. Just be consistent about it so kids can be successful in this new learning environment. The last thing you want is a parent emailing you stating that their child didn’t hand the work in because they didn’t know where to locate your assignments. 

Relax Deadlines

I’m going to say something a tad controversial here. Not every school administrator will understand what it’s like to be a “specials” teacher with 700+ students or have to work in two or three school buildings. They don’t walk in your amazing shoes every day.

You’ll receive lofty guidelines and expectations to follow. They might tell you to check for work every week, count that as attendance, and update your weekly grades with online grading software.

But can I just say? It’s more important for you to be flexible in tough times than it is to follow some of those well-intentioned “rules.” Now, you might feel uncomfortable because I just basically told you to look the other way. But really, I’m asking you to think about what’s best for your students and advocate for them.

Not every child is living in a scenario where their parent is going to care if they did all your art projects. I’m not saying don’t eventually mark a student as not having handed it in. But be flexible with assignments, deadlines, and quality of work. And expect a lot of stick figures and corner suns.

One approach which I highly recommend is to create a choice board or menu where students can pick from different activities. On that choice board, at least half should be simple drawing activities where students have the opportunity to embellish with crayons, colored pencils, or markers if they have those things available. The directions that accompany your menu or choice board should clearly state this.

Other projects for your distance learning choice board should be based on found objects and recycled materials. I think this is a great opportunity to highlight artists from the past, like Marcel DuChamp, as well as modern artists like Rebecca Louise Law who is a floral artist.

Famous Laundry Art

Students can use clothes – old t-shirts, sweatshirts, pants – to compose a famous painting! The best part is that nothing is cut and therefore nothing gets wasted. The first step is for students to do a bit of research on famous, recognizable paintings. I recommend they pick ones with bold shapes and basic colors. This is a great opportunity to send them through a virtual museum tour. Many art museums have online tours students can take.

Based on Vincent Van Gogh’s, “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe” oil painting from 1889. Made from shirts, socks, pennies, a button, and a sea shell.

Homemade Scratch Drawings

This was one of my favorite things to do as a kid! And this is a great idea for parents who have a lot of old crayons that are down to stubs. Basically, they just have to apply the crayon heavily so it builds up a waxy layer. Any sharp object can be used to scratch with. I recommend the large sized paperclips as they’re a little more sturdy than the smaller ones. But tacks and very small screwdrivers work, too! The best part is that if they do something they don’t like, they can color over it with black and try again.

Your students can also use oil pastels if they have those at home, too!

Marker Painting

I love marker painting ! I first discovered it many years and quite by accident. Since then, I’ve used it for many art projects. Basically, kids can draw a picture and outline their shapes with markers. Then, they dip a brush into water and smudge it into the marker strokes and it makes paint!

If you’re looking for a fun and flexible art project for students, check out my James Rizzi game !

Shadow Puppets

This is a great opportunity to teach students about the element of art called shape, as well as some basic photography composition. Kids can use any type of paper they want. The best for this would be black construction paper. But if they don’t have that, the front or back cover of a magazine or even condensed cardboard cereal boxes will work. First, cut out and design some kind of creature. Then tape it to a string or a pencil. Shine a lamp or flashlight to the creature against a wall and snap a picture. 

Found Objects Color Wheel

If your student’s parents are clamoring for ideas to keep them occupied, this will do the trick! The idea here is kids will search the house and gather items that fit into each color on the color wheel. Objects don’t have to be completely one color to fit into a color family. But they should be mostly that one color.

Nature Imitating Art

If your students are able to get outside and have access to trees, dirt, leaves, sticks, and anything else nature provides freely, then they can create art! Kids are inherently great at this. Out of boredom they’ll start drawing in the dirt with a stick, or build a snowman, or even create a fort from old branches. Have students gather whatever natural materials they can find and compose a picture. Encourage them to look at the shapes and see what’s unique about them. Or have them do a leaf rubbing. They can use leftover copy paper and crayon stubs.

Creativity Warm-Up Drawings

Here’s a great activity for students to do if all they have is paper and pencil! It really challenges students to use their creativity to figure out what the marks in the box remind them of and make a drawing based on it. You can grab a copy in my free resource library .

Homemade Paint

There are so many ways kids can make paint including coffee, tea, fruit juices, spices, food coloring, old markers, and even mud! Have kids test out mixing some of these materials with a little water to see what results they get. The first week’s activity could be to make a chart followed up by a simple picture of an object like an apple or a boat.

Dont’ have paintbrushes? Improvise! Your students can use q-tips, cotton balls, old makeup brushes, toothbrushes, toothpicks, feathers, skewers, and even grass. This is a great opportunity to teach them about mark making. Anything can make a mark and can be used as a tool to make art. Cutting up scraps of cardboard to make a comb or using old sponges. Really, anything can make art. Your lesson can be based on forging tools for art making!

Here’s a chart of all the different spices your students likely have at home they can make paint from including ginger, turmeric, thyme, paprika, and chili powder.

Cartoons with Props

Here’s a basic project that uses an everyday object as a prop. It can be anything small like a penny, a pencil stub, a tack, dried pasta or beans, or a paperclip. Students can draw a series of drawings using that small object. This would work well for 2nd grade and up.

Digital Art Projects

Not all art has to be created physically. You can teach the same elements of art and principles of design using digital platforms like Google Drawing, Tate Paint by Tate Kids, Sketchpad.io, and Pixilart. Even Google Slides, which is popular amongst many general education teachers, would work. Plus, since they’re likely already using it, they know some of the features and you don’t have an uphill battle in trying to teach them a new technology. Again, know your students. If they don’t all have internet access, this may not be a viable option.

Kids can practice drawing basic lines and shapes to start with. Then learn how to color, rotate, flip, and group shapes. I’ve been making many of these digital art lessons  (for general ed teachers) and  digital art history lessons  (for art teachers) for distance learning which practice these skills. And they’ve been a hit with kids of all ages!

What I really love about the art history ones is that some or all of the pieces can change color, giving kids greater autonomy in creating their virtual art project.

Cardboard Robot Sculptures

Cardboard is one of those materials that families easily have on hand. Why not turn it into fun art? Kids can make low relief and free-standing sculptures easily. Parents can cut cardboard into manageable strips so kids can cut them to size.

If your students want to take this a step further, they can color them with crayons and markers or even leftover nail polish!

Newspaper and Magazine Collages

Design a fantasy world, crazy creatures, or whatever comes to mind. They will need to ask permission to cut up magazines and newspapers, first. Give them creative permission to include any other art materials they wish. They can even cut some things out and free draw other parts and collage them together!

If your students don’t have access to materials, why not try to create a digital collage using Google Slides? First, they can search the internet for a background image and place it in the background of the slide so it doesn’t move. Secondly, they can select pictures from online or on their device and use the remove.bg website to delete its background. Then, they can upload the images to Google Slide and arrange them creatively.

