I used my Art Break ABCs Alligators to Zebras with a class of 2nd graders who had a Rain Day and needed to stay inside all day and out of the rain. If you've never taught or been a Substitute Teacher it's a little difficult to explain what a Rain Day, all day inside, could look like. For us, it was a lot of fun because we had plenty of animals and insects to color, cut and paste, and turn into puppets, ornaments, and jewelry throughout the day and after assigned work was comp

This is a quick Art Brain Break project by a 4th grader in the Resource Room where I was a Substitute Teacher at CCSD in November 2025. She didn't say a word to me during our timed session where there were 3 other kids at the same octagon table. She had finished her math and all of her other assigned work so I asked her if she was interested in coloring any of the animal and insect art break pages I had with me. The other girl at the table who hadn't said a word to me eithe

This is by one of the Kindergarteners I was Substitute Teaching for this year the day before Halloween in Las Vegas. These kids LOVED picking their animal from my order form with 26 animals on it, choosing the bat, coloring it, cutting it out and turning it into a ornament to hang on their door for Trick or Treating that weekend. So cute!!

Kids really loved coloring my B for Bat illustrations in preparation for decorating their desks and their homes for Halloween this year in Las Vegas. I had a Kindergarten class assignment on a day where I was lucky enough to be a Substitute Teacher on dress in your Halloween costume day, along with a parade for about 500 Elementary school kids in their amazing costumes. It was amazing and the kids were so proud of their characters, most of them staying in character with their

This is a CCSD High School student taking an Art Break while preparing for end of year testing. I was surprised how interested the older kids have become in coloring as a way to take a mental break during school. It makes sense because it relieves stress no matter what age. I've noticed kids really like chatting about their creative process and how they decide which colors to use as they plan out what they want their final image to look like. It's a part of our minds that sit

This is one of the students in a Primary Autism class where I was a Substitute Teacher in Las Vegas this year. He was a joyful and pretty easy going student and he worked to focus on his lessons throughout the day though he wasn't as interested in coloring butterflies like a lot of the students were throughout most of the days I was there. What I noticed is that when I was on Bus Duty, the exciting journey at the end of the day (if you're new or don't know about Substitute Te

This is me cutting out the Baby Ducks from my Dopamine Art Series as a Digital Download you can pull down and print out as often as you like. I turn these guys into a puppet and used them the next day as a Substitute Teacher for a group of 3rd graders who gut stuck inside almost all day when it rained recently in Las Vegas! It turned out to be a lot of fun and the kids put on a puppet show! Search my site for "puppet shows" to see the yellow duck show up in various settings.

This is one of the ornaments I made to share with kids while working on Substitute Teacher assignments for CCSD in Las Vegas this year. K-5 really like the ABCs Art Brain Breaks which makes sense since they're learning the alphabet, the idea of characters, settings, plots, and storylines but what's been surprising is how much the older kids and adults like them! I put this Swallowtail Butterfly holiday ornament together as an example of stuff you could make using my animal an

Wow, kids LOVE baby goats! I recommend if you have any Animal Farm fans at your house or school, get my Animal Farm Digital Download that includes about 14 animals you'll usually find on most farms. I have this one pictured to show you can easily turn them into ornaments, puppets, necklaces (yep, kids turn them into jewelry). I do advise you color them in before cutting and taping and or paste because the color may look different if you do it over tape or paste after you've

This was a Pre-K Autism class where I was Substitute Teacher for CCSD, here in NV, back in November. It was amazing because the Special Education Teacher Assistant said it would be great if I could set up a coloring area and leave it set up throughout the day to see if the kids were into it. They'd had a few challenging days recently and the thought was coloring might capture some of the kids attention more so than the usual program and if so, the day may go a little better

My animal and insect illustrations come on a white background or on a black background. As I've been putting my Digital Download ABCs Art Brain Breaks Books together I've made a bunch of copies to work on layout and things and to see what they look like printed out. During this process, of course, I ran out of toner like three times. I do like my laser printer and it's great, although you can see in these cut outs the black was on its last legs. Rather than throwing away any

Here's the thing, you can play with these ABCs animal and insect cut outs and make all sort of little fun projects. I recently decided to sit in bed ALL DAY, with fuzzy socks, coffee, one of those bed working lap tables with a stack of my ABCs Art Brain Breaks. I put on my Likes playlist, set up the phone to record some of it just in case it looked fun, but really, I was so tired and just wanted a day where I wasn't accomplishing anything and not just binging Netflix. It was

This Swallowtail Butterfly is part of my ABCs Art Brain Breaks Activity Book which is a Digital Download and available for immediate access for you to pull down, print out, and get to making fun little art projects. This is the B is for Butterfly page in the 26- animal and insect book that includes print out you can use to color then hole punch, string up, and turn your art into an ornament or all sort of other fun little projects. This is the beginning of one of the butterfl

This artist was in a Primary Autism class where I was a Substitute Teacher in Las Vegas, NV and I had asked the teacher aids if they thought a little coloring could be fun for the students during a 15-minute window. I was there for a few days so we tried it and it was a nice window where they could take a little creative Art Brain Break between their pretty busy daily schedules. This student was maybe 5-6 years old and so focused. He started on the one on the bottom right an

These kids are 2nd graders at a school in Henderson, NV who decided to move their butterfly coloring project off the page and into the air. They built bridge strips to tape between the wings so the butterflies could sit on their desks as pets during class. More of them joined in and started creating their own versions of flowers the butterflies could use for food as they flew around the room, and others started building plant stalks and larger gathering areas where all the bu

This student was in a Primary Autism class where I was a Substitute Teacher in 2025, Las Vegas, NV. He was really into rainbows and organizing markers in a rainbow pattern. He had colored a Swallowtail Butterfly earlier in the day and really loved it. The teacher asked me to put it on on the classroom board where all the kids' favorite works were tacked up on the board for everyone to see. Later in the day we had another opportunity for a 15-min Art Brain Break so I showed hi

One of the students in this 2nd grade class asked if they could have an extra 5 minutes to cut out their butterflies so they could make them fly like paper airplanes. Once she did she realized the paper wings weren't strong enough or aerodynamic and so butterflies wouldn't fly like planes. She decided she need to put a bridge of paper between it's wings so they would stay up and it could sit with its wings up and would be better suited sitting still, eating nectar from a flow

This is how the coloring usually starts, all organized and purposeful then it grows from there. I suggest working in 5-10 minute increments so students can keep track of time and start to understand what they can accomplish in small bursts throughout the day vs. only doing one large block of art. This was a class in Henderson, NV and these students really made a lot of traction within each 10-15 minute window of time we spent throughout the day. It was really interesting to

This is by a student in a Primary Autism class from October 2025. She had a lot of energy and was pretty active throughout the day so it was cool to see her find the Rice Paper Butterfly interesting enough to sit with them for a while and color them with classmates all working on other butterflies and caterpillars they had chosen as well. Las Vegas, 2025

This is axolotl coloring project was a group effort by about 7-8 3rd graders who worked toward earning an art lesson by me on how to use my drawing program, on my iPad, using my ABCs animal character, "A is for Axolotl", where each student had the same set of instructions I gave all of them at the same time. They knew we only had enough time for each student to spend 5 minutes drawing on their own on the iPad, so they decided to pick one of my images to color and let each per