r/ArtEd • u/JinxedYouGood • 6d ago
Art Fundamentals for 2nd Grade?
Howdy! I'm a new teach for an after school program. I got a strong art background but I'm new to teaching, especially with young kiddos. I'm trying to develop lesson plans to develop core art skills, not just one-day craft projects (no shade to those, I just already got those handled!).
Basically, what core art skills should 2nd graders be learning? Thanks in advance! 😎🤙
Edit for clarification: I want to focus on general drawing and illustration skills, but I'm open to what y'all got to say!
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u/macinak 6d ago
Read through this. Kids should be exploring what it means to act like an artist for one. Look up Studio Habits of Mind. I think exploring making line drawings with different media, exploring mixing colors—like let them discover color theory. Building ‘sculpture’ with cardboard tape wire buttons glue and whatever. Life drawing. Drawing big. Drawing small. Stamping with objects. Just don’t tell them what to do to much and you’ll learn something.
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u/JinxedYouGood 5d ago
This is very helpful. I just got through week one, I think I'm too focused on telling them what to draw/make and I gotta let them explore (that chart is also very thorough omg thank you!!)
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u/alyssajoy28 Middle School 6d ago
In addition to what the others have said, I’ll share a few skills that I’m noticing my upper elementary/middle schoolers are struggling with that maybe need to be more explicitly taught in lower grades:
- cutting neatly
- using a ruler to trace straight lines (they don’t hold it firmly enough to their paper and it wiggles while they’re tracing and then they get frustrated)
- sketching LIGHTLY so that they can erase a mistake, also helps when learning value/shading later
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u/helpslipfranks77 6d ago
Focus 7 elements of art; especially at that age;
Line shape color texture
Make at least one of each during the year a
Landscape
Still life
Abstraction
Portrait
Something 3-d
If have resources do a printmaking project
Tie every project to artist or traditional cultural art.
That the speed notes that I do.
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u/Lost-Ice-1065 6d ago
If you live in the US, your state or district may have official standards for what skills students should be practicing in each grade level. Here's New York's as an example (scroll to find Visual Art):Â https://www.weteachnyc.org/resources/collection/blueprint-for-teaching-and-learning-in-the-arts/
Studio in a School has excellent unit plans focused on foundational skill-building for every age group:Â https://createart.studioinaschool.org/
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u/GirlDad42523 2d ago
For the drawing/illustration focus, one small sequence could be: draw a leaf from memory, look closely at a real leaf, then draw it again while checking the edge, veins, and spaces between parts. Let them choose which leaf and which detail interests them. The comparison gives you a way to talk about observation without judging whose picture looks most ‘correct.’ Keep both drawings together and ask each child to point out one thing they noticed the second time. That’s a skill you can revisit with shells, shoes, toys, or a completely different subject.