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  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.
Search Results for: holiday

Free Holiday Coloring Mandala

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Free Holiday Coloring Mandala

While I never think coloring pages should be used in place of more in-depth art projects in art class, I know that you might work with kids in all different types of settings… whether it be an after school daycare, a church group, your own kids, indoor recess or a scout group.  Sometimes you just want a fun, calming, meditative option for kids to enjoy. Unleash the therapeutic benefits of coloring for mindfulness! Coloring helps people of all ages to … Read more… →

Winter Holidays Coloring Page

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A festive coloring page with holiday-themed animals, pine trees, snowflakes, and decorations. Text reads "merry winter." Great for winter holidays and seasonal activities.

Hi!  I hope you are enjoying your winter so far.  I like to make little greeting cards to give to my students at winter time for various reasons.. thank yous for gifts or just because they want a little piece of my art.  A few years ago I made a cute little polar bear coloring card and it was a big hit with my students. Now I know some art teachers cringe at coloring pages, but I think they’re fun.  … Read more… →

Kid’s Gift Guide: Make an Art Kit for a Holiday Gift!

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Kid’s Gift Guide: Make an Art Kit for a Holiday Gift!

As an art teacher, I’d like to encourage you to give gifts that inspire creativity in children.  Instead of more plastic trinkets, stuffed animals or electronics, how about something that will get your kids building and creating?  An art kit is always a great idea. Things to include in an art kit: 1.  Paper such as the Strathmore Visual Journal or a watercolor pad. I love this watercolor paper from Target. 2. Neon Gel Crayons:  I love the smooth feeling … Read more… →

Holiday Ornaments with Lids (Easy for Kids to Make)

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Holiday Ornaments with Lids (Easy for Kids to Make)

Over the weekend, our school had a book fair at Barnes & Noble.  There were musical performances by the students, story book read-alouds and an author visit.  A percentage of the sales went to our school to buy books for our library.  It was great fun and I think we will get a significant amount of books for our school! I was asked to have a craft table with a holiday theme.  I decided we would make ornaments and pins.  … Read more… →

Holiday Round Up

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Holiday-themed paper backgrounds with white paper snowflake cutouts arranged in a grid pattern.

Two of my classes made pictures frames like these: They turned out really cute and I did not take pictures until after the kids glued their pictures in, so I did not want to post any of the frames with their pictures in it. This year, I did not do too many holiday art projects, but here is a round-up of some that I have done in the past. Sock Snowmen  Snowflakes with Glitter Snowglobe Pictures Picture Frame with Tooling … Read more… →

Free Printable Holiday Card to Color

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Two bears in festive winter hats adorned with holly and snowflakes, framed by a decorative border. Text: "Merry and Bright.

Free Printable Christmas Card! Marit, founder of Featuring magazine, suggested that we all make print and color holiday cards to post on the website. This was perfect, because now my holiday card is done for school.  For the past few years, I have made little cards from my artwork to use as thank you notes at school.  If a kid gives me a holiday card or gift I will give them one of my little artwork cards.   Some kids at school … Read more… →

Holiday Fun

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A gingerbread-shaped Christmas ornament with a glittery scarf, mittens, and boots, wearing a top hat and smiling brightly.

One ornament made by a student The week before winter break not much gets done in the classroom.  It’s hard to start something new when we will be off school for 2 weeks.  So, as kids finished up projects I took out a bunch of random art supplies, cookie cutters, glitter, felt, and pipe cleaners for them to make stuff out of.  Here’s an ornament example one kid made. 

Giveaway- Drawing Games!

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Giveaway- Drawing Games!

Just in time for the holidays, I have a fun giveaway for 2 lucky readers. Two winners will each receive a copy of BOTH of the games pictured above. (USA only please) I learned about 2 new drawing games from Drawing Deck, LLC. They may look familiar to you because they also made the game Createures. My two kids at home made these monster drawings from the cards from the game! Aren’t they fun?! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used … Read more… →

Cardboard Shape Art Project

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Cardboard Shape Art Project

Happy New Year! I hope you all have had a relaxing and restful holidays and are ready for the new year. Today I have some cardboard shape pictures to share with you that my 2nd graders created. We first looked at the artist Marcus Oakley and his cardboard shape pictures for inspiration. Students could create an abstract picture or a picture that represented something. We used pre-cut shapes as well as shapes the students cut on their own. Thinner cardboard … Read more… →

Art Gift Ideas for a Child

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A colorful art set with text "Art Gift Ideas for Your Young Artist" surrounded by paint, ribbons, beads, and flowers.

The holidays are quickly approaching!  While you are thinking about the kids in your life, consider picking up some creative gifts.  Please don’t buy those cheap art supply kits with a lot of different cheap crayons, markers and colored pencils.  Spending a little more money will allow the child to experience quality art supplies and they will last longer.  Here are some of my favorites. 1.  Watercolor Paints- Splurge on a better quality set than Rose Art.  The child will … Read more… →

Stitching on Burlap: A Painting & Sewing Experience for Children

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Fabric artwork of a penguin wearing a blue hat and purple scarf on burlap, enhanced with intricate stitching, with white heart patterns in the background.

One type of art skill that I haven’t been the best at consistently teaching in my classroom is sewing.  I was reminded of how you can sew on burlap after seeing some painted and stitched leaves at my daughter’s school.  My third/fourth grade classes were often asking me if they could sew and I already had a lot of yarn and a roll of burlap at school. I wanted to share this idea with you quickly without a whole lot of … Read more… →

How to Make a Christmas Tree Collage

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Colorful Christmas tree collage with stars, hearts, ornaments, and "JOY" written at the bottom.

Are you looking for a fun art project to try over winter break with your kids?  Here is one that is sure to be festive, fun and creative! What you will need: watercolor paints pencil watercolor paper paint brush cup of water markers.  For my own art, I prefer Micron markers, Sakura Koi markers, and Molotow White markers. stickers of your choice glue magazines assorted paper scraps of your choice 1.  Begin by drawing a Christmas tree shape on a piece of … Read more… →

Blogging Basics, Part Two: Choosing a Blog Name and Getting Ideas

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Blogging Basics, Part Two: Choosing a Blog Name and Getting Ideas

  If you missed the first post in this series, check out Blogging Basics for Teachers and Other Creatives, Part One.  In that post I share reasons to start blogging and how to choose a blogging platform. In today’s post, we will talk about how to choose a blog name and where to get ideas for your blog.   My blog was originally called Vivid Layers (raise your hand if you read my blog back then!).  The header is the … Read more… →

Pick and Draw Game

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Pick and Draw game cards and activity book on a white surface, featuring cartoon drawing elements and guide sheets.

Hello friends, I hope you’ve had a good holiday break so far and a happy new year.  You may have noticed one of my affiliate links on the side of my blog, which is Pick and Draw.  I only tell you about things I have used and trust myself.  I wrote about these cards a few years ago and I decided that since it’s been a few years, there are probably new teachers out there who haven’t heard of these … Read more… →

Girl Scout Daisy Ideas!

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Four handmade stick puppets with different designs, colorful outfits, and drawn faces on a white background.

Because I didn’t have enough to keep me busy, I am now a Girl Scout co-leader for a kindergarten Daisy troop.  My daughter wanted to join Girl Scouts and there wasn’t any already established groups that worked for us.  We have 10 girls in our troop, all kindergartners and we meet twice a month. I have enjoyed following other Girl Scout leaders’ blogs to see what they are doing, and I thought I would share some ideas in case anyone … Read more… →

  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.