I love getting kids excited about art so in this blog post, I will provide you with a simple yet effective art lesson to get primary students (pre-K, Kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2) exploring art making mediums with simple strategies to create an art project featuring a cute wax crayon portrait. Read on to find the steps for creating and the full art lesson and downloadable PDF lesson plan and worksheets.
Materials and Hook for the Art Lesson
For this art lesson, you will need two art mediums and two pieces of paper. First, you need Wax Crayons and Watercolor paints OR Tempera Paint Cakes. As well, you will need white paper and a choice colored piece of paper.
Begin the lesson with hooking your students on the lesson. You can click here and follow the full video art lesson and create an example to show your students or you can start off with a classroom discussion and ask them a question: “What Mediums or Materials can be used to make art?” Record all their answers on chart paper or on the board.
Next, you can explain you will be creating an artwork of an art medium: wax crayons!
Step 1: Draw a Rectangle
Start the artwork by drawing a rectangle with black or brown wax crayon in the center of white paper. Model drawing it large or show them the full video art lesson that you can watch by clicking here.
Step 2: Create the Crayon
Add the stripes onto your crayon’s paper wrapper. Add the top of the wax crayon, arms, and legs. Copy the style that I drew or encourage your students to add their own artist flavor and style to their artwork to allow for more student choice.
Step 3: Add facial details
Draw on a face onto your crayon and color the wax part with your favorite wax crayon color! Color the face as well with wax crayon to allow for wax resist painting in the final steps.
Step 4: Paint the Crayon and Background
Finally, paint your wax crayon with your chosen wax crayon color using watercolor or tempera paint cakes.
Paint your choice background paper with swatches of colors or practice painting different lines on your background paper to create visual interest. Let both papers dry.
Once dry, cut out the wax crayon and glue it to the background paper.
Watch the FULL Art Lesson and Get the Downloadable Lesson Plan & Worksheets
If you would like to watch a full video art lesson to learn how to make this art lesson or have access to it to show your students AND the Downloadable Lesson Plan, Step-By-Step handout, Rubric and reflection (in PDF format), then make sure you click here or the image below and you can grab the full art lesson FOR FREE!
Want more FREE Art Lessons to help you Plan your Year?
Look no further! I believe in providing art lessons to help educators and homeschool families plan their year efficiently with art lessons that teach the curriculum and engage students with interesting content and art techniques. You can find all my free art lessons in one, easy to access spot and they’re all organized by seasons/times of the school year, and by holidays. Find the resources by clicking here.
