Insects in Art: 3 Engaging Elementary Art Lessons Across the Seasons

Looking for engaging insect focused art lessons that develop art skills and engage students to produce beautiful artwork?

Insects are one of the most child focused themes to explore in the art room. They connect naturally to science, seasons, and observation, while giving students endless opportunities to explore pattern, colour, texture, and composition. Children are inherently curious about, and fascinated by bugs. 

In this post, I’m sharing three of my go-to insect art projects for elementary students, lessons I use in my own classroom that are structured for high engagement, skill-building, and individual creativity. They are intended to work across multiple lessons for deep learning and exploration.

🐛 WHY TEACH ABOUT INSECTS IN ART?

Insects are more than just a fun theme, they’re a powerful teaching tool. They are a great context for students to:

• Explore pattern and symmetry
• Build skills in close observation and small details
• Experiment with texture and surface design
• Make cross-curricular links to science and seasonal learning

Whether you're teaching a Spring unit on life cycles or a Fall unit on habitats, insect-themed art lessons will fit seamlessly into your curriculum.

🌸 SPRING INSECTS & FLOWERS (with paint + collage)

We only recently finished this lesson with my K-first graders but this lesson will appeal even more to older students as they are able to focus for more extended periods.

Students will create a vibrant composition in which they combine their previously drawn insects and painted flowers, using collage techniques to build layered, textured artwork.

🎨 Why use this lesson:

• Combine multiple media skills (paint + collage)
• Teach composition and layering
• Encourage creative choice and personal interpretation
• Produce bold, display-ready results

This lesson works particularly well when students are inquiring into themes like:

• Pollination
• Gardens habitats
• Earth Day
• Seasonal cycles - Spring
• Symbiosis + Mutualism

👉 Use this to extend your inquiry learning is a visible way and create feature artwork for your classroom displays. 

📌 Find the step-by-step lesson guide HERE

☀️ SUMMER DRAGONFLY (with paint + oil pastels) video support

This is lesson will easily bridge from your Spring to your end-of-term or Summer art curriculum.

Students create a vibrant dragonfly artwork using mixed media techniques, combining paint and oil pastel with sgraffito and  collage techniques. Students also get to explore transparency and texture.

🎨 Why use this lesson:

• Combine paint and oil pastels for a multi media experience
• Teach sgraffito and collage for rich, layered results
• Teach texture, pattern, and colour blending
• Encourage creative exploration and personal design choices

👉  And it also includes bonus video guidance I recorded, for making it even easier to teach. Use this when you want a low-stress, high-impact Summer lesson that builds real, curriculum based art skills.  Dragonflies are a great subject for Summer learning, linking naturally to:

• Insect habitats
• Water environments
• Life cycles and nature studies
• Seasonal cycles - Summer

✏️ Why teachers love this one: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️"This is a great resource to go with a mixed media unit and especially for spring. I love the different versions with materials to use for the dragonfly for more creativity. The video tutorials are awesome as well to help with the steps of the lesson!"

• Highly engaging for end-of-term energy levels
• Works well as a standalone project or part of a unit
• Produces bright, eye-catching display pieces
• Ideal for third grade and up

📌 Find the step-by-step lesson guide HERE

🍁 AUTUMN LEAVES & INSECTS (with oil pastels + pencils) video support

This is another clearly structured, multi-lesson project that creates high-impact results. Students combine insects with autumn leaves, using oil pastels to explore fall colour, schemes, texture, and contrast.

🎨 What students learn:

• Oil pastel blending and layering
• Texture through mark-making
• Layered compositions using natural forms
• Observation and detail

This lesson is a standout because of it's strong connection to seasonal learning themes. Your students will build confidence with using oil pastel techniques and produce beautiful artwork.

And there is a fully comprehensive video guide to support your students, every step of the way.

