An after-school art club is one of the easiest clubs to run: no tryouts, no special room, and every child goes home with something they made. This plan covers eight weekly sessions of about an hour for kids aged 6 to 11 (grades 1 to 5). Each week has a warm-up game, one free step-by-step lesson, a choice activity and a few minutes to share. It works for club leaders, librarians, homeschool co-ops and parents running a club at home.
What you need
- Pencils, erasers, crayons or markers, and a stack of plain paper.
- A screen for the video lessons, or printed copies of the step pages.
- One folder per child, so the drawings from week 1 can be compared with week 8.
- Optional: a few draw-and-write sheets for the last session.
How each session runs
- Warm-up, 10 minutes. A quick drawing game that gets pencils moving and nerves settled.
- Lesson, 20 minutes. Draw one character together, one step at a time. Pause the video after each step, or show one step at a time with the lesson’s classroom mode.
- Choice time, 20 minutes. Kids pick the second page or invent their own version of the lesson.
- Share, 10 minutes. Two or three kids show their drawing and say one thing they are proud of.
The eight weeks
Week 1 Shapes become characters
Goal: See the circles, ovals and rectangles inside every drawing.
Warm-up: Squiggle swap: everyone draws one squiggle, passes it on, and turns the squiggle they get into a creature.
Lesson: Shape Drawing Challenge 6
Choice: How to Draw a Cheese Monster
Week 2 Trace, then color
Goal: Pencil control: slow, steady lines and careful coloring.
Warm-up: Line warm-up: fill half a page with zigzags, loops and waves without lifting the pencil.
Lesson: Trace Then Color A Duck
Choice: Vampire Coloring Page
Week 3 Animals step by step
Goal: Follow steps in order and check each one before the next.
Warm-up: Draw what I describe: one student describes an animal shape by shape, everyone else draws it.
Lesson: How to Draw a Hippo
Choice: How to Draw a Chicken
Week 4 Dinosaurs
Goal: Big shapes first, small details last.
Warm-up: Thirty-second dinosaurs: draw one body shape, then add a neck, tail or spikes when the timer beeps.
Lesson: How to Draw a Brachiosaurus
Week 5 Robots
Goal: Straight lines and neat corners: sketch lightly, then go over the lines you keep.
Warm-up: Box robots: draw five boxes of different sizes, then stack them into a robot.
Lesson: How to Draw a Cute Girl Robot
Week 6 Invent a monster
Goal: Change one detail (eyes, teeth, horns) to invent a new character.
Warm-up: Exquisite corpse: fold a page in three; one student draws the head, the next the body, the last the legs.
Lesson: How to Draw a Corn Monster
Week 7 Draw by grid
Goal: Look closely: copy one square at a time and compare as you go.
Warm-up: Upside-down copy: copy a simple cartoon turned upside down, then turn both pages over.
Lesson: How to Draw a Dolphin Dude
Choice: How to Draw a Bird Robot
Week 8 Comics and the club art show
Goal: Tell a story with characters from the club.
Warm-up: Prompt spin: spin the drawing prompt generator and draw what it says in five minutes.
Project: each child draws a four-panel comic starring a character from an earlier week. Use the draw-and-write sheet for a one-panel story.
Art show: tape the best drawing from each folder to the wall and invite families for the last ten minutes.
Tips from running a kids’ art club
- Keep the groups small. Eight to twelve kids per adult is plenty for a one-hour session.
- Mixed ages are fine. Younger kids can trace while older kids try the grid pages. Pair them up for the warm-up games.
- Praise the effort, not the result. Our guide on how to praise a child’s drawing has 20 phrases to use.
- Have a plan for “I can’t draw.” Some kids will say it in week 1. Here is what to do when a kid says “I can’t draw”.
- Copies are free. You may print the free pages for every child in the club. How you can use these pages.
Need a single lesson for a substitute or a rainy day? The no-prep sub plans each run 45 minutes. Running a longer program? Try the 36-week drawing curriculum.
Questions
How long should an after-school art club session be?
About an hour works well for ages 6 to 11: ten minutes of warm-up, a twenty-minute lesson, twenty minutes of choice time and ten minutes to share.
Can I print the pages for every child in the club?
Yes. The free pages may be printed for every child in a club, class or library program.