Have you heard of “directed drawings?” Do you use them in your classroom? The idea is that students follow instructions, either oral or written, one step at a time in order to complete a drawing. This is a fun and functional way to practice listening skills, following directions, creativity, and so much more! Plus, it is a low-prep way to incorporate themes, holidays, and topics into your day.
Holidays & Seasons
Directed drawings are always great for adding holiday activities to your lesson plans. Students will love drawing items that fit the holiday or season! I love using Art Hub for Kids. The directions are clear and concise and there is always a kid drawing with the adult. So, your students will see that it’s okay if their drawing looks different than the example!
With any directed drawing, you can choose how to implement them in your classroom. If you’re using video-directed activities, you can simply share the link to your online class platform. Students can click the link, watch and draw!
Some of my favorite Art Hub for Kids and other YouTube-directed drawings:
Directed Drawings for Early Finishers
Of course, you’re welcome to show a video or lead a directed drawing as a whole group activity if you’d like! But if you want to use these as independent activities or early finishers, you can do that, too!
There are also printable-directed drawing activities like the ones above. Students will be required to read and complete steps, one at a time. These are awesome tools for reading and following directions. It requires students to slow down and focus on one step at a time.
Similarly, you can print and have these pages at a center or station, or available to complete as an early finisher activity. It is always important to have options for students, who will without a doubt, finish their work at varying times.
Content Specific & Project Based
Lastly, I like to include options for directed drawings that are content-specific or project-based. Many times, when we are reading a novel, it is interesting to stop and do a character-directed drawing.
As a whole group, create an anchor chart list of physical traits of the character that are found in the book. Then, have students write step-by-step instructions for how they imagine the character to be drawn. Students will trade instructions and complete the directed drawings.
You can do similar projects for science and social studies topics and items!
Resources for Early Finishers
Art Hub for Kids is surely my favorite art channel on YouTube, but many others are available. If you’re looking for printable directed drawings or other early finishers, I have some below.
