Pumpkins in Chalk Pastel Complete Lesson with video, slide show, rubric, directions, & more!

I made this video for the Artsonia After School Art Club!  It's basically everything you need to know for this lesson in under 10 minutes.

My third graders rocked the pastel chalk pumpkins this year.  It is one of those classic lessons that isn't too difficult to get awesome results, but admittedly, sometimes they "get" it and sometimes they don't.

First, before I get into the actual lesson, I want to bring something to the attention of the art teachers out there.  This first pumpkin was outlined with traditional Elmer's Liquid School Glue.

This pumpkin below was outlined with Jot, AKA Dollar Tree glue.

Under normal circumstances, I despise the Jot because of it's glossy, and honestly, not as adherent and liquidy quality, but in this instance it is amazeballs!  I love the way that turned out.  

I have Jot in one of the schools I teach in because the students bring in supplies to donate to the art room and about 2/3rds of the kids purchase the kits where I have dictated the brands etc...and the other 1/3rd bring in rando things.  Sometimes rando things are okay.  They'll bring in amazing artist quality pastels that I would've never asked for, or super nice sketchbooks for their cubby, but sometimes you end up with Jot glue.

Back to chalk pumpkins.  I began this lesson with a slideshow where we discussed still life objects, and what makes up a still life.  I am completely honest about stealing images off the internet for my slideshows for educational purposes.

The second part of the slide show discusses analogous colors, but I usually save that until after the drawing part of our project is done.

I have been using direction pages a lot this year.  They have been great for when kids are not paying attention, kids who need a little extra help, and for the kids who are constantly asking what they are supposed to be doing.  Sorry, this one isn't the best quality.  It was before I learned I had to use a 5B pencil to write it out!  Anyway, the directions page shows the kids how to draw the pumpkin.  I draw with them too.  Like I said, the direction page just help keeps them on track.  It's not a substitute for my teaching.

As they drew the additional objects in their still life, I had little items for them to look at set out around the room.  Some kids did just take ideas from their imaginations though, which I said was OK.  I tried not dissuade them from anything Halloweeny though, simply because our art shows at both schools are in the Spring, and pumpkins will look okay, but jack-o-lanterns will look out of my place in my opinion.

Once we have our still life drawn, I have a video of me adding glue and color to my project.  It is about 5 minutes and gives those visual learners a little extra nudge to see what it is exactly we are going to be doing.


This is the first video I made for this lesson way back in 2018- before my production skills were as refined as they are now. It's shorter than my Artsonia version, but doesn't really give you all the info.  :)


The practice coloring sheet isn't really necessary.  They could just practice on one of the pumpkins they practiced drawing. However; my kids usually practice in their sketchbooks, and it got kind of messy last year.  So, this year they practiced on this pumpkin, but I printed the rubric/assessment page on the back...and well....when I went to grade projects it was also very messy.

Timing wise, this project may have it's issues.  The gluing of the black paper has to be done the week prior to using the pastel - so if you end up with a weird time thing - I sometimes have them put a glue outline on their practice papers too.

Besides the video, I did go step-by-step through their practice page on how to mix the colors.  I walked around as they did the rest to see if there were any major issues.

As mentioned above, I had great success with this project this year!  I hope you do to!  Check out my school Artsonia galleries below.

Holy Trinity School Third Grade

Elm School Third Grade

Our year in art. 2013-2014 Festival of the Arts slideshow

Our yearly Festival of the Arts was a great success. Every student in K-5 at Garfield and Grant-White school had at least one piece of artwork decking the halls and gym at Grant-White. Guests had some fun in our photobooth, we listened to the Grant-White choir, and got to meet our new principal!

Shepard Fairey for Kids! Free PowerPoint Slideshow for Elementary use.

It is difficult to explain street art culture and graffiti to a bunch of fifth graders.  I touch on the history of graffiti, and try to carefully discuss the legalities, but it can get kind of sticky.

