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Search Results for: Lego

Art of the Brick: Nathan Sawaya Lego Exhibit

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A sculpture by Nathan Sawaya features a human figure made of yellow LEGO bricks, ripping open its chest with bricks spilling out. This piece is part of the "Art of the Brick" Lego exhibit.

Happy Spring! It is Spring Break for us and we took a little trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. We saw an awesome Lego exhibit at the museum by artist Nathan Sawaya. If you are in the area, I definitely recommend visiting the museum to see this exhibit. My favorite pieces were the ones in which he recreated famous works of art throughout art history. There were some impressive animal sculptures as well as a fantastic … Read more… →

Lego Capitol Building at Madison Children’s Museum

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Lego model of a government building with a larger, illuminated Capitol Building in the dark background.

This 12,000 brick model of the Wisconsin State Capitol building was built by my husband Andrew.  It was commissioned by the Madison Children’s Museum to help celebrate the 100th birthday of the building.  Hear about this project in his own words. 1. How did this opportunity come about? “I was contacted by the Children’s Museum after the staff found a picture online of a much smaller version of the Capitol that I had built. They were interested in commissioning a LEGO model … Read more… →

Lego Mosaics at the Brickworld Convention

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A LEGO Mosaics artwork depicting a cartoon-style woman with blonde hair, red lips, and blue eyes. This piece showcases the creativity often seen at the Brickworld Convention.

I have more pictures to show you from the Lego Brickworld Convention that was held in Schaumburg, IL this summer. If you love Legos, be sure to check out my first post about this convention. I know some art teachers make mosaics with their students, so I decided to group all of the photos I took of the Lego mosaic art that was at this convention.  At the bottom of this post, I have a few links to some ways … Read more… →

Lego Brickworld Convention 2015

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Lego figure with a yellow head, smiling face, and wearing a red outfit, standing against a yellow-bordered background.

Are you a fan of Legos?  Did you know there is a new documentary film coming out July 31 called Beyond the Brick: A Lego Brickumentary?  You can see the official trailer here.  Have you heard of the Lego Brickworld Convention? In June, I went to the Lego Brickworld Convention in Schaumburg, IL.  My husband went for the entire 4 day convention as an exhibitor with his Lego User Group.  I attended with my kids for the afternoon on the … Read more… →

Lego Art Projects

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Lego Art Projects

Our school is building an addition, so I thought projects related to “building” would be fun.  Legos are the perfect building blocks! So, we designed our own mini-figures with this template.  I originally saw this idea from The Art Teacher’s Closet. We also stamped with Legos (idea via Lego Stamping from Filth Wizardry).  Thanks to wonderful bloggers for these two ideas!  My students LOVED them!  They were so excited about these proejcts. Place your piece of paper on top of … Read more… →

Lego Art Project Round-Up

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Colorful background of LEGO bricks with the text 'LEGO Art Project Round-Up' in a yellow box at the center.

Keeping with the Lego theme, I thought I would round-up some of the coolest Lego art projects I’ve found on the internet.  Thanks to all these people for their awesome ideas! 1.  Lego Drawings from Shine Brite Zamorano 2.  Lego Stamping from Filth Wizardry 3.  Designing your own minifigure with this template Check out these cool lego figure designs from The Art Teacher’s Closet. Our school is building an addition, so I thought at the beginning of this coming school … Read more… →

Lego Brickworld Convention, 2013: Part Two

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A collage of LEGO creations: a man with a green apple face, an astronaut, and a detailed spaceship model displayed at the 2013 Brickworld Convention.

First off, I just want to say that I had a fabulous time at home yesterday tuning in to all of the “ridiculously relevant” presentations from the Art of Education online conference.  First ever online art teacher conference!  Hats off to Jessica for organizing it!  What a lot of work I’m sure it was.  It was nice to see a lot of familiar names from the blogging world and I learned some new things.  There were several Ipad ideas presented … Read more… →

Lego Brickworld Convention, 2013: Part One

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Lego Brickworld Convention, 2013: Part One

Last weekend I took a trip with my husband and daughter to Schaumburg, IL to see the Lego Brickworld Convention.  My husband is an avid Lego collector and builder.  As an art teacher, I saw some fun things I snapped pictures of to share with you.  It was really great to see kids and parents together enjoying a fun hobby.  Many of the exhibits were made by adult Lego builders and others were made by parents with their kids.  Here … Read more… →

Art Class Behavior Reward Charts

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Art Class Behavior Reward Charts

This is a new resource in my shop! I use these as reward charts for free days in my classroom. Each art class kids can earn points for things like quiet listening, being respectful to others, working hard, talking at a reasonable voice level, cleaning up and so forth. Fill in one spot on the chart for each point (for example, color in one paint splotch). When the class fills up the sheet, they receive a group reward. “Free Days” … Read more… →

Ideas for Early Finishers in Art

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Activities for Early Finishers" text on lined paper with doodles of stick figures and art supplies.

This month, the Art Ed Blogger’s Network is talking about how to enrich art class for students who finish early. I think this is an ongoing concern for most art teachers.  Kids work at all different paces.  Some students will finish their artwork lickety-split with half the class period left.  Others will work on the same technique or project and spend multiple periods working on the same piece.  So you will often have students at all different paces and at … Read more… →

Art Games and Puzzles for an Enrichment Center

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Enrichment Center featuring colorful blocks, toys, puzzles, and games, including Spot It!, Floor Puzzle, and Pick a Paint.

I have a bookshelf in my classroom that students can go to when they are done with their class assignments.  I also have free choice days where students can select from a wide range of activities.  Since students finish at all different times it is a good idea to have art enrichment activities for them to do.  I like to have low mess activities with little extra guidance needed for those students that finish early.  Here are some of the … Read more… →

Art Room Organization

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Art Room Organization

I love organizing things, especially art materials.  It makes it easier to find things you need when your room is organized!  I am always revamping my organizational systems and I feel like my room now is arranged pretty well for my needs.  I am sure I will find some things that need tweaking over the next few years. On each table I have a plastic drawer set labeled with pencils & eraser, glue sticks & scissors, and markers.  On the … Read more… →

Emily’s Blue Period – Personal Collages for 3rd Graders

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Collage with robot, bamboo, and various elements like tickets, alphabet print, 1989 dates, and swimming certificates.

Our school librarian introduced this book to me and I think it is such a sweet story.  This book is called Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly.  The illustrations are lovely. This is a story about Emily, whose parents are divorcing and now she has two homes.  She goes through her own “blue period” of sadness. Emily was learning about Pablo Picasso, his Blue Period and his collages in her art class.   Her art teacher asks the class to … 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… →

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