There’s something about the sun that makes anything feel possible. Maybe it’s the warmth, maybe it’s the golden light, or maybe it’s just that summer energy we art teachers carry with us long after the break is over. Why not bottle some of that sunshine and bring it into your classroom with art projects powered by the sun itself? These sun-powered techniques are packed with creativity, curiosity, and cross-curricular connections. Each idea below brings in a little science, a little magic, and a whole lot of art.
Experiment with these six sun-inspired art projects this summer, and then bring the sunshine and science to your students this fall.
1. Bubble Art: Pop-Tastic Prints Full of Sun and Science
This cheerful process turns bubble-blowing into a legitimate painting technique. Mix liquid watercolors or food coloring into a bubble solution. Then, blow bubbles onto paper and let them pop to create dreamy, marbled textures. The sun speeds up the drying and intensifies the colors, making this an ideal outdoor activity that blends play with pigment.
Sunlight Meets Science
Bubble art helps students explore surface tension, air pressure, and color blending. It opens the door to lessons on fluid dynamics and evaporation—all while feeling like recess.
Project Idea
Create bubble backgrounds for a mixed-media collage. Students layer drawings, quotes, or portraits over their dried bubble textures to add narrative and personal meaning. Check out the Bubble Art Water Lilies Lesson in FLEX Curriculum to connect with Claude Monet and Impressionism.
2. Sunflower Still Lifes & Shadow Tracing: Capture Summer in Silhouette
Bring a slice of the sunny season indoors with this joyful fusion of observational drawing and shadow play. Students set up sunflower still lives outside in direct sunlight. Then, they trace the sunflower shadows on paper throughout the day. As the sun moves, so do the shadows, making this a great way to explore time, light, and form. For younger artists new to art projects, start with a single tracing. Older students can layer shadows at different times of day to show movement or tell a visual story.
Sunlight Meets Science
This activity blends Earth science with observational drawing. Students explore sunlight angles, the time of day, and the way shadows lengthen and shift. It’s an entry point for talking about solar position, geometry, and light behavior without losing the magic of a sunny art session.
Project Idea
Create a journal to capture light and shadow. Over several days, students trace the same object at different times and label the drawings with time stamps. Add color, collage, or paint within the shadows to create narrative or emotional meaning, linking science with self-expression. Don’t miss the Playing With Light and Shadow resource in FLEX Curriculum’s Playing With Nature’s Shadow Lesson to supplement learning.
3. Cyanotypes: Sun Printing with Vintage Vibes
Cyanotypes are one of the most magical (and simplest) ways to use the sun as your art assistant. This photographic process uses UV-sensitive chemicals to create deep blue prints. Students place objects like leaves, flowers, lace, or even cut-paper designs on top of prepared paper and expose it to the sun. After a quick rinse in water, the paper reveals a bright white silhouette against that signature rich blue background. It’s a stunning result with a satisfying reveal that is perfect for all ages.
Sunlight Meets Science
Cyanotypes introduce concepts like UV radiation, chemical reactions, negative space, and photography without a camera or darkroom. It’s a tactile entry into both science and history, sparking conversations about early photography and artistic experimentation.
Project Idea
Create botanical compositions. Students collect local plants or natural textures to arrange on cyanotype paper. This is a great opportunity to introduce native plants. Mount the finished pieces into a collaborative class collage or bind them into a nature journal.
4. Sidewalk Chalk Galleries: Pavement + Passion = Public Art
Transform your schoolyard into an ever-changing outdoor art museum. Sidewalk chalk encourages students to go big, think collaboratively, and use their environment as a canvas. Whether drawing mandalas, recreating famous works, or inventing their own worlds, chalk art turns a sunny day into an immersive, kinesthetic art experience.
Sunlight Meets Science
Explore concepts like color theory, temperature, and even the impermanence of art. The sun becomes both studio light and eraser, slowly fading the work over time.
Project Idea
Host a Chalk the Walk Day where each student or group gets a square of pavement to design. Add a guiding question like, “What does community mean to you?” to prompt deeper reflection and more meaningful image generation. Use the steps and resources in the Chalk Graffiti Illusions Lesson in FLEX Curriculum. For example, the Public Art Process handout is a great checklist to instill artistic responsibility.
5. Sun-Dyed Textiles: From Garden to Garment
Students dye fabric using natural dyes made from plants, food scraps, and flowers. Finish it off by letting the sun set and enhance the colors. The sun’s warmth intensifies the dyeing process and adds an unpredictable element of exposure. It’s an eco-conscious way to connect art projects with science.
Sunlight Meets Science
Students dive into plant biology, natural chemistry, and sustainability. They’ll learn how different materials interact with heat and light, and how traditional dyeing methods are both craft and science.
Project Idea
Create an art lab and provide natural items like flowers, berries, tea, onion skins, or spinach. Students dye bandanas or tote bags and then write about their process and results to include in their final textile display.
6. Pinhole Cameras: DIY Time Machines for Light
Build a camera with no lens and no screen—just a box and the power of light. Pinhole cameras are a brilliant way to teach the foundations of photography and optics. Students construct their own cameras from recycled cardboard boxes or tins, poke a tiny hole to let light in, and place light-sensitive paper inside. Once exposed to the sun, the image appears inverted but hauntingly beautiful. The process is slow, unpredictable, and totally rewarding.
Sunlight Meets Science
Pinhole photography introduces physics (light traveling in straight lines), math (measuring exposure times), and the origins of modern photography. It also fosters patience and attention to detail in a world of instant gratification.
Project Idea
Facilitate a Sunlit Portrait Day where students use their pinhole cameras to photograph classmates. Students can also capture scenes around the schoolyard, like in the One Town, Many Views Lesson in FLEX Curriculum. Develop and display the prints in a gallery walk to highlight each student’s unique eye.
There’s no reason to leave sunshine behind when the school year starts up again. By using the sun as both the subject and tool, you give students the chance to see art through a new (and literally brighter) lens. These projects are perfect for the first few weeks of school when the weather’s still warm and your classroom is buzzing with back-to-school energy. Let the sun inspire wonder, spark inquiry, and infuse your art room with a little leftover summer glow. Recharge yourself by trying these playful techniques now and then, chase the sun wherever your creativity takes you!
How can you bring the sun into your classroom?
Which sun-powered art activity do you think your students will enjoy the most?
To chat about sun-powered art projects with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!
The post Brighten Your Classroom: 6 Summer Art Projects for Year-Round Sunshine appeared first on The Art of Education University.