Take a famous painting, upload it to Padlet (which can be connected to your Google Classroom) and have students caption it. Include a link to a site where they can read more about the painting.

Alternatively, you could provide them with a painting and have them use a free online meme generator and hand it in via Google Classroom. Your students will love out-doing each other for the funniest meme. 

When your teacher wardrobe is so on fleek.

Isometric Drawings

Your upper elementary and middle school students will love making isometric drawings! You can find free isometric drawing grid paper online. Have students practice making cubes, rectangular prisms, alphabet letters, etc. If all they have is a pencil, that will work. Crayons, markers, and colored pencils are great for embellishing. Use it as a lesson to teach upper elementary students about value using stippling, hatching, and cross-hatching. Kids will really buy into how games like Q-Bert (yes, some of them still know this game!) and Minecraft are derived from isometric graphics.

Found Object Art Names

This one is as simple as it looks. Ask students to gather small items from around the house to compose a picture of their name. The longer the name, the more space they will have to prepare for it. This can lead to a project where students draw out a whole alphabet – or their initials – using everyday objects that they love.

Digital Art Portfolios

If you teach middle school, making digital portfolios is a great activity that requires no art materials ! Many middle schoolers already know how to use Google Slides because they use it in other classes. And if you already have students taking pictures of their artwork and uploading to Google Classroom, why not have them document what they’re creating and why. These templates make creating art portfolios easy.

Scrap Sculptures

This is a such a fun and simple project for all elementary aged children and my most popular first grade project ever. What child wouldn’t want to create a scrap sculpture from found objects?

Have them scour their home and yard for small objects like rocks, twigs, tiny pencils , old crayons, marker caps, clothespins, broken erasers, nuts, bolts, etc. Basically, whatever they have that’s no longer in use and can be repurposed into art. Then, they just need some kind of surface to glue all the things onto. This one is made from popsicle sticks. But they could build it on a piece of sturdy cardboard. Or, make a “raft” as I call them, with sticks or scrap wood. 

It’s definitely best to use wood glue for this, but tacky glue, or even clear nail polish could work as a binding agent. At this point, they can either leave the sculpture as is or paint it. And for that, any household paint or colored nail polish may work.

Digital Photography

Here’s another project that doesn’t require any art materials. Students can use a phone, tablet, or digital camera to shoot pictures using the rule of thirds. Teach them the basics of lighting, and how to compose a picture, placing an emphasis on the elements and principles of design. Stick to basic topics like pets, family, toys, and nature so all students can be successful. If you’re concerned students will submit pictures they’ve found online, you could require them to submit a second picture in the same setting that shows them there.

Wire Sculptures

All they need are a pair of pliers and some old wire hangers. Kids love tinkering around with tools and this is a great activity for them to create something they might otherwise make in an art room!

Styrofoam Prints

All your students need is a c lean styrofoam tray from the supermarket, markers, a pencil, a damp rag or sponge, and a piece of paper. They can draw a design into the styrofoam using a blunt pencil, then color it in using markers. Just be sure not to lean into the wet marker strokes. Dampen the paper with the rag or sponge and then rub the paper over the styrofoam and pull it off. 

On the left shows the styrofoam block that’s just been printed and on the right is the actual print. The print will always be a reverse image of what’s on the block.

Zentangle Drawings

Middle schoolers love making zentangles! I think it’s their love of permanent markers. I found my students appreciated being given graph paper to keep some of the more geometric patterns in order. Zentangle patterns and printable graph paper can be found everywhere online. Coloring materials are great for embellishing, but I’ve also seen students do these with just pencil and paper and they come out great, too.

Issues Handing in Distance Learning Art Projects?

Kids passing off work that’s not their own is a real issue for teachers during remote learning. Your students will, on occasion, try to get away with lifting artwork from online. Yes, they will try to hand in work that’s not their own . Don’t be shocked if a student does this to you. Remember, we’re teachers. And we’ve been through this before.

Raise your hand if a student came in with a sketchbook assignment that was absolutely amazing but their classwork has never reflected that level of skill before. Or, how about catching a child drawing on another child’s paper? It happens often enough. Only, during distance learning, it’s much easier to get away with.

To combat this, you should absolutely require students to hand in progress shots for any long-term assignments. In this case, the student would hold their paper up in front of them and have a parent, sibling, or friend snap a picture of them with it.

If you’re using a digital portfolio to keep track of work in progress during distance learning, they can upload the progress shots to that portfolio and share it with you. You may even consider requiring them to hold up a slip of paper with their name and today’s date alongside their art.

Now, what if you haven’t been doing this and a child hands something in that you clearly know isn’t theirs? That’s when you get high-tech, friends. There are a number of ways to search for an image online:

• Google Images
• Google Lens
• Small SEO Tools
• DupliChecker

In all of the above examples, you can upload the image the student sent to you to do a reverse image search. Additionally, you can search Google Images using words that describe the artwork in question. Use as many descriptive terms as possible to help narrow the search. An image of a dragon eye might come up in a search for “animal eye drawing” or “animal eye painting.”

Distance learning is tough for art teachers. Tough, but not impossible. It just requires a little more thought and flexibility on your part for planning art projects. If this is your first time experiencing it, give yourself some room to make mistakes. If you’re a veteran teacher, it’s going to feel like you’re a first year teacher all over again. I say that because it will be a whole new way of teaching you’re not accustomed to. And like anything else, it will be hard at first but become easier over time.

Reader Interactions

08/07/2021 at 11:35 AM

These are wonderful! Thank you!

04/16/2021 at 12:51 PM

Absolutely amazing and thank-you for the “best practices” ideas and perspectives…really helped ground my thinking

03/01/2021 at 11:28 AM

Thanks so very much for theese ideas. Ihave been getting very bored in this pandemic, Im going to try all theese out!! =(´w´)=

03/01/2021 at 1:39 PM

You’re very welcome!

01/31/2021 at 1:29 AM

About half an hour ago, I downloaded the Exit Statements Pack and saw these awesome ideas for ‘at home’ activities. I thought, these could come in handy some time. We have been so fortunate here in Western Australia and have been out of lockdown for months. Then I started getting texts from friends saying we are going to be in lockdown from 6pm tonight! School starts tomorrow! Thank you so much Amie, I feel a huge relief knowing I can start our school year, whenever that is, with these great resources.

01/31/2021 at 10:13 AM

Hey Marg, OHHH WOW! I can only imagine how you were feeling getting those texts! These are such uncertain times we’re living in. I’m happy I could provide you with some relief. Be safe and be well! P.S. I started on exit tickets for the principles of design months ago. I just have to get back to finishing them. They’re much harder than the elements, hence the slow down. ?

01/23/2021 at 12:13 PM

You are AMAZING. I’m a first-year art teacher, teaching in person and online. These are all great ideas. Thank you for sharing!

