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How Teachers Can Use DrawCub’s Step Player in the Classroom

Looking for a classroom activity that is calm, creative, curriculum-friendly, and costs almost nothing? Drawing checks every box — and DrawCub’s Step Player was designed to make it effortless for teachers. Project a tutorial on the board, press play, and your whole class draws together, one red line at a time. Here is how to use it, from five-minute warmups to full art lessons.

Why the Step Player works in a classroom

Traditional “draw along with me” lessons fail for one reason: the teacher draws too fast, half the class falls behind, and frustration takes over. The Step Player solves this with its step-by-step design:

  • One step per screen — students see only the current step, so nobody gets overwhelmed or lost.
  • The red-line system — new lines appear in red while finished lines fade to grey. Every student can see exactly what to draw next, even from the back row.
  • Draw-Along autoplay mode — the player advances automatically with a comfortable pause between steps, so you can walk the room helping students instead of being stuck at the board.
  • Next/Back controls — pause on a tricky step, go back if someone missed it, or skip ahead if the class is flying. You control the pace.

Setup: project it on the board (2 minutes)

You need nothing special — just the classroom projector or interactive whiteboard you already have, plus a browser:

  1. Open any DrawCub tutorial on the classroom computer (try How to Draw an Owl for a first lesson).
  2. Click into the Step Player and make it full-screen.
  3. Hand out paper and pencils — or use the free printable PDF version if you prefer worksheets.
  4. Press play on Draw-Along mode and let the class follow together.

Tip: bump the browser zoom to 125–150% on smaller projectors so the red lines are visible from every desk.

Classroom idea 1: the 5-minute warmup

Start any lesson — not just art — with a 5-minute drawing warmup. It settles a noisy class faster than almost anything: pencils come out, eyes go to the board, and the room goes quiet. Pick short tutorials like How to Draw a Candy Corn (3 minutes) or How to Draw a Ghost (4 minutes). Warmups work brilliantly before writing tasks, after lunch, or as a Friday treat.

Classroom idea 2: draw across the curriculum

Drawing is not just for art class. Use tutorials to reinforce other subjects:

  • Science: draw animals while studying habitats — a frog for pond life, a penguin for polar regions.
  • Seasons and holidays: draw a pumpkin in October, a snowman in December, a butterfly in spring.
  • Story writing: draw the main character first, then write the story about them. Reluctant writers suddenly have ideas.
  • Vocabulary: young learners draw and label — a labeled drawing of a butterfly teaches “wings,” “antennae,” and “spots” effortlessly.

Classroom idea 3: printable PDFs as worksheets

Every DrawCub tutorial includes a free printable PDF of all the steps. Print a class set and you have an instant no-prep worksheet for:

  • Early finishers (keep a folder of printed tutorials at a “drawing station”)
  • Sub plans (a stack of printed tutorials + pencils = a calm, productive sub day)
  • Rainy-day indoor recess
  • Homework with a creative twist

Tips for a smooth drawing lesson

  • Match difficulty to the group — start with Easy tutorials for younger classes; let older students try Medium ones like the black cat or haunted house.
  • Normalize “ugly” step 3 — tell the class every drawing looks weird halfway through. It prevents the mid-lesson “mine’s bad” meltdown.
  • Celebrate variety — thirty owls drawn from the same tutorial will look thirty different ways. Display them together; the differences are the point.
  • Let fast finishers extend — add a background, color it in, or draw a second character next to the first.
  • Keep it low-pressure — no grades, no “best drawing” contests. The goal is participation and calm, not perfection.

A sample 30-minute art lesson plan

  1. Minutes 0–3: Show the finished drawing. Ask: “What shapes do you see?” (Builds observation.)
  2. Minutes 3–15: Draw-Along mode on the board; students follow step by step.
  3. Minutes 15–25: Free time — color it, add a background, or draw a friend for the character.
  4. Minutes 25–30: Gallery walk — tape drawings to the board and let the class admire them.

That is a complete, engaging art lesson with zero prep and almost zero cost. Project the Step Player, press play, and watch a room full of kids discover they can draw. Few classroom tools deliver that much joy per minute.

Keep Drawing