📌 Find the step-by-step lesson guide HERE

🔗 BUILD A STRONGER ART PROGRAM

These insect projects now work beautifully across the year:

• 🌸 Spring → Insects & Flowers (paint + collage) - Early-mid Elementary
• ☀️ Summer → Dragonfly Mixed Media - Mid-upper Elementary
• 🍁 Fall (feature project) → Leaves & Insects (oil pastel) - Mid-upper Elementary

Insect-themed art lessons are a simple way to bring engagement, creativity, and cross-curricular learning into your classroom. With these well structured lessons that support learners step-by-step, you get the best of both worlds:

• Students working more independently and confidently
• Artwork created to a higher standard due to focused skill development  

When you’re planning your curriculum, these lessons will be beneficial inclusions. They provide:

• A balanced mix of media
• A progression of skills
• Consistent, high-quality outcomes

Looking for something smaller, cuter and fun for end of term / end of year learning? Try my COZY INSECTS drawing lesson 

If you need something flexible for messy end-of term schedules, this is the way to go. This insect drawing lesson is designed to work as:

• An early finisher activity
• A sub plan
• A low-prep drawing lesson
• A bit if fun between big projects

Students create “cozy” insects applying their learning about the art element of line to create pattern and detail. This lesson is largely self guided, making it highly engaging while using basic supplies.

✏️ Teachers love this one because it's:

• Minimal prep
• Easy to run independently
• Consolidates pattern and drawing skills
• Engaging for a wide range of abilities

👉 Perfect for those moments when you need a reliable, no-stress lesson that still has strong learning outcomes. Cozy Insect Drawings is also flexible across seasons, based on the leaf colours and any inclusions students wish to use or add.

📌 Find the step-by-step lesson guide HERE

Save Time and Teach with Confidence

When you need lessons that are classroom-tested, clearly structured and designed for real teaching conditions across a range of elementary levels, you can explore my full range of lessons guides, here:

👉 Visual Art Resources

These are the same lessons that I use to keep my own students engaged, build strong technical skills, creative confidence and yield strong results for our art show displays. 

Make It Even Easier for Your Future Planning

If you want to stay in the loop, getting updates about comprehensive, ready-to-use art lessons that you can trust, you can subscribe to my FREE Substack newsletter, straight to your inbox.

👉 Join Up Here

I share my:

• time-saving lesson ideas
• latest classroom-tested resources
• and practical strategies for busy teachers

More Season Themed Art Lessons

If you’re building units, based around the seasons, browse these specific categories in my store, for a range if media and levels:

• Spring Art Projects
• Summer Art Projects
• Fall Art Projects
• Winter Art Projects

👉 Browse for more ideas here, on my blog

Connect with me for more art teaching ideas

I've been around for a while so you can also follow me on my other channels, for ideas and classroom inspiration, here:

• Instagram: @Timea_oneteachersjourney
• TPT: One Teacher’s Journey on TPT
• Pinterest: One Teacher's Journey on Pinterest
• Substack: One Teacher's Journey on Substack

Thank you for stopping by, With love

Mea 

Follow this  blog and check back soon for more art teaching ideas.

Easy Summer Art Lesson for Elementary Students: Bright Picnic Baskets Project (Collage + Oil Pastels)

As summer arrives and the weather starts to warm up, you want to feel energised about your art lessons… but the reality is often very different.

You’re tired.
Your students are restless.
And you still need something that:

• looks great on display
• builds real art skills (not just “busy work”)
• and spans across several lessons, with minimal prep

This is exactly why I come back to collage and oil pastel projects at this time of year.

They’re engaging, flexible, and when structured well, they create vibrant, successful results for every student, whatever their work pace may be. And the bonus is that you can use up left over paper scraps from the year.

Let me show you one of my recent lessons that worked beautifully for us.

Why This Summer Art Lesson Works (Even When Energy Is Low)

When short on time, with increased interruption to schedules, this lesson easily adapted to meet our needs. This summer picnic collage art lesson supports and extends:

• Collage techniques (cutting, layering, composition)
• Oil pastel skills (blending, value application, texture)
• Creative choice (students can personalise their picnic scene)

And more importantly, it has enough structure that even your less confident students feel successful, as they get excited about the up-coming summer holidays.