01/23/2021 at 12:19 PM

Dear First Year Art Teacher! Oh boy, what a year to be a first year art teacher. Beyond just saying, “hang in there,” just know that what you’re likely experiencing is a mix of normal and unusual. It’s normal for kids to test you because they don’t know you. And they’re just feeling you out, seeing what you’re made of. Give yourself grace. You’re going to make mistakes. We all do. (((WE ALL DO))) It’s clearly unusual to have to teach in two different modalities. Do the best you can. It WILL get easier over the years, especially once pandemic teaching is done. Be safe and be well, Amie

01/19/2021 at 10:21 AM

Thanks for the great ideas.

01/09/2021 at 1:35 PM

These ideas are amazing! I homeschool my 3 daughters and we will definitely be doing most of these this month, thank you so much for posting this!

01/08/2021 at 10:26 PM

This is AMAZING! We started homeschooling our then 6 year olds about a year and a half ago. I’ve been feeling guilty because I know that we’d like for them to learn a little of an art foundation to help develop some appreciation of it, but I am SO out of my depth. Your projects are great ideas and make the topics not seem so daunting. Thank you!

08/24/2020 at 9:58 AM

Excellent resource! I will be teaching in person and virtual. My hope was to be able to keep lessons similar at least (for my sanity). Reading this made me feel soooooo much better. I’m good now! 🙂

08/24/2020 at 9:59 AM

Jessica, I’m so happy to hear anything I said put you at ease!

08/24/2020 at 12:42 PM

I am currently sharing your site with all (hundreds) of art teachers in our district. Our elementary teachers are in charge of students at home and in class, so we’re a little nervous. I am hoping that your ideas will help them as much as they did me. 🙂

08/24/2020 at 12:47 PM

Thanks, I really appreciate it, Jessica!

07/31/2020 at 10:57 AM

Very clear and helpful! Thank you:)

07/22/2020 at 4:58 PM

Nice! Thanks for these great ideas.

07/22/2020 at 4:59 PM

You’re welcome!

07/17/2020 at 3:27 PM

Great ideas

Thanks, Karen!

06/15/2020 at 12:28 AM

Thank you for these wonderful ideas!

06/15/2020 at 1:17 AM

You’re very welcome!

06/08/2020 at 8:56 AM

Thank you so much for sharing! Other teachers have PLCs to develop and share lesson plans, rubrics, assessments, and more. As art teachers we generally just develop it all on our own! I know I have for over 20 years! It is great to have found a special person like you who is also willing to share! It is so very appreciated!!! I have learned a lot during this pandemic and a great deal of it has been thanks to you! I wish I could give you a medal or at least a hug, but I guess we’ll have to settle for a virtual elbow bump! Thanks so much for all you do!

06/08/2020 at 9:23 AM

Oh my gosh, what a great way to start the day. Thank you! I’m so glad I’ve been of services to you. 😀 (((elbow bump)))

05/18/2020 at 8:23 AM

These are wonderful, but I especially love the laundry basket masterpiece! Thank you.

05/13/2020 at 4:32 PM

Thank you soooo much! I am pretty sure we will be doing a blended, if not all on-line teaching platform for this new school year. As an art teacher, and for all teachers, this comes with so many new challenges. I really appreciate the low-tech, low material lessons you presented here. I would, as I’m sure many others would also, love to see more of this! It really helps to take out a lot of the stress and coming up with original ideas. Share more of you can- be well!

05/13/2020 at 4:34 PM

And if not, I think every teacher will be required to have distance learning plans in place. I think everyone should expect it. That’s why I’m encouraging teachers who are presenting their lessons in Google Slides to organize them like they would their lesson plans and have them ready to go. You stay safe, too!

05/13/2020 at 11:32 AM

I like all of the bright ideas! Thank you it is very help full.

05/11/2020 at 4:20 PM

Thanks for your wonderful projects. Clara

05/10/2020 at 9:55 AM

My Special Needs Highschool student is taking a Partners in Art class. He has to turn in 10 art projects of his choice. Thank God for art teachers like you that are willing to share!

05/09/2020 at 7:21 PM

Thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas. These will be so helpful.

05/05/2020 at 7:01 PM

really helpful! thank you:)

Thank you for taking a moment to leave a comment. Brightens my day!

05/03/2020 at 3:53 PM

Thank you for this post!! I have enough art projects to incorporate until the end of the year with these ideas.

05/01/2020 at 11:57 PM

Thank you for the awesome ideas and also guidance with regards to expectations from the students. Art teaching in South Africa

04/28/2020 at 10:11 AM

Absolutely wonderful ideas! Thank you so much!

04/28/2020 at 10:10 AM

Absolutely wonderful ideas! Thank you so much! Resources are sometimes scarce in Zimbabwe, and these are great for using at the children’s homes!

04/28/2020 at 11:27 AM

04/24/2020 at 10:35 AM

This is fantastic! Thank you.

04/24/2020 at 4:12 PM

You’re very welcome, Carolyn!

04/15/2020 at 3:05 AM

Merci beaucoup cela me donne des idées supplémentaires pour mes élèves. J’aime beaucoup la réalisation avec des objets du quotidien….

04/15/2020 at 9:50 AM

Je suis heureux que cela vous ait aidé!

02/26/2021 at 12:31 PM

Thank you so much ??

04/13/2020 at 6:06 PM

These are such great ideas, I knew I was on the right track about my thought process when creating my lesson plans. Thanks so much for sharing! Be well!

04/13/2020 at 6:12 PM

You had it all along, Dalia. <3 You be well, too!

04/13/2020 at 2:04 AM

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing so many awesome ideas!

04/13/2020 at 7:59 AM

04/18/2020 at 6:34 AM

Thank you so very much for sharing these great ideas!

04/09/2020 at 7:49 AM

Excellent resource.

05/04/2020 at 5:07 AM

Thank you for your well thought out ideas. Due to the coronavirus epidemic I am this year having to work from home like most people and adjusting to provide art activities that children can access is challenging., particularly with regard to materials.

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4 Websites Where Kids Can Create Digital Art

Blend fun with learning using these creative sites and apps with your kids..

Earlier this month, I listed some of my favorite mobile apps that  encourage kids to do digital drawing . Today I want to share some websites where kids can create art works. As always, I believe the best way for kids to explore the Internet is under adult supervision. Besides, playing with our kids and digital art is fun!

If your kids love to color, they'll enjoy playing with the digital patterns at  Scrap Coloring . There are many templates to choose from; the areas within these can be filled with either solid color or a range of patterns. The patterns can also be reconfigured by adjusting the colors.

At  Bomomo , children can experiment to their heart's content. There's a range of interesting tools, and the best way to discover what they can do is to simply try them. Click one of the icons at the bottom of the screen, then move and click your mouse to make a cool abstract composition. If you can't save the creation, try taking a screen grab of it.

