Whether you teach art, social studies, language arts, or even math, a creative junior high art project can be added to your curriculum. Art projects align with national standards, reinforce interdisciplinary skills, help students express themselves, and innovatively demonstrate learning.
Add this collection of cross-curricular art projects for middle schoolers to your assessment calendar and use them to decorate your room, showcasing your talented student artists!
1. Proportions and Gesture Drawing
Projected Time: 1-2 weeks
Skills: sketching, figure proportions, gesture drawings, note-taking
Additional Materials: projector, student sketchbooks, pencils, colored pencils, paints or India ink (optional)
Incorporate figure proportions and art history into one sketching lesson. After viewing an art history presentation, students practice figure proportions and gesture drawing to imitate the styles they’ve learned about. Have middle schoolers fill their drawings in with color, either with paint or India Ink, to show what they’ve learned in a final project.
Middle or High School Art Drawing Project: Figure Proportions, Gesture Drawing +
By Look Between the Lines
Subjects: Art History, Arts & Music, Visual Arts
Designed for students with drawing experience, this includes an essential question and daily schedule to keep you on track, handouts for sketchbooks and figure proportions, and a project guide. Even grading is straightforward with an easy-to-follow assessment rubric!
2. Radial Paper Relief Sculpture
Projected Time: 30-60 minutes (one class period)
Skills: linear and radial symmetry, folding paper
Additional Materials: projector and square construction paper
Is it a math lesson in art class, or an art lesson in math class? A seemingly simple paper-folding 30-minute art project for middle school is a creative way to implement cross-curricular instruction. Use the completed sculptures as classroom decoration for an open house.Â
Radial Symmetry Paper Relief Project – Art and Math (Fractions and Symmetry)
By Art with Mrs Nguyen
Subjects: Fractions, Geometry, Visual Arts
To practice linear and radial symmetry, students follow a folding sheet that divides their square piece into symmetrical lines. They then layer their creations to craft a unique, colorful relief sculpture representing many fractions.Â
3. Claude Monet Water Lilies Collaboration Poster
Projected Time: 1-5 class periods, depending on group size
Skills: coloring or painting, collaborative work
Additional Materials: coloring materials (crayons, colored pencils, paint, markers, etc.)
Perfect as a group getting-to-know-you activity or during an Impressionist unit in art class, this art project for middle schoolers is fun and collaborative. Students each color one piece of Claude Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies and put them together to create one 29†x 36†version of the painting that serves as a classroom or hallway decoration.
Claude Monet Water Lilies Collaboration Poster | Great Group Art Project!
By Art with Jenny K
Subjects: Art History, Social Studies, Specialty
A collaborative coloring resource provides two versions of the activity: one with a color key, and another where students can choose their own colors. Students can work in small groups, or you can make it a whole-class assignment, as it comes with 30 individual pieces.Â
4. Ancient Greek Vase Art Project
Projected Time: 2-5 class periods
Skills: sketching, reading comprehension, expository writing, self-assessment
Additional Materials: dice, Sharpies, markers
Aligned with Common Core State Standards for grades 6-8 writing, this works as a pottery lesson without clay or kilns or as a creative history lesson! Study the Greeks using this easy-to-prep junior high art project, then display the final products.
Ancient Greece Art Lesson: Roll A Greek Vase Middle School Art Project Templates
By Glitter Meets Glue – Art Projects and Crafts
Subjects: Ancient History, Art History, Visual Arts
Standards: CCSS W.5.1, W.5.2d, W.6.1a, W.6.2d, W.7.1a, W.7.2d
This project comes with a step-by-step guide, a PowerPoint, eight Habit of Mind statements, links to digital spinner wheels and digital resources, history handouts, art history coloring pages, and an exciting dice game that determines how students will decorate their vases. Once students finish, they use a reflection prompt and self-assessment chart, and you provide feedback on the enclosed rubric.
5. Roll and Draw Picasso Face
Projected Time: 1-2 class periods
Skills: research, reading comprehension, drawing, coloring
Additional Materials: dice, Sharpies, colored markers, crayons, paintbrushes, texture plates (optional), extra art materials (optional)
This art project for middle schoolers is a fun way to connect to history class during a study of the early 20th century or for an art class to delve into modern art. Consider bringing in additional art materials, such as magazines, clay, yarn, or googly eyes to inspire students even more.Â
Roll A Picasso Face • Abstract Portrait • Artist Timeline • Research Lesson
By Expressive Monkey-The Art Teacher’s Little Helper
Subjects: Art History, Spanish, Visual Arts
Explore Cubism with a dice game that will interest even the reluctant artists in your class! After completing a timeline activity to learn more about Pablo Picasso’s life, students roll the dice to determine what features to add to their Picasso-style drawings.Â
Easy Art Projects for Middle Schoolers
Looking for more ways to enhance your art class curriculum that align with National Core Art Standards? Inspire students with these classic, one-day art projects for middle schoolers:
- Self-portrait
- Agamograph (lenticular)
- Papier-mâché sculpture
- Mandela drawing
- Tissue paper stained glass
- Construction paper mosaics
- Mixed-media still life
- Tessellation
- Graffiti name art
- Digital photography exhibit
- Clip art collage
- Custom art jigsaw puzzle
- Coordinate graph art
To add a touch of technology to any art project, encourage students to add digital details. Animation, coding, graphic design — the sky (or the cloud) is the limit!
Tap into student creativity with junior high art projects
No matter how experienced the young artists in your class are, they all need to express themselves. Art projects for middle schoolers provide much-needed inspiration and creativity during the school day, and, chances are, they’ll bring more smiles to your classroom than a canceled quiz day!
For more opportunities to bring artistic flair to the classroom, browse middle school art resources from TPT. You’ll find many more cross-curricular art project ideas, simple ways to teach basic art techniques, and lessons to inspire advanced artists looking for a challenge!