This is where Shepard Fairey comes in.  We are influenced by the Obama Hope poster for our project "monochromatic identity" (full lesson at the link).  I think Shepard Fairey's entire story  - from the viral Andre the Giant stickers to the appropriation battle over Obama's image- is fascinating.  My students think it's fascinating too.  They always have a ton of questions and often hung up on the whys, whats, whos, and hows. 

I put together this PowerPoint presentation on Shepard Fairey (with sources!) to teach my students a little bit about his life, street art, and activism.  Our discussion often turns to what is ethical, on top of what is legal and illegal.  It draws forth a good discussion.  I love when they see Shepard Fairey in the videos too.  They always say "he's so young!"  This makes me happy, 'cause he's older then me, AND it makes me realize how many old dead guys we learn about.

There are two short video links in the presentation.  I'm sharing them here because I think they are pretty good to show elementary kids.  The first one is a mash up of Obama's "Yes We Can!" speech with images of a HOPE mural being installed.
Barack Obama x Z-Trip x Shepard Fairey x Fresh Pressed from chumpchampion on Vimeo.
 The second is Shepard Fairey talking about influencing students to be positive.  

Zombies! Vampires! Monsters! and Selfies! Free monsters and identity slideshow download.

Fourth grade recently completed an intense unit on 19th century photography, self-portraits, and monsters.  I wrote a lesson plan last year describing how we turn one perfectly mapped self-portrait into a monster.

I was most pleased with my students' results this year.  We added depth with light and shade to our faces and learned a lot more about the history of photography.

I made a slideshow (Are you a monster?) that roughly discusses identity and a monster we'd turn in to.  I stole all the images off of Google images.  I tried to choose drawings of the monsters as opposed to photos of costumes or movie characters.  It was a fun little brainstorming lesson and my students liked seeing the monsters turned into art!

Glue Sponges save the day! Here is a "How to use a glue sponge" tutorial slideshow for classroom use.

I have a long twisted history with glue in my classroom.  I started to get the idea about implementing glue sponges when I saw an awesome poster about their use in my Tumblr feed.  After my last glue saga post, I had another teacher suggest glue sponges and told me to check Pinterest.

I was intrigued and decided it was time to make some glue sponges.

I am going to interject here with my own pity story about what a pain in the neck it was just to get them made.  I put in a money request from school to purchase the sponges and tubs from Target.  I thought that would be easy since I go there enough.  However, I ended up never having time to go to Target and peruse bins and sponges.  I had money to spend, and no time to spend it.  I usually have 3 kids in tow and I usually have other shopping to do, and - aint nobody got time for that...!  I wanted to just order them online, but Target does not sell sponges and Gladware online, and neither does Blick.  Finally, I had the opportunity to go solo to Target and buy my supplies.  I could not find regular 'ol cello sponges in all of Target Greatland.  I ended up buying the ones with scrubbers on one side.  Even those were hard to find and I cleared out an entire endcap.  Next, I had to find the Gladware.  I was stuck in this Corningware/green lunch box aisle and could not find regular Gladware anywhere.  I finally gave up and was just going to purchase the more heavy duty lunch box things.  Then, I stumbled upon the Gladware several aisles later with the trash bags and such.  I had to figure out all over again what size to get, and how many.  I wanted 12 for each school I teach out - for a total of 24.  Gladware is sold in packs of 5 and the sponges were packages of 6 or 2.  It's a good math problem and I screwed it up. I'm still short sponges, and that should of been the easy part. I had all my supplies finally, and I spent one morning putting glue sponges together.

I was anxious to use the glue sponges with the kids, but the Pinterest page told me to wait and let them soak overnight.  The next day I inspected my glue sponges.  I was excited, but kept thinking about how the kids are not going to know how to use these, and they wont be able to see me demonstrate how to use it properly.  Plus, they might forget key details! They might make a huge mess!!

 I spent my afternoon putting together this PowerPoint, "How to use a Glue Sponge."

I played it for the class and had it going on repeat throughout the hour.  I have had great success with it so far and the glue sponges have been fantastic!