One great thing about websites that allow us to explore and play with art is that we may be encouraged to go on from there to try a similar activity in real life.  Aminah's World  is a website presented by the Columbus Museum of Art. Here kids can choose a digital background then build a collage by layering kente cloth and other fabric scraps, found objects, shells, and yarn. Objects can be moved and re-sized, and the result printed out.

Another website that facilitates lots of art exploration is  Toy Theater . The art activities there include building with colored blocks, doodling, designing, animation, and a glimpse into processes like Matisse's painting and Japanese wood block prints. You need to take a screen grab to save work kids do here.

Some people disapprove of digital play for kids. They believe screen-based fun distracts kids from more important things — like reading, painting, and learning. Many parents, however, try to help their children find a balance. If you're one of the latter, I hope you and your kids will enjoy exploring and playing with digital art. I truly believe exploring with our kids online opens up all sorts of possibilities for discussion and learning.

Have you encouraged your kids to create digital art? Would you like to try one of the websites above? Let us know on the  Scholastic Parents Facebook page .

Art Lessons By Grade

Home » Art Lessons By Grade

Here you can browse through our art lesson plans by age or grade, from Preschool through High School.

PRESCHOOL ART LESSONS

Preschool/Early Childhood Education art lesson plans. These activities which are best suited for ages 2-5 years.

What to Expect: 2-3 years:

Between their second and third birthdays, children begin to pay attention to prin t, such as the letters in their names. They also begin to distinguish between drawing and writing and start to scribble on paper , making some marks that are like letters. Two and three year olds require activities to help them develop hand coordination (for example, by holding crayons and pencils, putting together puzzles or stringing large beads).

What to Expect: 3-4 years:

By their 3rd and 4th birthdays, children have greater small-muscle control than toddlers, which is reflected in their drawings and scribbles. They can match and sort things that are alike and unalike, recognize and print  and can “write,” or scribble messages.

What to Expect: 4-5 years:

Between their 4th and 5th birthdays, children are active, enjoy more group activities and have better muscle control. They can recognize and write the numerals 1-10, recognize shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles and triangles and can write some letters.

K-2 ART LESSONS

Primary or Lower Elementary art lesson plans. These activities are best suited for K, Grade 1 and Grade 2 – or – ages 5 to 8 years.

What to Expect: 5-8 years:

Primary grade children (K-2; ages 5-8yrs) are beginning to understand that art is a way to communicate. They consciously create symbols and their pictures feature bold, direct and flat images . There is little detail shown to realistic, spatial concepts. They are eager to share their art with others.

GRADE 3-5 ART LESSONS

Junior Elementary art lesson plans. These activities are best suited for Grades 3 – 5 – or – ages 8-11 years.

What to Expect: 8-11 years:

Junior grade children (Grades 3-5; ages 8-11yrs) are beginning to search for specific methods for representing subjects and they seek to improve their technical skills. They sometimes draw things as they remember, rather than how they see. They are usually able to remain focused on the creation of art without interruption for ten to twenty minutes and they are still willing to share their work with others.

GRADE 6-8 ART LESSONS

Middle School art lesson plans. These activities are best suited for Grades 6-8 – or – ages 11-14 years.

What to Expect: 11-14 years:

Middle School students are comfortable with inventing new images and are flexible with changing visual symbols.

They are comfortable working with a variety of media but are critical of their own work and the work of others. They can often become discouraged with their efforts and may lose interest in art if not redirected.

Emphasis should be on hands-on studio activities and enhancing visual literacy.

GRADE 9-12 ART LESSONS

High School (Secondary School) art lesson plans. These activities are best suited for Grades 9-12 – or – ages 14 and up years.

What to Expect: 14+ years:

High School students should be given the opportunity to work with a variety of art materials . Often, they will be interested in creating art with a message , or for a cause (political or otherwise). This should be encouraged.

Family Collaborative Process Art by Twodaloo

Edible paint and cute, little babies. Squee! The activity is awesome, and the kids in her photos are adorable.

Painting with Vegetables by Fantastic Fun and Learning

Diwali Rangoli Art from India by Kid World Citizen

I love this group art project. Colossal culture and color!

Silly Sensory Ball Kids Painting by B-Inspired Mama

I definitely need to do this with my girls. One of my daughter’s OT goals for her Sensory Processing Disorder is heavy work, and she LOVES art, so this would be a great fit for her.

Catapult Painting by Fun-A-Day

This is so good. So good. I can’t take it.

Big Art by You Clever Monkey

I love this blog, You Clever Monkey . Visit this link and check out Nichole’s blog. She’s awesome!

Collaborative Doodle Drawings from Pickle Bums

I love the focus on the faces of these kids. I love this collaborative group art project! Easy and fun.

Circle Painting by Kinders by Deep Space Sparkle

There is a reason why Kandinsky projects are all over the internet. They work, they are fun, they are freeing, and the final results are beautiful! If you don’t already visit Deep Space Sparkle for your art lessons, go there now. Right away.

Kimmy Cantrell-Inspired Ceramic Tile Mural by Deep Space Sparkle

Masterpiece Mosaics: a Collaborative Art Project for Grades K — 8 by Teach Kids Art

What a fun way to study and appreciate works of art!

Wild Art by Here Comes the Girls

A fun group art project inspired by earthworks artist Andy Goldsworthy.

Drawing Prompt: Fall Tree by Bambini Travel

This is a great idea. Adding a little bit of a drawing can really spark creativity for more hesitant little artists. Sometimes a blank piece of paper can be a scary thing!

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Reader Interactions

December 16, 2014 at 5:09 am

What a great list! And thanks so much for including us 🙂

December 16, 2014 at 2:50 pm

Thanks, and you’re welcome! I love your site. 🙂

March 20, 2015 at 12:23 pm

Love these collaborative art projects. They are great for all ages. I can’t wait to try them with my Grade 3s.

March 22, 2015 at 11:58 am

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Free Worksheets!

*Free Bundle of Art Appreciation Worksheets*

In this free bundle of art worksheets, you receive six ready-to-use art worksheets with looking activities designed to work with almost any work of art.

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Free end-of-year letter templates to your students 📝!

58 Free and Easy Directed Drawing Activities Anyone Can Do

Uncover the artist in every kid!

Regardless of your artistic abilities, you can still help your students improve their own artistry thanks to directed drawing activities. They walk you through the process step-by-step so anyone can create their very own masterpiece. Teachers often lead the session by drawing on the whiteboard or chart paper while students follow along. Although there are a ton of good options for instructional videos, a favorite of ours is the Art for Kids Hub on YouTube —they have hundreds of videos spanning all interests. Here are some of our favorite free directed drawing activities for kids. Grab your favorite art supplies and get creative!

1. Fancy flowers

Draw these simple flowers, then fill them in with markers or colored pencils to personalize them.

