Summer Directed drawings are a fun way to teach students how to draw and build fine motor strength! The Summer Directed Drawing Unit will include eight different directed drawings perfect for an ocean theme, summer theme, sports theme, bug theme, camping theme, or 4th of July. These directed drawings are very simple, making them perfect for little learners in preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Included are ideas to make directed drawings with various art media and background options.
EACH DIRECTED DRAWING INCLUDES:
•Full-page directed drawing poster
•Half-page directed drawing posters
•Draw and Write! Students can draw and then write about it below!
•Labels for Organization
•Student Portfolio Covers
Directed Drawings Included:
- Summer Directed Drawings
American Flag, Ice Cream, Watermelon, Baseball, Turtle, Bee, Shark, Crab
Reasons to Use Directed Drawings:
•Strengthens fine motor muscles.
•Easy way to infuse art into the classroom.
•Calming activity! Art is very calming and relaxing for most students.
•Fun way to practice following directions.
•Teaches students how to draw by noticing shapes in objects!
•Drawing is communicating! You will see growth and more details in their illustrations.
•Gorgeous bulletin boards and student art to decorate the classroom.
•Builds confidence and creativity.
These are perfect for Fine Motor Journals!
PREP: Print the directed drawing direction posters and prep the materials (paper, art media).
TEACHER DIRECTED LESSON: The first few directed drawing activities need to be teacher led to help all students be successful.
•You draw a step, model, and verbally explain how to draw each shape and the size (ex: “This shape looks like a small U shape, I’m going to make this small….down, curve, up”.) Then students draw that step.
•Continue to model a step then students draw a step until the drawing is complete.
•Model creating the background. Then students create the background.
•Encourage students that their painting is going to be unique, it’s ok to mess up, it’s ok if it’s not perfect.
SIGN THEIR NAME: Have students sign their names on the front of their drawings. Have name cards at the table for students to use as a model.
CENTER ACTIVITY: Once students have done multiple directed drawings in the classroom, they may be ready to do it independently. Now you can use directed drawings in center activities, early finisher activities, morning activity, indoor recess, or in the art center. Put out the various supplies and let students choose what they want to use to create their directed drawing.
PRACTICE WITH DRY ERASE BOARDS: You can have students practice on a dry erase board. Practice the whole picture or practice shapes.
THE PERFECTIONIST STUDENTS! You will always have some students that want their drawing to be perfect. BEFORE you begin each directed drawing, have a conversation about how each one of us is amazing and unique so your drawings will all be amazing and unique just like them! You can also model making mistakes and model reacting to that mistake.
DIRECTED DRAWINGS DO NOT REPLACE OPEN-ENDED ART: Make time for open-ended art too, so students have the opportunity to create, express themselves, and use their imagination that , not product focused.
Check out these fun fine motor literacy resources:
- Brick Block Letter Mats
- Play Dough Letter Mats
- Make It Letter Mats (with mini erasers or other small manipulatives)
- Pattern Block Letter Mats
- Connecting Cube Letter Mats
- Road Letter Mats
- Geoboard Letter Mats
- Dot It Letter Mats (with pom poms, cereal, bingo daubers, or candy)
- Hammer It or Paint It Letter Mats (use golf tees or Q-Tips to paint)
- Big Block Letter Mats (for Duplo size brick blocks)
Click the green star to follow me to receive 50% off all new products for the first 24 hours a new product is posted! Visit my store Pocket of Preschool.
Let’s Connect!
Sign up for my newsletter, and you will receive a HUGE family theme writing center filled with word cards, writing paper, write the room, a teacher page with tons of ideas on how to use it in the classroom, and real photos of it in action in a classroom for FREE!
Terms of Use
Pocket of Preschool™️. By purchasing and/or downloading this electronic file, you agree to the following terms. For personal use/single classroom use only. No part of this document may be distributed, posted on the internet, copied, edited, or resold. ALL contents of this document are under copyright protection, including all content, text, fonts, and graphics. Thank you for respecting my hard word as well as the hard work of the artists whose work helped create this product.
Pocket of Preschool ®
