• Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 4,626 other subscribers
  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.
Search Results for: silhouettes

Spooky Silhouettes– Kindergarten

By | | , ,
3 Comments
Abstract artwork featuring a white bird and house against a bright orange background, with black and white shapes and spooky silhouettes.

We just finished these lovely Halloween pictures today.  I don’t really like doing “holiday” art during art class unless I can tie in some solid art concepts.  (That’s why I sometimes do the fun crafty afterschool classes.)  For this project, the kindergartners learned a few art vocabulary words: Silhouette the outline or general shape of something…  a dark image outlined against a lighter background. Warm Colors the yellows and reds of the color spectrum, associated with fire, heat, sun, and warmer … Read more… →

Halloween Silhouettes– Kindergarten

By | | , ,
1 Comment
Abstract drawing of a house and mice in black against a yellow, orange, and red background, reminiscent of Halloween silhouettes.

This project is fun for any grade, but especially the kindergartners because it is so cute to see what they come up with.  We painted broad strokes of WARM COLORS in the background with watercolor paints.  Then, using black and white pieces of paper, we cut out spooky shapes– haunted houses, bats, ghosts, etc.  We used a black marker to draw extra details.

Third Grade Silhouettes

By | |
Leave a comment
Silhouette of a rabbit against a white background with black shapes at the top and bottom edges, ideal for third grade art projects.

We looked at the silhouette portraits of the early Americans as well as the paper cuttings of Hans Christian Anderson.  The students drew with white colored pencil on their black paper, and then cut out their designs.  Then, they flipped these over and glued them onto white paper (thus hiding any remaining white pencil lines.)  This book below is a must-see for this project!  We also looked at a book by Dr. Suess which features awesome silhouettes!!  I happened to … Read more… →

Dinosaur Silhouettes

By | |
1 Comment
A painting of dinosaur silhouettes shows a spiked dinosaur and a flying counterpart against a bright orange and yellow background.

This is one of my favorite lessons for kindergartners!  First, we identify and classify the colors as warm or cool.  Then, we choose all the warm colors we have (different shades of oranges, yellows, reds).  Then the first day, the paint their whole piece of paper with warm colors.  After they have placed these on the drying rack there is usually about 10-15 left of class, so they sketch some dinosaurs from pictures that I have show them.  The following … Read more… →

Children’s Mural at Church about the Beatitudes

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment
A colorful illustration of people around a campfire with "Pure of Heart, Humble" written at the bottom.

I realized I never posted pictures of our finished mural at church.  I’ve been so busy with end-of-the-year stuff for school. I worked on this mural all year with the 4th/5th grade Sunday School class.  It is 4 ft x 8ft. These were the best kids to work with! They had great ideas, were mature and got along so well! The process was a long one, with a few mistakes along the way.  We started by getting plywood for our … Read more… →

Nest & Chicks added to our Silhouette Mural

By | | , , ,
1 Comment
A silhouette mural of children and a dog painted on a school hallway wall, depicting various activities and a tree branch with a nest and chicks.

We made a few updates to our mural at school. We painted the original in 2015. This year, after some unfortunate defacing with Sharpie, we cleaned it up and realized some areas needed touching up. So my helpful middle school study hall kids decided to touch up and help me with some additions. They added the chicks and chicken at the front (every other year our Science department hatches chicks). And then we decided to add a tree branch with … Read more… →

A Great Way to Communicate with Parents in Art Class

By | | , , ,
9 Comments
A Great Way to Communicate with Parents in Art Class

This year I have started using a new way to communicate with parents.  After receiving some feedback last year that parents didn’t know quite what we were learning about with each project, I decided to type up description statements that would explain artists we learned about, skills and techniques practiced and any other goals of the art project. After the projects are completed I have a student helper tape the descriptions to the back for the younger classes.  The older … Read more… →

Our Silhouette Mural is Finished!

By | | , , , ,
9 Comments
Bright silhouettes of children with colorful educational themes painted on their bodies decorate a white school hallway wall, showcasing a beautifully crafted silhouette mural.