Learn more: Draw a Flower at Kitchen Table Classroom

2. Baby Yoda

Whether you call him Baby Yoda, The Child, or Grogu, he’s bound to be one of your most popular directed drawing activities!

Learn more: How To Draw Baby Yoda at Art Projects for Kids

3. An adorable dog

Kids will definitely love this easy-to-follow guide on how to draw a basic dog shape. With a few tweaks, they can personalize it to look like their favorite furry pal.

Learn more: How To Draw a Dog at Easy Peasy and Fun

4. Night sky owl

First, kids draw these simple owls, then they add stars with white crayons. Finally, they use watercolors to add the finishing touches.

Learn more: Owls at Night at Primarily Speaking

5. Tree frog

Who doesn’t love a pop-eyed tree frog? The video guides you through each step of the process as you bring your funny frog friend to life.

This cheery sloth is just hanging around, begging to be sketched and colored!

Learn more: How To Draw a Sloth at Art Projects for Kids

7. Simple building

Regardless of your drawing ability, you can create a simple house or building like the one shown here just by using basic shapes. Artists can easily customize it to their liking by adding more windows, changing the shape, or choosing different colors.

Learn more: How To Draw an Easy Building at How To Draw Easy

Say hi to this happy robot, then learn how to create one of your own.

Drawing people can be intimidating, but this tutorial simplifies things for beginner artists.

Learn more: Man Drawing at I Heart Crafty Things

Llamas are as popular as ever, so they make the perfect choice for directed drawing.

11. Penguin

The free printable worksheet makes drawing this chubby penguin pal a snap.

Learn more: Penguin Activities + A Directed Drawing at Natalie Lynn Kindergarten

12. Happy mug

Since the weather is getting colder, why not warm up with this sweet and silly drawing of a mug winking?

13. Elephant

Those pink ears! Everyone will want to learn how to sketch this playful pachyderm.

14. Chickadee

Check out chickadees at your local bird feeder , then learn how to draw them!

Learn more: Easy How To Draw a Bird Tutorial and Bird Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

15. Superhero

Since kids usually love superheroes, they will get a kick out of drawing their very own!

16. Boo bat

We love that this adorable bat is mostly made up of basic shapes that every kid can master.

Learn more: Bat Directed Drawing at Babbling Abby

This sweet bunny face is the perfect springtime art project.

18. Pop art landscape

Before drawing, give your little artists a brief overview of the Pop Art movement. Afterward, let them put the lessons into place in this fun landscape that includes bright colors and fun patterns.

Learn more: Easy Pop Art Landscape and Pop Art Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

19. Humpback whale

Studying the ocean ? Try sea creature directed drawing activities, like this humpback whale.

Learn more: Easy How To Draw a Whale Tutorial and Whale Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

20. Pine tree

The tree shape is simple, but markers diluted with water turn this into a truly pretty picture.

Learn more: Paint With Markers – Pine Tree Step-by-Step Tutorial at The Kitchen Table Classroom

21. Abstract face

This abstract face is so simple to draw yet provides so much opportunity for individuality and creativity. Follow the steps for the basic outline, then grab your favorite set of markers, paints, or colored pencils and fill the page with color!

Learn more: Easy How To Draw an Abstract Face Tutorial and Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

22. Lighthouse

Turn on some soothing ocean sounds and sketch a serene shoreline scene.

An apple a day … makes good drawing practice! We love that this activity includes both a whole apple and apple slices.

Learn more: Easy How To Draw an Apple Tutorial and Apple Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

24. Chick in egg

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? No need to decide with this directed drawing idea!

Learn more: How To Draw a Baby Chick in an Egg Shell at How To Draw Step-by-Step Drawing Tutorials

25. Nintendo Switch

While kids love video games, it is best for them to unplug from time to time and engage in some hands-on activities like drawing. We can’t think of something they would like to draw more than their beloved Switch!

Shoot for the stars when you learn how to draw this rocket headed for outer space.

Learn more: How To Draw a Rocket Ship at Drago Art

27. LEGO Man

Since kids love LEGO, what better drawing tutorial to try than this adorable LEGO Minifigure?

28. School bus

Here’s a terrific directed drawing activity for kindergartners when they start school. It will help them see the school bus as a friend!

Learn more: School Bus Drawing Activity in 6 Easy Steps at Proud To Be Primary

29. Dinosaur

If you can draw curves, you can create this majestic dino. ( Here’s a T. rex too! )

Learn more: Easy How To Draw a Diplodocus Tutorial and Diplodocus Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

30. Pumpkin

This joyful pumpkin would be especially cute in autumn but could be drawn any time of year!

Learn more: Free Pumpkin Directed Drawing Activity at Natalie Lynn Kindergarten

This pink porker is so darn adorable! That curly tail is the best part!

Learn more: Cute Piggy Art Project at A Blog From the Pond

32. Unicorn

Capture the magic of this sparkly creature with this surprisingly easy directed drawing idea.

33. Santa Claus

Need some quick Christmas decor? Have your class create a whole collection of Santas for the walls.

34. Rainbow chameleon

Drawing this chameleon is only half the fun—filling him in with vibrant colors is even better!

Learn more: How To Draw a Chameleon Tutorial Video and Chameleon Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

Ignite an interest in drawing and geography with this fun step-by-step tutorial on how to draw a globe. Although you can draw a realistic map of the world on your globe, you definitely don’t have to!

Learn more: How To Draw a Globe at I Heart Crafty Things

36. Black panther

A lot of schools have panthers for mascots, so why not teach your students to draw one?

37. A skiing squirrel

Too cold to go outside? Put on your slippers, get a piping-hot cup of cocoa, and then sit down to draw this adorable skiing squirrel!

38. Creepy-crawly spider

Draw the outline for this easy spider and then decide how you want to color his body. You can also add a web around him if you’re feeling adventurous!

39. Flower doodle

This brief tutorial is so simple, but it’s the perfect activity to keep an overactive mind quiet.

40. Easy scribble art

This scribble art is similar to the previous project on our list, but it’s perfect for the younger cohort of students. Simply have them scribble a doodle pattern with a Sharpie and then color in the shapes that have been created.

Learn more: Simple Scribble Art for Kids at Welcome to Nana’s

41. Cartoon dalmatian

Since everyone loves a dalmatian, why not learn to draw this adorable little cartoon version? Personalize them with your choice of spot placement and collar colors.

42. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

There has been a resurgence of interest in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles thanks to the new movie, so we think kids will love this drawing tutorial. They say this one is Leo, but you could easily make his fellow ninjas!

43. Friendly hearts

Directed drawing activities that are holiday specific but can be used anytime are some of our favorites! While these adorable hearts would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, we think they would make a great gift during any season.

Learning to draw basic everyday objects like a car is an important skill to have since they can be incorporated into many different scenes and scenarios.

