Every August, the same question pops up in every art teacher Facebook group I’m in: “Does anyone have a curriculum map I can borrow?” Sometimes it’s a brand new art teacher who just found out they’re teaching K–8 art in two weeks. Sometimes it’s a classroom teacher who has art on the timetable and no idea where to start. And sometimes it’s a homeschool parent who wants their kids to have a real art year instead of a random craft here and there.

So I made one. It covers Kindergarten to Grade 8, and it lays out a full year of art, week by week, from back to school in August all the way to the last week in June. You can use it online, or download a clickable PDF for your grade and keep it in your planning binder.

What is an art curriculum map (and why it helps so much)?

A curriculum map is just a plan for the year. It shows what you’ll teach and roughly when, so you’re not deciding on a Sunday night what you’re doing on Monday morning. Some people call it a scope and sequence, some call it a yearly plan or a pacing guide. Whatever you call it, the idea is the same: you can see the whole year at a glance, and every week has a home.

For art, a map does a few really helpful things. It makes sure the big building blocks (line, shape, color, value, texture, space) actually get taught, instead of being squeezed out by holiday projects. It spreads artist studies across the year so students meet a range of artists. And it lines up your seasonal lessons with the calendar, so you’re not scrambling for a turkey lesson the day before Thanksgiving.

The best part is that once you have a map, you can stop planning from scratch and start tweaking. That’s a much nicer place to be.

How the K–8 curriculum map is organized

When you open the map, you pick a grade: Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2 and so on, up to Grade 8. Grades 6, 7 and 8 each have their own map, so middle school teachers aren’t stuck with one plan for three very different groups of kids.

Each grade gets 36 weeks, grouped by month: August and September, September and October, all the way to May and June. The months are a rough guide. School calendars are all over the place (especially between Canada and the U.S.), so slide the weeks forward or back to fit your year.

Here’s the general flow you’ll see in most grades:

• Back to school: name art, all-about-me portraits and a getting-to-know-you project, so you learn names and set routines while students make something they’re proud of.
• An Elements of Art unit in the fall: a few weeks that build on each other, covering line, shape, color, and value, texture and space. You’ll see these marked as “Unit, week 1 of 4” and so on, so you know they belong together.
• Seasonal lessons that match the calendar: fall leaves and pumpkins, Remembrance Day and Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, winter, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, spring and Earth Day.
• Artist studies sprinkled through the year: Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alma Thomas and more, depending on the grade. February includes Black History Month artists.
• A celebration at the end: end-of-year projects that feel like a fun finish, not a scramble.

Middle school maps (Grades 6 to 8) lean more into art history, drawing skills, value and shading, perspective, surrealism, pop art and the principles of design, with a sketchbook practice week built in. Some lessons appear in more than one grade on purpose. If you teach the same group of kids for a few years, just swap a repeated week for something else.

What you’ll find in each week

I kept each week simple on purpose. When you’re planning, you don’t need a wall of text. You need to see the lesson and get to it fast. So every week has:

• A thumbnail of the lesson so you can see what students will make.
• A “Click here to see the lesson” button that takes you straight to that lesson in my shop, where you can see what’s included.
• A read-aloud picture book for Kindergarten to Grade 5, with the cover so it’s easy to spot.
• A free video option on some weeks, from my YouTube channel.

Picture book pairings for Kindergarten to Grade 5

Reading a picture book before a lesson is one of my favorite ways to start art class. It settles everyone, it gives you something to talk about, and it gets kids thinking before they ever pick up a pencil. So every week in the K–5 maps comes with a book that matches the lesson.

A few of the pairings you’ll find in the map:

• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes for back-to-school name art.
• The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, perfect for the first weeks when some kids are nervous about “messing up.”
• Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert for fall leaf lessons.
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen for winter.
• Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe for a Basquiat-inspired lesson.
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert for spring.

You definitely don’t need to buy them all. Most are easy to find at your school or public library, so take the map along on your next library trip and grab a stack.

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Download a printable PDF for your grade

I know a lot of you like to print your plans. Same. So each grade has its own PDF that you can print for your planning binder, save to your computer or share with a teaching partner. Everything in the PDF is clickable: tap a lesson picture or a “Click here” button and it opens the lesson, so the printout and the digital copy work together.

