CLAY Sculpture art project for BUTTERFLY skill building lesson with bonus project
This is an art lesson guide for creating a clay Butterfly hovering over a flower, with a life cycle bonus activity to make caterpillars on leaves. A pottery clay sculpture project for elementary art ceramics. Designed for my 4-6+ year olds, this suits Kindergarten, First and Second grade teachers looking for an art lesson that is not craft. One that makes authentic links to the Elements of Art, Art Theory, Art techniques, Literature, and also guides you and your students through making a quick but relevant art response. This CLAY hand-building art lesson for Butterflies in a flower garden is inspired by the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other stories, and could be just what you are searching for.
PRAISE for my Butterfly and Flower Art Project (TPT customer)
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ "Excellent resource for teaching life cycles of butterfly."
The lesson include just the right amount of art theory and makes links to relevant inquiry themes. This art lesson that has been tested and crafted to suit this age group of 4, 5 and 6yr olds - step by step.
Students create 3D artwork with impact, while developing those all important fine-motor and executive functioning skills. Suits Early Elementary teachers looking for an art lesson to extend learning themes for Earth Day, Insects and Pollination, Life cycles and symbiotic ecosystems.
BUTTERFLY with FLOWER is an impactful Art lesson plan that also helps to consolidate your student's understanding of Visual Art and the medium of pottery. This easy to use art lesson has a strong focus on the Elements of Art, a great way to build essential knowledge and skill in this subject - particularly for teachers and students with limited knowledge or experience in this medium. The PDF guide has 58 instructional slides.
For more clay projects like this one, try my FISH in the CORAL sculpture project, available HERE
Praise for the Clay Fish Art Project (TPT)
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ "Thank you for creating this resource, it was helpful and engaging for my students."
Further Elements of art lessons for this level can be easily found in this category:
This lesson also pairs beautifully with the BUTTERFLY Mobiles (K-2) available HERE
This art lesson has been tested and crafted to suit this age group of 4, 5, 6 and 7yr olds.
The lesson includes choice options for differentiation, while keeping the skills taught consistent across the class, to save your sanity.
❤️ Take the guesswork out of teaching art,
❤️ Avoid endless hours of research,
❤️ Avoid the epic fails that result from not having the time to test the lesson or media yourself before teaching it.
I’ve done it all for you and used this lesson with my own students, in Kindergarten (caterpillar) and 1st grades (butterflies).
❤️ Why should you trust my lessons?
I am both a general ed classroom teacher and currently practising as a Visual Art and Digital Media specialist educator, teaching students from ages 4-12, at a primary school. I do this every day, just like you!
❤️ How will this resource help busy teachers, who are nervous about teaching art?
No worries - I’ve got you covered.
This lesson comes as a full colour PDF teacher guide of 58+ slides. All project steps are clearly explained and photographed, from start to finish, giving you the confidence to deliver a quality visual art lesson to your students, as you share on your large screen.
❤️ All the materials & skills are also clearly listed for you. It’s like having an art specialist with you in your classroom.
The PDF slides are intentionally designed in landscape orientation, to share with your students. This extra visual support will prove useful, particularly to young learners, and will also save your from having to repeat the same instructions, over and over again.
Select VIEW > enter full screen for presentation mode. Then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to drive a smooth slideshow experience, like a pro :)
Encourage students along the way, to follow choice options and create their unique artwork, while being guided by the information on the slides.
⏰ How long will this project take to finish?
This art lesson can be completed in a few hours, depending on the age and stage of students .
Chunk into smaller manageable lessons: 11/2 - 2hours to build, dry for 2 weeks, 11/2 - 2hours to glaze/paint.
View the previews above, then add to cart and smile, knowing you will soon have beautiful artwork on the walls and students glowing with pride!
❤️ So what is special about this resource?
BUTTERFLY with FLOWER is NOT a superficial art or craft option. As a specialist in this field, I write lessons that encourage deeper, cross-curricular learning and make meaningful connections to other subject areas. This IS:
- a hand-building tutorial that uses concepts of measurements, shapes and 3D form (Math)
- explores the concept of butterfly and flower symbiosis (Science),
- teaches about the elements of art
- makes link to literature like the The Very Hungry Caterpillar and other stories
- makes cross-curricular links to nature & lifecycles (How the World Works).