Learn more: How To Draw a Car – Step by Step Drawing Tutorial at Easy Peasy and Fun

Some directed drawing activities are super quick but still easy to follow. If you’re short on time but feeling creative, this cute hamburger is the right choice. Just be warned, you will most certainly feel hungry after!

46. A frozen face

This is our face too when the temperature starts to drop! Directed drawing activities like this one are perfect to do during those long, cold winter months.

47. A bright sun

It might seem like there is only one way to draw a sun, but this tutorial shows that you can get really creative in your approach.

Learn more: How To Draw a Sun at Arty Crafty Kids

48. Fish bowl

This fish bowl directed drawing has so much potential for personalization. In addition to using different colors to complete their drawing, kids can also choose from different mediums.

Learn more: How To Draw a Fish Bowl Tutorial and Fish Bowl Coloring Page at Art Projects for Kids

49. A realistic eye

Drawing realistic-looking facial features, especially eyes, can feel scary, but this art tutorial simplifies it. Follow along and then practice in the mirror with your own eye!

Learn more: How To Draw a Realistic Eye at That Art Teacher

Learning to draw this adorable cake is perfect for kids since they love to make homemade cards for friends and family. We especially love the folded-paper technique that reveals the happiest surprise.

51. The best teacher ever

Well this one is certainly going to be a favorite with teachers! This directed drawing makes the perfect gift for your favorite educator.

52. Shape candy

Learning to recognize and draw shapes is an important part of any preschool or kindergarten education, so make it fun with this directed drawing video.

53. Mermaid

Fans of Ariel and The Little Mermaid will surely love this drawing tutorial. Have your students create their masterpieces, then show them the movie as a reward!

Learn more: How To Draw a Mermaid – Step by Step Drawing Tutorial at Easy Peasy and Fun

54. A volcano

While we don’t typically think of volcanoes as being cute, this directed drawing is as adorable as it is explosive. Couple it with a science lesson on volcanoes and you have a whole well-rounded afternoon!

55. Lava lamp

Fans of the 1960s will love this drawing tutorial. If you happen to own a lava lamp, you could bring it in to show your students since most kids have probably never heard of one!

56. Bicycle

This bicycle is a bit more realistic than some of the other directed drawing activities on our list. Grab a pencil and follow along and then trace over it with a Sharpie.

57. A bedroom

Learning to draw an animal or object is great, but there is no substitute for being able to draw a whole scene! Follow along creating this adorable bedroom and then add your own personal touches.

While most real-life schools probably don’t look so quaint, we think this drawing tutorial is perfect for just about any school day. Regardless of whether you color it realistically or in rainbow colors like the tutorial here, it’s sure to be frame-worthy.

Looking for more art class ideas? Try these Art Projects That Only Require Basic Supplies .

Plus, inspire kids’ creativity with these online art resources ..

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The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System

A times investigation found climate change may now be a concern for every homeowner in the country..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. And this is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, my colleague, Christopher Flavelle, on a “Times” investigation into one of the least known and most consequential effects of climate change — insurance — and why it may now be a concern for every homeowner in the country.

It’s Wednesday, May 15.

So, Chris, you and I talked a while ago about how climate change was really wreaking havoc in the insurance market in Florida. You’ve just done an investigation that takes a look into the insurance markets more broadly and more deeply. Tell us about it.

Yeah, so I cover climate change, in particular the way climate shocks affect different parts of American life. And insurance has become a really big part of that coverage. And Florida is a great example. As hurricanes have gotten worse and more frequent, insurers are paying out more and more money to rebuild people’s homes. And that’s driving up insurance costs and ultimately driving up the cost of owning a home in Florida.

So we’re already seeing that climate impact on the housing market in Florida. My colleagues and I started to think, well, could it be that that kind of disruption is also happening in other states, not just in the obvious coastal states but maybe even through the middle of the US? So we set out to find out just how much it is happening, how much that Florida turmoil has, in fact, become really a contagion that is spreading across the country.

So how did you go about reporting this? I mean, where did you start?

All we knew at the start of this was that there was reason to think this might be a problem. If you just look at how the federal government tracks disasters around the country, there’s been a big increase almost every year in the number and severity of all kinds of disasters around the country. So we thought, OK, it’s worth trying to find out, what does that mean for insurers?

The problem is getting data on the insurance industry is actually really hard. There’s no federal regulation. There’s no government agency you can go to that holds this data. If you talk to the insurers directly, they tend to be a little reluctant to share information about what they’re going through. So we weren’t sure where to go until, finally, we realized the best people to ask are the people whose job it is to gauge the financial health of insurance companies.

Those are rating agencies. In particular, there’s one rating company called AM Best, whose whole purpose is to tell investors how healthy an insurance company is.

Whoa. So this is way down in the nuts and bolts of the US insurance industry.

Right. This is a part of the broader economy that most people would never experience. But we asked them to do something special for us. We said, hey, can you help us find the one number that would tell us reporters just how healthy or unhealthy this insurance market is state by state over time? And it turns out, there is just such a number. It’s called a combined ratio.

OK, plain English?

Plain English, it is the ratio of revenue to costs, how much money these guys take in for homeowner’s insurance and how much they pay out in costs and losses. You want your revenue to be higher than your costs. If not, you’re in trouble.

So what did you find out?

Well, we got that number for every state, going back more than a decade. And what it showed us was our suspicions were right. This market turmoil that we were seeing in Florida and California has indeed been spreading across the country. And in fact, it turns out that in 18 states, last year, the homeowner’s insurance market lost money. And that’s a big jump from 5 or 10 years ago and spells real trouble for insurance and for homeowners and for almost every part of the economy.

So the contagion was real.

Right. This is our first window showing us just how far that contagion had spread. And one of the really striking things about this data was it showed the contagion had spread to places that I wouldn’t have thought of as especially prone to climate shocks — for example, a lot of the Midwest, a lot of the Southeast. In fact, if you think of a map of the country, there was no state between Pennsylvania and the Dakotas that didn’t lose money on homeowner’s insurance last year.

So just huge parts of the middle of the US have become unprofitable for homeowner’s insurance. This market is starting to buckle under the cost of climate change.

And this is all happening really fast. When we did the Florida episode two years ago, it was a completely new phenomenon and really only in Florida. And now it’s everywhere.

Yeah. And that’s exactly what’s so striking here. The rate at which this is becoming, again, a contagion and spreading across the country is just demolishing the expectations of anyone I’ve spoken to. No one thought that this problem would affect so much of the US so quickly.

So in these states, these new places that the contagion has spread to, what exactly is happening that’s causing the insurance companies to fold up shop?

Yeah. Something really particular is happening in a lot of these states. And it’s worth noting how it’s surprised everyone. And what that is, is formally unimportant weather events, like hailstorms or windstorms, those didn’t used to be the kind of thing that would scare insurance companies. Obviously, a big problem if it destroys your home or damages your home. But for insurers, it wasn’t going to wipe them out financially.

