We had an art teacher who came into our classroom every other week and worked on directed drawing lessons with our students. I didn’t know how lucky we were until we lost that grant. She made everything look so easy! Of course, I’m that teacher that draws on her activboard but prefaces it with… “Don’t laugh at my drawing… I’m not the best artist!” I’m creative, but I didn’t get the drawing gene.
But once I found some clip artists who created step by step drawings for their clipart, I was hooked! It makes it so much easier to break it down and then draw it out, and the kids absolutely love doing them.
No-Prep Directed Drawing Lessons
I decided to create two different ways to have students work on these – either during centers or as early finishers and writing activities. Let’s first talk about the no-prep resource.
This resource has the images printed on the page along with an area for students to draw out the image, and then write a few sentences about their image.
These are great because they only focus on one image at a time. Personally, I would introduce these first and let students get a feel for following directions and looking at the final image to sort of gauge where all the lines go.
I’m always amazed at how creative students get with their directed drawings. Same directions, but every student has their own little masterpiece of art!
Low-Prep Directed Drawing activities
I also have a set of directed drawing that works well in your writing/art centers. For these, you print out the cards, laminate, and then bind into a booklet (I use binder clips to keep them all together).
When students go into the center, they can grab a directed drawing booklet, the writing and drawing sheet, and then begin creating a scene with more than one image in their booklet. Then they can write a short story about their image. You can change out the booklets each month so that students are always creating new and fun stories.
Zoo Animals Directed Drawings
My Zoo Animal directed drawings cover:
- zebra
- walrus
- rhino
- panda
- monkey
- lion
- hippo
- giraffe
- elephant
- alligator
Winter Directed Drawing Lessons
My Winter lessons include:
- winter bird
- coat
- hot cocoa
- gingerbread man
- winter hat
- mitten
- penguin
- polar bear
- skate
- snow globe
Thanksgiving Directed Drawings
My Thanksgiving directed drawings cover:
- pumpkin pie
- pumpkin
- pilgrim
- pilgrim hat
- ship
- cornucopia
- turkey
- squirrel
- scarecrow
- owl
- leaf
- acorn
Halloween Directed Drawing Lessons
My Halloween lessons include:
- spider web
- cauldron
- witch
- spider
- pumpkin
- haunted house
- frankenstein
- cat
- bat
- ghost
- skeleton
- treat bag
- witch shoe
- witch hat
- candy corn
Alphabet Directed Drawings
My alphabet directed drawings cover:
apron, ball, butterfly, cake, cat, donut, dress, elephant, envelope, fish, flower, gift, glue, hamburger, house, icecream, jam, octopus, king, kite, ladybug, lion, milk, mouse, necklace, nest, octogon, orange, pencil, popcorn, princess, quilt, rainbow, robot, snail, sock, desk, tree, umbrella, vase, volcano, watch, watermelon, xray, xylophone, yarn, yoyo, blimp, zoo
These are a little different- I’ve added a mixed up sentence as one of the no-prep activities. So students draw out the image, then they have to unscramble the sentence and write it in the section below.
Christmas Directed Drawing Lessons
My Christmas lessons include:
- angel
- ornament
- bell
- Christmas tree
- elf
- gingerbread house
- Mrs. Claus
- reindeer
- Santa
- stocking
- wreath
- candy cane
- bulb
- sleigh
I hope you enjoy directed drawing activities as much as we do! I also have all of my directed drawing sets BUNDLED to save you money!
Until next time!
Shanon