• Kindergarten art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 1 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 2 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 3 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 4 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 5 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 6 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 7 art curriculum map (PDF)
• Grade 8 art curriculum map (PDF)

How to use the map in your art room

Think of the map as a starting point, not a rulebook. Here are a few ways teachers can make it work:

Plan in chunks. Instead of planning the whole year at once, look at one month band at a time. Four weeks is a really manageable planning window, and you can gather supplies for the whole month in one go.

Move the holiday weeks. If Thanksgiving is in October where you live (hello, fellow Canadians), slide that week earlier. If your school doesn’t do holiday art, swap those weeks for an artist study or an extra elements lesson.

Keep the unit weeks together. The weeks marked as a unit build on each other, so try to teach them in order. The single weeks are much more flexible.

Save the video weeks for busy days. The weeks with a free video option are great for sub days, assembly weeks or catch-up days when half the class is away.

Repeat favorites on purpose. If a lesson was a huge hit, there’s nothing wrong with doing a variation later in the year. Kids love seeing how much they’ve grown.

Using the map for homeschool art

If you’re homeschooling, the map gives you a gentle rhythm for art without having to plan it all yourself. One lesson a week is plenty, and the picture book pairings make it feel like a cozy routine: read together, talk about the book, then make art.

Teaching more than one age? Pick the map for your youngest child and let older kids add more detail, or open two grades side by side and choose the weeks that line up. My Homeschool Art Hub also has a mixed-ages year planner if you’d like everyone working on the same theme.

Tips for planning a year of art (from one art teacher to another)

A few things that make a big difference, whether you use my map or build your own:

• Start with the basics early. When students learn line, shape and color in the fall, every lesson after that gets easier, and you’ll hear them use real art words all year.
• Mix your materials. Try to rotate through drawing, painting, oil pastel, collage and printmaking across the year so kids get to try a bit of everything.
• Plan your messiest lessons for when you have energy. Paint-heavy weeks right before a long weekend are a lot. Pair them with calmer drawing weeks.
• Leave a little room. Something always comes up: fire drills, picture day, a surprise assembly. A flexible map means one missed day doesn’t throw off your whole year.
• Keep early finisher work ready. Sketchbook prompts and drawing challenges are a lifesaver when some kids finish in ten minutes and others need three classes.

More tools to go with your curriculum map

The map pairs really nicely with my other free tools:

• The Free Art Lesson Library: free lessons and printables you can download and teach this week.
• 120 free sketchbook prompt task cards: for warm-ups, early finishers and sub plans.
• The Drawing Prompt of the Day: a new drawing idea for every day of the year.
• The Art Lesson Planner: answer a few questions and get a week-by-week plan with lessons, free videos and supplies.
• All of my free art tools in one place.

Want the whole year in one download?

Each elementary grade has an A Year of Art bundle that includes the Elements of Art unit and the seasonal lessons in that grade’s map, and there’s one for Grades 6 to 8 too. You’ll find a link to the right bundle at the bottom of each grade on the map and on the first page of each PDF.

And if you’d love every lesson for every grade, plus new lessons as I make them, that’s what Artastic Collective, my art curriculum membership, is for.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to sign up to use the map?
No. You can open the online map and download the PDFs for your own classroom or homeschool planning without signing up for anything.

What do the lesson links open?
Each week links to that lesson in my shop, where you can see exactly what’s included. Some weeks also have a free video option on my YouTube channel.

Can I share it with my teaching team?
Absolutely, please share the link to the map so everyone gets the latest version.

Does it line up with my standards?
The lessons are built around the elements of art and principles of design, art history and creating, responding to and connecting with art. Every district and province is a little different, so check your own curriculum for exact codes. Each lesson page in my shop lists what it teaches.

I teach a combined class. Which map should I use?
Pick the younger grade and add challenge for the older students, or choose weeks from both maps. There’s lots of overlap, so it mixes and matches easily.

I really hope this takes a little weight off your planning this year. If you use it, I’d love to hear which week your students loved most.

Happy art making,
Kathleen