Right. It wasn’t just a complete and utter wipeout that the company would then have to pony up a lot of money for.

Exactly. And insurers call them secondary perils, sort of a belittling term, something other than a big deal, like a hurricane.

These minor league weather events.

Right. But those are becoming so frequent and so much more intense that they can cause existential threats for insurance companies. And insurers are now fleeing states not because of hurricanes but because those former things that were small are now big. Hailstorms, wildfires in some places, previous annoyances are becoming real threats to insurers.

Chris, what’s the big picture on what insurers are actually facing? What’s happening out there numbers-wise?

This is a huge threat. In terms of the number of states where this industry is losing money, it’s more than doubled from 10 years ago to basically a third of the country. The amount they’re losing is enormous. In some states, insurers are paying out $1.25 or even $1.50 for every dollar they bring in, in revenue, which is totally unsustainable.

And the result is insurers are making changes. They are pulling back from these markets. They’re hiking premiums. And often, they’re just dropping customers. And that’s where this becomes real, not just for people who surf balance sheets and trade in the stock market. This is becoming real for homeowners around the country, who all of a sudden increasingly can’t get insurance.

So, Chris, what’s the actual implication? I mean, what happens when people in a state can’t get insurance for their homes?

Getting insurance for a home is crucial if you want to sell or buy a home. Most people can’t buy a home without a mortgage. And banks won’t issue a mortgage without home insurance. So if you’ve got a home that insurance company doesn’t want to cover, you got a real problem. You need to find insurance, or that home becomes very close to unsellable.

And as you get fewer buyers, the price goes down. So this doesn’t just hurt people who are paying for these insurance premiums. It hurts people who want to sell their homes. It even could hurt, at some point, whole local economies. If home values fall, governments take in less tax revenue. That means less money for schools and police. It also means people who get hit by disasters and have to rebuild their homes all of a sudden can’t, because their insurance isn’t available anymore. It’s hard to overstate just how big a deal this is.

And is that actually happening, Chris? I mean, are housing markets being dragged down because of this problem with the insurance markets right now?

Anecdotally, we’ve got reports that in places like Florida and Louisiana and maybe in parts of California, the difficulty of getting insurance, the crazy high cost of insurance is starting to depress demand because not everyone can afford to pay these really high costs, even if they have insurance. But what we wanted to focus on with this story was also, OK, we know where this goes eventually. But where is it beginning? What are the places that are just starting to feel these shocks from the insurance market?

And so I called around and asked insurance agents, who are the front lines of this. They’re the ones who are struggling to find insurance for homeowners. And I said, hey, is there one place that I should go if I want to understand what it looks like to homeowners when all of a sudden insurance becomes really expensive or you can’t even find it? And those insurance agents told me, if you want to see what this looks like in real life, go to a little town called Marshalltown in the middle of Iowa.

We’ll be right back.

So, Chris, you went to Marshalltown, Iowa. What did you find?

Even before I got to Marshalltown, I had some idea I was in the right spot. When I landed in Des Moines and went to rent a car, the nice woman at the desk who rented me a car, she said, what are you doing here? I said, I’m here to write a story about people in Iowa who can’t get insurance because of storms. She said, oh, yeah, I know all about that. That’s a big problem here.

Even the rental car lady.

Even the rental car lady knew something was going on. And so I got into my rental car and drove about an hour northeast of Des Moines, through some rolling hills, to this lovely little town of Marshalltown. Marshalltown is a really cute, little Midwestern town with old homes and a beautiful courthouse in the town square. And when I drove through, I couldn’t help noticing all the roofs looked new.

What does that tell you?

Turns out Marshalltown, despite being a pastoral image of Midwestern easy living, was hit by two really bad disasters in recent years — first, a devastating tornado in 2018 and then, in 2020, what’s called a derecho, a straight-line wind event that’s also just enormously damaging. And the result was lots of homes in this small town got severely damaged in a short period of time. And so when you drive down, you see all these new roofs that give you the sense that something’s going on.

So climate had come to Marshalltown?

Exactly. A place that had previously seemed maybe safe from climate change, if there is such a thing, all of a sudden was not. So I found an insurance agent in Marshalltown —

We talked to other agents but haven’t talked to many homeowners.

— named Bobby Shomo. And he invited me to his office early one morning and said, come meet some people. And so I parked on a quiet street outside of his office, across the street from the courthouse, which also had a new roof, and went into his conference room and met a procession of clients who all had versions of the same horror story.

It was more — well more of double.

A huge reduction in coverage with a huge price increase.

Some people had faced big premium hikes.

I’m just a little, small business owner. So every little bit I do feel.

They had so much trouble with their insurance company.

I was with IMT Insurance forever. And then when I moved in 2020, Bobby said they won’t insure a pool.

Some people had gotten dropped.

Where we used to see carriers canceling someone for frequency of three or four or five claims, it’s one or two now.

Some people couldn’t get the coverage they needed. But it was versions of the same tale, which is all of a sudden, having homeowner’s insurance in Marshalltown was really difficult. But I wanted to see if it was bigger than just Marshalltown. So the next day, I got back in my car and drove east to Cedar Rapids, where I met another person having a version of the same problem, a guy named Dave Langston.

Tell me about Dave.

Dave lives in a handsome, modest, little townhouse on a quiet cul-de-sac on a hill at the edge of Cedar Rapids. He’s the president of his homeowners association. There’s 17 homes on this little street. And this is just as far as you could get from a danger zone. It looks as safe as could be. But in January, they got a letter from the company that insures him and his neighbors, saying his policy was being canceled, even though it wasn’t as though they’d just been hit by some giant storm.

So then what was the reason they gave?

They didn’t give a reason. And I think people might not realize, insurers don’t have to give a reason. Insurance policies are year to year. And if your insurance company decides that you’re too much of a risk or your neighborhood is too much of a risk or your state is too much of a risk, they can just leave. They can send you a letter saying, forget it. We’re canceling your insurance. There’s almost no protection people have.

And in this case, the reason was that this insurance company was losing too much money in Iowa and didn’t want to keep on writing homeowner’s insurance in the state. That was the situation that Dave shared with tens of thousands of people across the state that were all getting similar letters.

What made Dave’s situation a little more challenging was that he couldn’t get new insurance. He tried for months through agent after agent after agent. And every company told him the same thing. We won’t cover you. Even though these homes are perfectly safe in a safe part of the state, nobody would say yes. And it took them until basically two days before their insurance policy was going to run out until they finally found new coverage that was far more expensive and far more bare-bones than what they’d had.

But at least it was something.

