Drawing Teaching Resources

Explore directed drawing videos, how-to-draw tutorials for kids, drawing activities and more teaching resources created by teachers for elementary and middle school teachers.

This extensive collection of educational resources will help your students develop their drawing skills and discover their "inner artist" with educational worksheets and engaging activities.

Curious about how to teach drawing and looking for tips for your classroom? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!

What Is a Directed Drawing?

A directed drawing is exactly what the name implies — a drawing activity that comes with instructions. As a teacher, you slowly walk your students through the creation of a drawing, step-by-step, so even students who don’t feel confident in their artistic abilities can follow along.

In addition to building confidence, the process of sharing one step at a time requires students to pay close attention in order to get the project just right — helping students focus, build hand-eye coordination, and learn to follow directions.

You can lead the directed drawing session by drawing on your whiteboard or chart paper, or you can show an instructional video like the how-to-draw videos included in this collection.

How Does Drawing Help Kids?

You don't have to be an art teacher to incorporate drawing into your lesson plans, and you might well see benefits from adding drawing activities to help your students build their skills.

There are a huge number of benefits to learning how to draw for both children and adults. From helping kids with their motor skills to helping them develop hand-eye coordination to even teaching children creative problem-solving, there’s plenty to be said for sitting kids down with some how-to-draw videos and letting them go to town!

Consider a few of the reasons our teacher team uses these activities in the classroom:

• To develop fine motor skills — Drawing is an excellent way for young kids to develop their fine motor skills, which are crucial for tasks such as writing, cutting with scissors and buttoning their clothes.
• To foster creativity and self-expression — Drawing is a form of self-expression, and teaching our students how to draw in the classroom can help them explore their own interests, imagination and creativity.
• To improve observation and visual-spatial skills — Drawing requires our students to observe and think about the world around them, which can help them develop their visual-spatial skills. This is important for all of the core academic subjects.
• To introduce them to the art world — Drawing is a fundamental skill in the visual arts, and teaching young children how to draw can introduce them to the world of art and inspire a lifelong love of art.
• To help them communicate their ideas — Drawing is a form of visual communication, and learning how to draw can help our students communicate their ideas and thoughts in a way that is easy for others to understand.