I got this idea from my son’s afterschool program… they were making these one day a couple weeks ago and I loved them some much I decided to use the idea for my own classroom right away! My son’s after school program is great, they are always doing fun art projects and they have a wonderful new facility. I would link to them, but for personal privacy reasons I hesitate to put that info online. I did some searching and … Read more…
I often like to connect what we are doing in art to what they have learned about in science class. Insects can provide a lot of inspiration for artists. The colors and designs in insects can be intricate, beautiful and amazing. Start by showing the students pictures of many types of insects (or collect real ones, if you are brave.) Talk about the parts of an insect.. head, abdomen, thorax, antennae, wings. Looking at reference photos and begin sketching insects. … Read more…
Every so often, I host after school art classes. I try to have some fun projects that I wouldn’t normally teach during the school day. These magical wands were a hit with both the boys and girls who signed up for this class. Use dowel rods or natural sticks as the wand base. Twist, tie, wrap and hot glue fabric, ribbons, feathers, pipe cleaners and colored tape around the stick. Tie on flowers, add glitter glue and sequins and use … Read more…
What could be more fun than fairy houses and gnome homes? I don’t know, but let me know if you find out! I’ve discovered that kids love 1) Open-ended projects 2) Getting to choose from a huge pile of random, colorful materials 3) Miniature things 4) Using their imagination. This project is a winner for all of these reasons. I saw a question on an art teacher Facebook group which reminded me of this project my 4th/5th grade students did … Read more…
My 1st graders are working on these fun boats now to go along with their explorer unit. Okay, I know they are not really explorer ships, but we can pretend, right? And they are so fun and cute. The kids love them! How to Make a Boat: Gather empty milk cartons from the lunch room. Wash and wash again to get rid of all those icky germs. Let dry overnight. Use a utility knife to cut the milk carton down … Read more…
Visual textures are implied textures you can see such as cloudy, shiny, and windy and can be drawn as such. The opposite of visual texture is tactile texture which is texture that you can feel. Feathers, yarn, ribbon and tissue paper are used to add real texture in this sculpture project featured in this blog post. There are many ways to teach about texture including metal tooling, clay and sculpture (like you will see here.) This bird in a nest art … Read more…
Thank you to all who entered the Beautiful Oops journal giveaway. The winner has been randomly chosen and notified… and that winner is Amanda Shaw. Congratulations! When I was at the NAEA conference two years ago, I saw a station where people were making wooden Kokeshi dolls in the vendor area. Every time I walked by it, either it was too full or I had to be on my way somewhere else. So, I didn’t make one. But, I found … Read more…
This is a project from the archives. I used to teach a combined 5th/6th grade class until this year. Every year, we made medieval paper mache figures. The 5/6s studied the Medieval period in their social studies class. We used newspaper and foil to create the armature of these figures. Then, we applied paper mache over the body. Model magic or air dry clay was used to make the heads. Model magic actually works the best, in my opinion. Clothes, … Read more…
If you are looking for some new art center ideas for your classroom, look no further! Today I’m going to share with you 5 art centers my students have been enjoying lately. After visiting two choice-based art classrooms, I’ve decided to incorporate some free choice days into my class schedule. I think it is important to let students try out different art materials and ideas at their own pace. However, I am still continuing my art curriculum and will teach … Read more…
School Lockdown and an ER visit It’s been a crazy week! First, we had a school lockdown last Thursday because the FBI was trying to catch a fugitive in our area. Initially we spent 10 minutes on hard lockdown and I had my class in the closets. Then, we moved to a “soft lockdown” and were allowed to switch classes. Kids were escorted to use the bathroom. The kids were upset and it was difficult to continue class as normal. … Read more…
Third graders worked together to make an insect habitat on large butcher paper. They had been studying habitats in their Science class. We used Model Magic, beads, pipe cleaners and corrugated paper to make the insects and oil pastels to color them. The kids did a great job, but I’m not sure how I feel about Model Magic… we’ve been having a tough time getting the pieces to stay together. Some of the heads and body parts had to be … Read more…
This is one of my favorite projects all year. I know it is one of the kids favorite projects too. The 5th/6th graders study the Medieval period in their Social Studies class. In Art class, we have done a variety of Medieval art. In this project, the student build paper mache knights. This year, some of the kids chose to build horses out of Model Magic too. That made things a bit more challenging and complicated for them. … Read more…
The first graders made these utterly adorable birds in nests this week. We first made nests. We used tinfoil to shape a nest-like shape. Then I mixed up some goopy paper-clay and the kids covered their tinfoil nests with the goop. Little sticks, hay and pebbles were added to the goop before it dried. Here are the steps we used to make the birds.We used Crayola Model Magic. A big secret I discovered is that if you squirt hand-lotion on … Read more…
Well, I haven’t updated since this past Sunday, so I will briefly tell you what I’ve been up to.. parent-teacher conferences were on Tuesday. We are in the middle of various projects… monochromatic rhythm paintings (which are awesome and I will share with you later)… Rainbow Fish paintings, bird paintings, American landscape paintings.. wow, I guess we are doing a lot of paintings now. The 4/5s are doing a mosaic/fresco project which I will show you when we are further … Read more…
The kindergartners are studying penguins in their classroom, so we made penguins out of model magic modelling compound. One trick to get the parts to stick better is to use just a bit of regular hand lotion on your hands to make the model magic just a bit softer and squishier. Then, we made a triorama and decorated the background for a habitat. One thing I like about the trioramas is that it’s a good way for the kids to … Read more…
