Lesson Ideas that Motivate Students

What tried and true themes, projects, topics do you find middle school kids (or any grade level)
have a lot of motivation to do? This ideas page was started by a post by Marcia Lavery. Send in
your favorite lesson idea motivators. Image of student work can be included.

Middle School Motivators

Logos: a short project, but kids loved to make a symbol for themselves or for their pretend
company. We talked a little about graphic designers.

Animals: kids loved the animal painting project we did (choosing an animal picture from a
book or photo to paint). I showed them how to make it look more realistic by using the fan
brushes to create textured fur or feathers. We also made animal clay sculptures in the style of
Pre-Columbian animal vessels.

CD covers: always a good sub project. The CD covers is a simple lesson I leave for the subs. I
cut a stack of paper into squares the size of cd covers and leave a description of the assignment
for the sub. It's simple. Create a cd cover for a real or imaginary band or maybe a compilation
cd. Make sure to consider the lettering. Usually bands have a logo or a particular way of
writing their name, so they need to make sure their band's name is written in creative letters.
They also need to have some image on the cover. They color it in colored pencils. If they have
time, they can flip it over and list "school appropriate" song titles for their cd. I usually have
some blurb the sub can read about how art is all around us; it is a part of our daily life.
Everything from cd covers, to magazine covers, to the packaging on your cereal box has been
created by an artist.

Op-Art: the 8th graders loved the op-art designs of Bridget Riley and we made our own.

Funky Fish paper mache puppets: the 8th graders made an imaginative, unusual fish puppet
sculptures. They especially liked using the paint markers to make patterns and designs on their
fish.

Toys and flowers: I just started a still life project with my 7th grade class. I had a box of stuff
they could pick from and drawing toys seemed to be a hit! My brother had a bunch of old
action figures and other toys that the boys enjoyed drawing. Many of the girls picked the
plastic flowers to draw. We are going to start painting them with watercolor tomorrow.

From Linda Woods:

Mixed Breed Drawings- Prismacolors on Black: My kids LOVE drawing with colored pencil
on black paper -see Mixed Breed Animals. We are just finishing up this year's version of the
Mixed Breeds, and I'll put them on our site soon. My kids always get motivated to work hard
when they make their geometric mandalas (see Incredible Art Department Lesson Plans). Mike
Sacco adds: I also do a few projects using color pencils on black. The kids really like it. They
were dull for me at first until I got a hold of some Prismacolor pencils and some Prang color
pencils. Both have better colors for this kind of project with the Prismas being the best. I also
tell my 8th graders to "Frost their colors" whenever possible. Meaning to take a white Prisma
that I keep in their cans and overlay white on top of the color. When I walk around the room I
will keep reminding them to frost their colors. It becomes the buzz word for the project. From
Maggie White: I adore Prismas, too, but if it's in my budget next year I will order Sax's new
Ultra line of colored pencils. I tried them out at NAEA last year and was very impressed. I
haven't really compared the prices of student-grade Prismas and the Ultras, though.

From Mike Sacco:

Foil tooling with Prismacolors*: 8th graders created non-objective, relief foil designs that
focused on line, shape and pattern. Using the repousse method, students created their metal
relief by burnishing the metal foil on both sides. Completed foil designs were then "antiqued"
using black India ink and steel wool. Next, students matted their artwork and were presented
with the challenge of continuing their 3-D design onto the 2-D surface of their matte using
color pencils. *Adapted from a lesson that appeared in Arts and Activities Magazine

From Betty Bowen:

Weaving drawstring bags is the easiest project (for me) towards the end of the year. They
weave and visit once they get the hang of it, for almost 3 weeks. I require they include three or
four patterns - joining a color, vertical stripes, blending from one color to another gradually,
and for extra points, Egyptian knots. I have a sample loom with those on for them to study. We
have fun the first day talking about where cloth comes from, check to see who is wearing an
actual denim weave, (and usually end up look at each other's labels to see if anybody is
wearing anything made in the US). See Weaving lesson and Handout on Incredible Art
Department.

From Sandy Jahnle:

Values Skill Builders: You could have heard a pin drop in my 7th and 8th grade classes
recently. They were concentrating so hard! Pencil value studies: Took a black & white
magazine photo, cut it in half, and asked the students to draw the other half in ebony pencil.
Another day they used watercolor washes of one color (black, brown, and blues worked best)
to recreate their b & w photos. In both cases, we did value gradation scales first. Even had them
use tempera paint (only black and white) to see how many shades of grays they could mix.

From Pam Stephens:

Value landscape from magazine photo: I just observed a value study lesson that one of my
student teachers presented. This was to a group of high school Art I students. After making
value charts with chalks, students then applied the concepts they'd learned by creating an ideal
landscape. First a photographic landscape was located in a magazine. The photographic
landscapes had to demonstrate how colors make objects appear to advance/recede. Students
then picked the most interesting portion of the landscape photo and cut it into a square or
rectangle of no more than about 4" x 5". The cut-out was glued to a larger piece of drawing
paper and students completed the image in an "ideal" way while also showing value ranges of
key colors. The finished products were amazingly beautiful and inventive while still being a
value study. From Judy Decker: Extend the lesson. Do the square or rectangle on black paper
(quality paper if you have it) - and extend the composition using Primascolors and those
Crayola metallic pencils. What if the new scape becomes Surreal?

