Visual Arts Education — Grade 1

Calico watercolor cats

This two-class lesson focuses on students learning how to draw a cat using geometric shapes, learning and applying wet-on-wet technique of watercolor painting, and using crayon to create area surrounding cats. The final art product will be a mixed media painting of one cat and one kitten in an indoor or outdoor environment. Students will orally present their completed artwork using prepositions and nouns to describe the location of their cats.

Format: lesson plan (grade 1 Visual Arts Education and English Language Development)

By Barbara Zimmerman and Heidi Summers.

Resources on the web

Reading illustrations

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students explore how illustrations contribute to the telling of a story. Students will: create illustrations to accompany text. “read” a variety of illustrations for information. convey... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–1 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

Provided by: ArtsEdge

Creating a wall story

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students create a wall story as a means of retelling a story. After hearing a picture book read aloud, students sketch their favorite part of the story. The pictures are shared with and sequenced by the class. Gaps in the storyline... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–1 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

Provided by: ArtsEdge