I love it when students don’t realise they’re learning. When they walk through the door in the few weeks before Christmas and say ‘Are we doing something fun?’ or ‘Can we do something Christmassy?’, I want to be able to say yes, safe in the knowledge that what I have planned still teaches my students valuable skills. All the Christmas art lessons below do just that. Just click an image to find out more about that resource.
The Christmas tree zentangle art lesson below is both festive and relaxing. Ideal for a peaceful lesson in the (sometimes excitable) build-up to Christmas.
Grid drawings are great for teaching valuable drawing skills. The jolly Santa Claus below will certainly engage your learners.
The snowflake oil pastel transfer resource below, teaches your students about oil pastel transfers and can be used in so many ways going forward. This resource is fun and creative, and requires your students to think about both colour schemes and composition. So much to learn!
Next is this beautiful Christmas bauble art resource. This can teach students how warm and cool colours can be used to create contrast and how shading can be used to create depth. The end result can be really striking.
There is something magical about this paper sculpture project. Play the video to learn more. You can find the resource here.
‘Frottage‘ is the art word for taking a rubbing. The Christmas art lesson below teaches students what frottage is and encourages them to experiment with colour choices. So much to learn!
Teach your students about stippling with the resource below. I would allow several lessons to complete this: one to sketch and two to stipple.
Most students love the opportunity to paint. The Christmas activity below teaches your students the valuable skill of how to layer watercolour. The good example included in this download is so useful as the top part has one layer of watercolour and the bottom section two layers. It shows your students exactly what you want them to do. Brilliant!
If you want your students to get stuck into some quality drawing, these holly grid drawings are just the ticket. Ask your students to work in colour or if printing costs are an issue, print them in black and white.
The Christmas Tags art resource below is a winner. You could get students to simply colour these in, but I’ve used them successfully when I’ve asked students to watercolour them. You’ll need some really fine paintbrushes as they are detailed. In the last 15mins of the lesson, I got out some glitter glue and my students loved adding little sparkling highlights. Ding dong merrily on high!
The ink snowflake activity below is a great resource to teach your students the beautiful effects you can get when you let ink or watercolour bleed into a wet surface. Click the image to find out more.
There are so many things you could do with the Christmas snowflakes below. Colour them, paint them, collage them. You’re only limited by your imagination!
The big Christmas wordsearch below is useful to have up your sleeve in those end of term art lessons when the kids are getting a bit giddy and you want them to focus and settle down. It’s only £1 or $1 and might just save your bacon.
Whilst your students are working it’s nice to play some Christmas music. There is a good play list on Youtube here.
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I can’t wait to do this with my students. Now to decide what grade to do it with
That’s great to hear. I hope your students enjoy it.
These are amazing Christmas art lessons. My students are gonna love this. Thank you for the ideas.
Happy Holidays!
Hi Judith, Thanks for your positive feedback. I hope your students enjoy them.