Our silhouette mural is finished!  It went pretty quickly once we got started.   Each of the figures represents different subject areas at school.  Students in grades 4-6 did most of the painting and I had some students in 7-8 grade do touch-ups, edging and fine details.   I made a video slideshow of the steps we made to paint the mural to show for the whole school.  The school presentation has lots of photos of students in it.  I made … Read more… →

Starting a Mural at School!

By | | ,
1 Comment
Outline of a child playing a trumpet drawn on a white wall near a light switch.

  We are starting a huge mural at school!!  I will keep you updated as we start to paint it.  It’s hard to see what’s going on in these pictures, but we traced figures on to large white banner paper, cut them out and then traced those on to the wall.  Next week the painting begins! I was thinking of something school themed and since the wall is so long a parade of kids would be fun. The idea evolved … Read more… →

15 Favorite Posts from 2013

By | | , , , , , , , , , ,
Leave a comment

  Another year is rapidly coming to a close, so I thought I would spend some time reviewing my favorite projects and blog posts from this year.  Here are my favorite posts, in no particular order! 15.  How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor 14.  Clay Castles 13.  Postage Stamp Art Project 12.  Heart Photography Project with 3rd Grade 11.  25 Amazing Books for Teaching About Art 10.  Editorial cartoons are a unit I teach every year.  We even were … Read more… →

25 Amazing Books for Teaching about Art

By | | , ,
4 Comments
25 Amazing Books for Teaching about Art

Missy left on comment on a previous post: ” LOVE that you’ve included some of your favorite kids books! Any other books you’d recommend to the mom for reference for trying to teach her kids basic art principles?” I use children’s books all the time in the art classroom.  It is a great way to tie in literature and inspire the kids through stories and illustrations. Here is MY list of favorite books for teaching about art.  I highly recommend … Read more… →

Starry Night Kindergarten Art Project

By | | , , , ,
3 Comments
Starry Night Kindergarten Art Project

Here is an easy Starry Night inspired project that I like to teach to my kindergarten art classes. There is a great Van Gogh book for kids called “Getting to Know the Greatest Artists”, by Mike Venezia (my favorite series of art books for kids.) After viewing the swirling lines, dots and dashes that Van Gogh used, the students create a wild and swirly night sky scene with markers.  A silhouettte landscape or city scene is added on the bottom … Read more… →

Silhouette Paper Cuttings for 3rd and 4th Graders

By | | , ,
1 Comment
Silhouette paper cuttings depict a bird flying near a castle with two towers and a central, tall structure against a white background.

Did you know Hans Christian Andersen was an accomplished paper cutter?  He created some very intricate and amazing silhouettes. I used a chapter from the book The Amazing Paper Cuttings of Hans Christian Andersen to teach about his paper cuttings. Perhaps if your students are reading fairy tales, this would be a great author/artist to incorporate. The third and fourth grade class drew silhouettes on black paper (using regular pencils) and cut them out.  (Some chose to create their picture … Read more… →

Leaves!– Kindergarten

By | | ,
2 Comments
Artwork featuring two white leaf silhouettes against an orange background, bordered by a yellow frame evokes the simplicity often found in kindergarten creations.

Always a popular fall activity, we made leaf rubbings last week. Then, using our new Gelli Plates, we pulled prints of the leaves.   To do this, we rolled acrylic paint on the plate.  The kids then rolled textures in the paint using texture rollers.  Leaves were placed on top.  Then, white paper was placed on top of the plate.  We rubbed the back of the paper with our fingers and then pulled the paper off to reveal these leaf prints.                                                                         … Read more… →

Halloween Ideas

By | |
1 Comment
Halloween-themed orange craft figure with black circles for eyes, a red nose, and a white mouth wheel, wearing a black string.

Hello!  Halloween is quickly approaching.  It is one of my favorite times of year.  Too bad my daughter (3 years old) is scared of costumes and does not like them.  She has said a firefighter costume *might* be okay and she might possibly put one on.  I’m not doing any Halloween themed after school art classes this year (I have a shrinky-dink one that I am doing this week), but I thought I would re-post some of my fun Halloween … Read more… →

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