The Problem This Solves in Real Classrooms

If you’ve ever taught a “fun seasonal activity” and it didn’t quite land, you’ll identify with this:

• Students rush and make mistakes
• They don’t like parts of their artwork and want to start again
• Everyone’s work starts to look the same
• You spend more time managing than teaching

Making the shift to structured, scaffolded lessons, like this one, that have choice built in at every step, can make all the difference.

What This Looks Like in the Classroom

This project is built around a simple but engaging idea:

👉 Students build their artwork in small, bite-sized sections that come together into a bright picnic scene, reducing overwhelm. If students miss lessons, it doesn’t matter, because they have the opportunity to make a range of things for their basket - they don’t need everything! All steps are on the included slides to inspire students with a visual example or to help students catch up anything that they missed.

Student Process:

• Start the lesson at any point. 
• When all students are present, that is a good day to create the basket together. Students design their unique basket and a background with a focus on colour, texture and value
• Make each item for their basket across a couple of lessons, as individual collage elements (blankets, food, drink)
• Use oil pastels, then enhance and define details with coloured pencils. Use paint sticks or liquid water colours to fill the backgrounds quickly
• Extend with collage grass and flowers for your focused fast finishers

This will result in a high level of engagement due to genuine student-driven outcomes, and yield colourful pieces you’ll actually be proud to display.

Skills Students Are Actually Learning

This project isn’t just fun, it’s also skill-building with purpose. Students develop:

• Composition skills – arranging elements in a balanced way
• Colour theory understanding – bright, seasonal palettes
• Fine motor control – cutting and detailed pastel work
• Layering techniques – combining materials effectively
• Art elements – texture, shape, line, value and form
• Observational drawing - for the basket and contents

So yes, it’s engaging and seasonal. But it’s also meaningful and structured. This lesson works especially well for students aged 7–9 (middle to upper primary), those classes that need clear structure and guidance and teachers wanting a low-prep but high-impact lesson.

Let’s be honest, we don’t have time to reinvent lessons every week. This is the exact type of lesson I use when I need something that needs minimal prep and keeps students focused on individual outcomes with purpose, producing strong results, without the  stress.

It’s the kind of lesson you can walk into class with and feel prepared, even in a busy week.

Save Time and Get Strong Results

I have written up my process and added step-by-step photos so that you can also teach this Summer Picnics art project, perfect for your art lessons over the next few weeks. 

👉 Summer Picnic Collage Art Project (Collage + Oil Pastel Lesson)

The resource includes:

• step-by-step teaching slides (PDF - not editable)
• clear process instructions with visuals
• a simple materials list (basic art room supplies)
• a classroom-tested sequence (ages 7–9)

If you need something reliable for the spring / summer term, this is it.

Make It Even Easier for Your Future Planning

If you want to stay in the loop, getting updates about comprehensive, ready-to-use art lessons that you can trust, you can subscribe to my FREE Substack newsletter.

👉 Join Up Here

Each week, I share my:

• time-saving lesson ideas
• latest classroom-tested resources
• and practical strategies for busy teachers

Needing More Summer Art Ideas

If you’re planning ahead or want to build on collage skills, these are more proven lessons to try:

• My latest Summer Art Project (also ages 7-9) - these turned out stunning: 👉 Dutch Tulips Oil Pastel Lesson

• More Summer Lessons ideas on this blog:  👉  Summer Posts

• And finish with a great end-of-term collage activity for your early finishers: 👉 Shaggy Dog Collage 

Connect with me for more art teaching ideas

You can also follow me on my other channels, for ideas and classroom inspiration, here:

• Instagram: @Timea_oneteachersjourney
• TPT: One Teacher’s Journey on TPT
• Pinterest: One Teacher's Journey on Pinterest
• Substack: One Teacher's Journey on Substack

Thank you for stopping by, With love

 

Mea 

Follow this  blog and check back soon for more art teaching ideas.