2024 Solar Eclipse Art Project for Kids
Below you’ll find an easy tutorial for a solar eclipse art project that creates an amazing outer space kind of look. It’s what chalk pastels were made for!
Solar Eclipse Chalk Art Drawing
There’s nothing like a total solar eclipse topic to take advantage of how art and science can overlap. The image the eclipse is going to create is pretty fascinating, and students can get some first hand knowledge about it when they create their own eclipse drawing on their paper.
To review, a total solar eclipse will take place at the Moon’s ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024, visible across North America and dubbed the Great North American Eclipse by some of the media.
This art project will let students create an imitation of what that eclipse looks like … and give them some great shading practice too. As great as crayons are, which most of my projects rely on, they just don’t give students a chance to make really soft, pretty gradations.
Nope, it turns out that those dusty chalk pastels do that job really well. I know, I inherited a lot of them back in my classroom days, and tried to find ways to use them, and ended up with only a few projects where they were indispensable, and this was one of them.
So, given that we here in the US will not see another total solar eclipse until 2044, why not make the most of it? You can download my PDF tutorial below, and I’ve shared an example of how the project can be diagrammed on a classroom board too. I believe that back in the day I made it “Eclipse Week” and did the project with just about every grade level.
Classroom Instruction Display
Student Solar Eclipse Art Gallery
Made with oil pastels 
Chalk and oil pastel combo 
Green Acres Academy, Arlington, WA 1st grade, Green Acres Academy 
1st grade, Green Acres Academy 1st grade, Green Acres Academy
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Materials
Note: All below are Amazon affiliate links.
- Old yogurt cup (or similar) for tracing
- Scrap card stock paper (for circle)
- Pencil
- Masking tape
- Scissors
Directions
Time needed: 45 minutes
Draw a Solar Eclipse
- Trace a circle to make a template. Add a roll of masking tape to the back.
- Stick circle to center of black paper. Color half with yellow chalk pastel.
- Blend in chalk with fingers.
- Color with red pastel chalk on the other side.
- Blend the colors with your fingers.
- Make a white ring with white chalk pastel.
- Blend with your fingers.
- Add another thin band of white around the circle for emphasis.
- Remove the taped circle and enjoy your eclipse art!
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And thanks for wanting to bring more step-by-step, no-prep art lessons to your classroom!