It was something. But the problem was it wasn’t that good. Under this new policy, if Dave’s street got hit by another big windstorm, the damage from that storm and fixing that damage would wipe out all the savings set aside by these homeowners. The deductible would be crushingly high — $120,000 — to replace those roofs if the worst happened because the insurance money just wouldn’t cover anywhere close to the cost of rebuilding.

He said to me, we didn’t do anything wrong. This is just what insurance looks like today. And today, it’s us in Cedar Rapids. Everyone, though, is going to face a situation like this eventually. And Dave is right. I talked to insurance agents around the country. And they confirmed for me that this kind of a shift towards a new type of insurance, insurance that’s more expensive and doesn’t cover as much and makes it harder to rebuild after a big disaster, it’s becoming more and more common around the country.

So, Chris, if Dave and the people you spoke to in Iowa were really evidence that your hunch was right, that the problem is spreading and rapidly, what are the possible fixes here?

The fix that people seem most hopeful about is this idea that, what if you could reduce the risk and cause there to be less damage in the first place? So what some states are doing is they’re trying to encourage homeowners to spend more money on hardening their home or adding a new roof or, if it’s a wildfire zone, cut back the vegetation, things that can reduce your risk of having really serious losses. And to help pay for that, they’re telling insurers, you’ve got to offer a discount to people who do that.

And everyone who works in this field says, in theory, that’s the right approach. The problem is, number one, hardening a home costs a fantastic amount of money. So doing this at scale is hugely expensive. Number two, it takes a long time to actually get enough homes hardened in this way that you can make a real dent for insurance companies. We’re talking about years or probably decades before that has a real effect, if it ever works.

OK. So that sounds not particularly realistic, given the urgency and the timeline we’re on here. So what else are people looking at?

Option number two is the government gets involved. And instead of most Americans buying home insurance from a private company, they start buying it from government programs that are designed to make sure that people, even in risky places, can still buy insurance. That would be just a gargantuan undertaking. The idea of the government providing homeowner’s insurance because private companies can’t or won’t would lead to one of the biggest government programs that exists, if we could even do it.

So huge change, like the federal government actually trying to write these markets by itself by providing homeowner’s insurance. But is that really feasible?

Well, in some areas, we’re actually already doing it. The government already provides flood insurance because for decades, most private insurers have not wanted to cover flood. It’s too risky. It’s too expensive. But that change, with governments taking over that role, creates a new problem of its own because the government providing flood insurance that you otherwise couldn’t get means people have been building and building in flood-prone areas because they know they can get that guaranteed flood insurance.

Interesting. So that’s a huge new downside. The government would be incentivizing people to move to places that they shouldn’t be.

That’s right. But there’s even one more problem with that approach of using the government to try to solve this problem, which is these costs keep growing. The number of billion-dollar disasters the US experiences every year keeps going up. And at some point, even if the government pays the cost through some sort of subsidized insurance, what happens when that cost is so great that we can no longer afford to pay it? That’s the really hard question that no official can answer.

So that’s pretty doomsday, Chris. Are we looking at the end of insurance?

I think it’s fair to say that we’re looking at the end of insurance as we know it, the end of insurance that means most Americans can rest assured that if they get hit by a disaster, their insurance company will provide enough money they can rebuild. That idea might be going away. And what it shows is maybe the threat of climate change isn’t quite what we thought.

Maybe instead of climate change wrecking communities in the form of a big storm or a wildfire or a flood, maybe even before those things happen, climate change can wreck communities by something as seemingly mundane and even boring as insurance. Maybe the harbinger of doom is not a giant storm but an anodyne letter from your insurance company, saying, we’re sorry to inform you we can no longer cover your home.

Maybe the future of climate change is best seen not by poring over weather data from NOAA but by poring over spreadsheets from rating firms, showing the profitability from insurance companies, and how bit by bit, that money that they’re losing around the country tells its own story. And the story is these shocks are actually already here.

Chris, as always, terrifying to talk to you.

Always a pleasure, Sabrina.

Here’s what else you should know today. On Tuesday, the United Nations has reclassified the number of women and children killed in Gaza, saying that it does not have enough identifying information to know exactly how many of the total dead are women and children. The UN now estimates that about 5,000 women and about 8,000 children have been killed, figures that are about half of what it was previously citing. The UN says the numbers dropped because it is using a more conservative estimate while waiting for information on about 10,000 other dead Gazans who have not yet been identified.

And Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, gave a press conference outside the court in Lower Manhattan, where Michael Cohen, the former fixer for Donald Trump, was testifying for a second day, answering questions from Trump’s lawyers. Trump is bound by a gag order. So Johnson joined other stand-ins for the former president to discredit the proceedings. Johnson, one of the most important Republicans in the country, attacked Cohen but also the trial itself, calling it a sham and political theater.

Today’s episode was produced by Nina Feldman, Shannon Lin, and Jessica Cheung. It was edited by MJ Davis Lin, with help from Michael Benoist, contains original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, and Rowan Niemisto, and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Sabrina Tavernise. See you tomorrow.

• May 16, 2024   •   30:47 The Make-or-Break Testimony of Michael Cohen
• May 15, 2024   •   27:03 The Possible Collapse of the U.S. Home Insurance System
• May 14, 2024   •   35:20 Voters Want Change. In Our Poll, They See It in Trump.
• May 13, 2024   •   27:46 How Biden Adopted Trump’s Trade War With China
• May 10, 2024   •   27:42 Stormy Daniels Takes the Stand
• May 9, 2024   •   34:42 One Strongman, One Billion Voters, and the Future of India
• May 8, 2024   •   28:28 A Plan to Remake the Middle East
• May 7, 2024   •   27:43 How Changing Ocean Temperatures Could Upend Life on Earth
• May 6, 2024   •   29:23 R.F.K. Jr.’s Battle to Get on the Ballot
• May 3, 2024   •   25:33 The Protesters and the President
• May 2, 2024   •   29:13 Biden Loosens Up on Weed
• May 1, 2024   •   35:16 The New Abortion Fight Before the Supreme Court

Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise

Featuring Christopher Flavelle

Produced by Nina Feldman ,  Shannon M. Lin and Jessica Cheung

Edited by MJ Davis Lin

With Michael Benoist

Original music by Dan Powell ,  Marion Lozano and Rowan Niemisto

Engineered by Alyssa Moxley

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Across the United States, more frequent extreme weather is starting to cause the home insurance market to buckle, even for those who have paid their premiums dutifully year after year.

Christopher Flavelle, a climate reporter, discusses a Times investigation into one of the most consequential effects of the changes.

On today’s episode

Christopher Flavelle , a climate change reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading

As American insurers bleed cash from climate shocks , homeowners lose.

See how the home insurance crunch affects the market in each state .

Here are four takeaways from The Times’s investigation.

There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Christopher Flavelle contributed reporting.

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Christopher Flavelle is a Times reporter who writes about how the United States is trying to adapt to the effects of climate change. More about Christopher Flavelle

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