12 Ready-to-Use Lesson Ideas for Innovative Art Teachers

Art lessons are a great opportunity to encourage students to look at the world differently, and let their creativity shine. 🤩 But coming up with activities that combine learning and creativity can be a challenge.

That’s why we’ve gathered a collection of digital art lesson ideas you can use in your classroom with BookWidgets. From discovering famous artists and exploring art movements to creating original artwork, these activities offer plenty of inspiration for your next art lesson.

Before we begin: The art activities in this post are created with BookWidgets. If you're new, here's what you need to know:

1. BookWidgets is an all-in-one content creation tool for teachers that helps all teachers create interactive digital assignments and assessments (with a variety of 37 interactive question types).
2. Teachers can share BookWidgets evaluations through their connected learning management system, such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Moodle, and many more, making digital activities easy to manage within their existing workflow.
3. Students answers are collected and organized in a reporting dashboard, where teachers can review work, give feedback, and evaluate performance efficiently.

Ready-to-Use Art Lessons in This Post

Below, you’ll find a collection of ready-to-use art lessons designed to teach art theory and bring creativity into your classroom. Follow the teacher links to add the activities to your own BookWidgets account and start using them with your students. You can also browse the full collection in this BookWidgets group.

Scroll down to discover more about each activity and explore the lesson plans in detail!

1. Famous Artists and Artworks Memory Game
2. Famous Artworks Matching Game
3. Artist Identification Crossword
4. Painting Jigsaw Puzzle
5. Artwork Discussion Puzzle
6. Art movements timeline
7. Art Quiz
8. Digital Art on a Blank Canvas
9. Sticker Art Challenge
10. Digital Self-Portrait
11. Chinese Vase Design Activity
12. Emoji Art Challenge

7 Digital Art Lessons When Teaching Art Theory

Here's how you can teach the basics of art theory in a fun and engaging way through interactive art games, fascinating facts about famous artists, and more. Not every student will be equally interested in art, but understanding some basic art concepts and learning about famous works of art are important parts of art education. After all, who doesn't know Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa or Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers?

1. Famous Artists and Artworks Memory Game

In this fun art memory game, students match famous artworks to the artists who created them. As they play, they become familiar with well-known artists from the past and present while training their memory. This interactive art activity is a fun way to introduce students to famous artists and their work in the classroom.

2. Famous Artworks Matching Game

In this interactive art pair matching game, students match famous artworks with their corresponding descriptions. They learn more about the artworks, their meaning, and the artistic styles they represent. This engaging activity introduces students to famous works of art and helps them build their art knowledge.

3. Artist Identification Crossword

How well do your students know famous artists? This art crossword challenges them to solve clues by filling in the names of the artists described. The clues focus on artistic styles, techniques, and distinctive features of their work. It’s a fun way to discover interesting facts about well-known artists and build knowledge of art history.

4. Painting Jigsaw Puzzle

Give students a closer look at a work of art by having them piece together a painting in this jigsaw puzzle activity. Once they’ve completed the puzzle, share more about the artwork or the artist behind it using a short text or audio explanation.

5. Artwork Discussion Puzzle

Turn a jigsaw puzzle into an opportunity for students to explore and discuss a work of art. As they complete the puzzle, encourage them to think about the painting and share their observations. Who is the artist, and what is the painting called? Is there a deeper story behind it? What interesting details stand out? This activity encourages students to look more closely at artwork, share their ideas, and discover different ways to interpret a painting.

6. Art movements timeline

Help students explore the different art movements and their defining characteristics with this art timeline. For each movement, you can include an example of an artwork and the names of well-known artists associated with it. This gives students a visual overview of how art has evolved over time and helps them connect artistic styles with the artists and artworks that represent them.

💡 BookWidgets Teacher tip: The timeline above is a fixed timeline that students can use to explore different art movements. Want your students to practise what they've learned? Create an editable timeline and let them fill in the dates, art movements, artists, and artworks themselves.

7. Art quiz

Test your students’ knowledge of famous artists with this interactive art quiz. Students read fun facts or descriptions and drag the correct artist’s name into each sentence. To finish, they see a statement about an artist and choose the correct photo from three options. It’s a fun way to help students become more familiar with well-known artists and their work.

5 Digital Art Lessons That Spark Creativity

The following art class ideas give your students a chance to get creative! Even though they take place on a screen, they leave plenty of room for imagination and artistic expression. Here are a few fun, creative assignments that let students take a break from their usual work and express themselves. These activities encourage students to think outside the box and explore their creativity.

8. Digital Art on a Blank Canvas

Give your students a blank digital canvas with the whiteboard widget. They can create their own artwork using their imagination and creativity. Use the whiteboard title to introduce a prompt or give students a specific task. In the example below, students create an artwork inspired by what they can see through a window at home. Students can submit their finished artwork for feedback and grading, making this a creative digital art assignment that’s easy to share and review.

💡 BookWidgets Teacher tip: Add a resource to the whiteboard widget to give students instructions or extra information about the assignment. Learn more about using resources in your activities in our blog post about activities with multimedia resources.

9. Sticker Art Challenge

Ready for another interactive art activity? With the whiteboard widget, you can also let students create artwork using a selection of stickers. They can combine the shapes and images to make a collage, build a character, or come up with their own creative design.

Want to see how it works? Open the example below and click the star icon to access the stickers. Then, start building your own robot! It’s fun to see how many different designs students can create using the same set of shapes.

10. Digital Self-Portrait

Let students explore digital art by creating their own self-portraits with the BookWidgets Whiteboard widget. On one side of the whiteboard, they add a photo of themselves by clicking the photo icon. On the other side, they transform the original image into their own creative artwork.

11. Chinese Vase Design Activity

Give students a creative starting point with a background image in the Whiteboard widget. Instead of drawing on a blank canvas, they can decorate an image of a Chinese vase with their own patterns, colors, and designs. It’s another way to encourage creativity while exploring decorative art.

12. Emoji Art Challenge

Ready for a creative challenge with a surprise twist? Students spin an emoji wheel, also created with BookWidgets, and use the first three emojis that appear as inspiration for their artwork. Since everyone gets a different combination, students can experiment with unexpected ideas and create their own unique pieces of art.

💡 BookWidgets Teacher tip: Notice the camera icon in some of these digital whiteboard activities? Students don’t have to create their artwork on a screen. They can draw on paper, take a photo of their finished work, and upload it to the Whiteboard widget to submit it.

Wrap up

I hope these examples inspire you to bring art lessons into your classroom. The activities in this post are just the beginning! Let your creativity guide you, and combine different activities to create engaging art lessons that fit your students’ needs.

Try the examples above, or create your own digital art activities with BookWidgets. Ready to get started? Click the button below to create your first digital art lesson!