From Kathy Douglas:

Color mixing: Here is one idea you might want to try, if indeed you want everybody painting at
once. I used to use it to begin a long unit on painting. Each student had a palette, a sponge,
and plenty of cheap (But thick) paper. Each table had trays of nice thick tempera paint which
included in some trays red/yellow/blue/black/white and others which included
magenta/yellow/turquoise/black/white (much better to use M-Y-T as primaries for mixing),
plenty of coffee cans of clean water and an assortment of smallish brushes. Instead of slogging
through color wheels my students were given a quick demo stressing use of the palette: mixing
there, while keeping colors in the paint trays fresh (washing and wiping brushes with each
color change, changing water in coffee cans frequently.

The assignment? to mix as many colors as possible...and by the end of the period to create one
fairly neat page with samples of "personal colors". What are personal colors? Colors that the
artist might need for their greatest interest. Some students might be attracted to a cool palette;
others, perhaps those who enjoy painting wildlife might go for an enormous range of neutral
colors. So everybody is mixing, and interesting color recipes can be shared with others at the
table or perhaps written on the chalkboard.

Students may wish to name some of the colors that they mix: tangerine? wine? chocolate?
alligator? Brittany's lipstick? As you notice students mixing complements, you can point out
the neutrals and grays that can result. If you are grading, you will be looking for a neat paper
with at least x number of mixed colors. The students might be asked to explain what has
attracted them to those colors. Color preference is an important aspect of being an artist and
the colors which I love might not interest you at all. Color wheels are important references and
I would have them all over the place...but I think that to get people actually experimenting and
mixing and loading the palette and making a page which will serve them as a reference when
they actually begin a painting...I think that this is more valuable and a LOT more motivating.

Sometimes on those mixing days I have had students make really wonderful small paintings in
the process of experimenting because they are relaxed and not trying to "paint the lighthouse or
the puppy dog". Students should keep that paper for the semester and have it available as a
reference and be invited to add to it as they progress in painting. Students who are advance
will still be learning in this exercise (I still learn something new every time I do it...; students
with NO experience mixing colors really need this opportunity to make sense of colors' impact
on each other. It is a bit messy, a bit noisy, but I do not think too many "slackers" will be able
to resist it. Maggie White adds: I do it a bit more structured, though--first they mix several
tones of each secondary, then a variety of tints, then they can experiment. They're required to
label each swatch with the colors they used, so they can refer to their personal chart when they
start painting for real. They also swap "recipes" for colors.

From Barbara Yalof

How I Will Spend My Summer Vacation? - Relief Sculpture:

End of the year woes? Here's one the kids loved - they worked in
colored Plastilina (plasticine), creating scenes of the best vacation
they ever had. The first class consisted of making a detailed face,
including 3-D eyeballs and properly mixed skin color. They had
to use only red, yellow and white or tan to create the skin, adding
brown if they were quite tanned! This is a good one for
elementary and middle school. Tie in the Children's book
illustrator: Barbara Reid

Elementary Motivators

From Linda Woods:

"Giant Came to Town" My third graders are hip deep in a drawing project that they love.
Wonderful drawings this year for "Giant in Town". This is a lesson that teaches rules of
perspective - size - placement - scale - and students have fun doing it. They come up with all
sorts of imaginative cities and towns.

From Linda Woods:

 Self Portraits: Second grade is doing guided self
portraits of them holding a favorite thing. They are
turning out beautifully. I told them they can NOT
hold a Game Boy - they must select something else
that tells about their personality. They are thinking
up some wonderful things to do, and many of them
involve their grandparents or a baby sister or
brother. Some are going to hold pets. Some will sit
on their grandparents laps and hold something
special. One girl is holding a locket that her
grandmother gave her. One boy is putting his
grandfather's portrait on the wall behind him. I think
I'll tell them they can bring a photo of the
grandparent if they wish, as they have worked so
hard on proportion on their own faces and bodies. I
taught it feature by feature, using a lot of the "right
brain" techniques (Edwards ideas). Holding a pencil
up for angles, not naming features, rather describing
them.

We started with the eyes and measured every feature on the face in relation to the eyes, for
example, the face is five eyes wide, the nose is one and a half eyes long, the nostrils fall under
the tear ducts at the widest point, It's one eye from the bottom of the nose to the bottom of the
lower lip, we drew the inside lines of the mouth first and then added lips and teeth if they show.
They measured their teeth in the mirror by holding a pencil up vertically beside the front teeth
to see how wide teeth actually are. Most drew the spaces between their teeth. Now we are
measuring for the chin and drawing the cheeks. After that they will measure from the bridge of
the nose to the chin and double that to mark where the top of the head is. Then draw the hair,
neck, shoulders, and whatever they are holding, then their bodies and arms. Quite an
undertaking for 2nd grade, but they are all getting it. I have seen kids who can't draw their way
out of a paper sack from their imagination TOTALLY nail their portraits! Many of them
actually look like the kids. Pretty exciting. We drew them in colored pencil lightly, but we'll
color with oil pastel. I may let them use colored pencils on the eyes - Prismacolors. Of course,
we drew the sparkle!

From Denise Pannell:

Tie Dyed T-Shirts: We tie dyed our arts festival t-shirts last year (500 K-5 students!). I had the
t-shirts pre-rubber banded and soaking in the soda ash before they arrived. We made the large
swirl- when you band it, it looks like a color wheel, so we talked about that before dying and I
posted the diagram above each sink for reference (older student can select their own dying
patterns) Make sure you put their names on the tags in permanent marker before banding them
and make sure the tag is out so you can read it. I covered the counters with garbage bags & old
towels to soak up the extra dye & called back 6 students at a time (I have three double sinks). I
sent each t-shirt home in a zip-lock baggie with instructions for rinsing since I didn't want to
wash them all myself. They placed the t-shirt in the baggie & then rinsed the bag off & the
gloves before removing them. I had no complaints from the parents. We used the Sax kit and
all turned out very nice.