This lesson plan can be the perfect companion art project for students inquiring into
✏️ The Theory of Visual Art
✏️ Art media
✏️ Popular picture books
✏️ How the World Works & How We Express Ourselves (IB PYP)
Students can express their unique ideas through personal choices and modifications (suggestions offered in the guide), while working through the guided project. Pause the presentation in places to discuss next steps with students, check understanding and explore potential student responses or modifications, bringing personal creative ideas to the tutorial. This addresses the Viewing & Responding to artwork objectives in a purposeful way.
What do teachers, who have used my other K-3 clay lesson plans Clay Fish Art Project - say?
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ "Great resource, step by step. Saved me time and the students loved it. Their projects turned out great."
✅ What is included in CLAY FISH with CORAL
A 58+ PDF slide deck teaching guide for step-by-step guidance and reference, intentionally designed in landscape orientation, to share with your students as a presentation on your large screen. Select VIEW > enter full screen. Then use the arrow keys on your keyboard to drive a smooth slideshow experience, like a pro :)
✅ This PDF includes step-by-step support & teaching instructions for:
- Information slides about Butterflies (Tuning-in)
- Information slides about Flowers (Tuning-in)
- Detailed instructions to create a student response clay sculptures
- Photographs of every step
- Student and teacher examples of work in progress and completed. (Kindergarten)
- guidance for assessment - Learning Intentions included for the International Baccalaureate & New Zealand standards at levels 1 / Phase 1 which will closely aligned to assessment standards you may be using
- guidance and examples for Student Voice reflection/ assessment - either use orally with the slide, or print for students to fill out as a record of their learning.
✅ What knowledge, techniques and skills will my students learn from this series?
- Gain knowledge about art media, techniques and processes
- Gain knowledge about sculpture
- Become familiar with expressing knowledge through art
- Follow a tutorial for guidance - listening skills, visual discrimination, sequencing
- Develop fine-motor & technical skills for using a range of art tools and media
- Respond to art created by artists and by other students
- Reflect on own knowledge, skills, progress and artwork - using the included student sheets
✅ That sounds great! So what about the Visual Art focus in this lesson?
- Introduced to and explore the medium of potters clay
- Introduced to and explore the tools and techniques of hand-building clay sculpture
- Introduced to and explore the medium of glaze or paint as a finish
- Introduced to and explore floating sculpture
- Observe & understand the Art World (Studio Habits)
- Build observational skills & guided response
- Explore art making that expresses new learning
- Build skills for an art form
- Stretch & Explore (Studio Habits)
- PLAN - compose sculpture with shapes and forms
- Develop Craft, Engage & Persist, Express (Studio Habits)
- Reflect on personal development as an artist
- Reflect (Studio Habits)
View the Previews above, then add to cart and smile, knowing you have just saved yourself heaps of time and effort!
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✅ Where can I find more art lessons like this one?
→ You can browse all my art lessons and support resources provided as PDF presentation lesson HERE: VISUAL ART STORE
→ If you would prefer the added support of guided video tutorials, browse my growing collection in this custom category HERE: ART LESSONS WITH VIDEO TUTORIALS
→ For my other Elements of Art lessons, click HERE: ART ELEMENTS
✅ Is this product available on TPT?
Yes - you can find this product in my TPT store - One Teacher's Journey - HERE
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View all the previews above before you buy. If you have any questions, contact me through Q & A, BEFORE you purchase.
⭐️Would you recommend this lesson to your colleagues? Then please return to rate & comment as this helps to inform other teachers about how this product brought value to your teaching.
Every care is taken with editing this resource and at times, errors can still sneak through. If you have any questions, contact me through Q & A, and be specific in your request so that I can make those improvements and give you, and others the best quality lesson plans.
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➡️ TERMS OF USE
Review the TOUs in the PDF preview prior to purchasing.
Created by Timea Willemse, © One Teacher's Journey, © Help Me Learn
