First, DON’T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY FOR THE PICK AND DRAW GAME!! I will be picking a winner on April 1. Rainbow Fish is an awesome kids book to go with fish art projects. The kindergartners made rainbow fish sculptures from water bottles. I learned about this idea at the NAEA conference. The lady who presented it did it with large 2 liter bottles, but I used little water bottles instead. Steps:1. Cut off the bottoms of the water … Read more…
Rich Davis, creator of a new drawing game called Pick and Draw, sent me a copy of his game to play with my kids. I love this idea! I can’t believe no one has invented this card game already. 
The concept is simple. The deck of cards contains face shapes, eyes, noses, mouths and hair. Pick a card from the face pile, draw it. Then pick the other facial features. You can add your own creativity by changing … Read more…
Contour Drawings The students observed the details and lines on their shoes. They completed a contour line study of their footwear. Next, they turned these drawings into “miniature playgrounds” for stick people. Contour drawing helps define and explore edges through line and locates one object in relationship to another. It also establishes an expressive and accurate representation of the subject by the richness of the lines, thick or thin, crisp or soft, and the speed and rhythm with which they … Read more…
I went to the State Capitol today to see the Youth Art Month Art Show put on by the WAEA (Wisconsin Art Ed. Association). The show includes artworks from K-12 students from all over the state. Our school has two artworks in the show. One from the middle school teacher and one from one of my students. I’m so glad hers got chosen for the show because 1) it is a wonderful painting in my opinion! and 2) she was … Read more…
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The kindergartners made these lively paper weavings with colored paper strips and paper strips cut from scrapbook and wrapping paper. Then, I stapled them to a white piece of paper and the students stamped a border with gadgets, caps and random objects. After the weavings, the students played with the gadgets and made a design with paints.
Chuck Close fans… have you seen this story on 60 minutes this week? It’s about people who have face recognition problems. Fascinating!
When I was gone on my trip to New York for the conference, one of the sub plans I left was to draw a maze. The instructions were to draw a maze lightly with pencil, then color it as they wished. They could choose to include a theme for their maze, or just make it artistic and creative. I am amazed at these mazes! They are so beautiful and fun to look at. I think I’m going to start drawing … Read more…
I love to read. Of course I do, I’m a teacher.Here are some of the books I’m loving now! I can’t say enough good things about Lynda Barry’s collages and drawings. They are just so fun and chock- full of inspiration. She came to Madison recently to do some artist-in-residency programming and I am kicking myself now that I did not get tickets to her lecture. Apparently, she brought Matt Groening with her to speak!!! He is the creator of … Read more…
Earlier this week, I toured a medical software company with some 7th graders at our school. The hallways are decorated very artistically and contain many works of sculpture and paintings. For part one of my visit to EPIC, go here! I LOVED this one! A unique sculpture made of computer parts. Kind of reminds me of Louise Nevelson. Fabric art on the wall This was a celestial hallway. Yes, this is in the office building! Also in the hallway… … Read more…
This week, I went on a field trip with some 7th graders at our school. We toured the EPIC company which makes medical software for hospitals and clinics. The company has three different locations in the Madison, WI area. The campus we visited had about 13 different buildings. Each building has a decorative theme. There was TONS of artwork from local artists around the buildings. It was amazing! There was so much to take pictures of, that I only took … Read more…
The fourth/fifth graders have been working on some lovely Greek vase chalk drawings. We learned about overlap, proportion and shadows, as well as how to use and blend chalk pastels. This class studies Greek history in their social studies class. The students also had the chance to make little pots out of clay or sculpey. Sculpey does not work so well for coiled pots. Have you found that?
Do you know that there are over 200 art education blogs on my art teacher directory? Have you added your blog? Have you made art today? Have you found a way to spark your creativity?
This was a project the kindergarteners did last week. They first glued down popsicle sticks onto tagboard. Then they added paint to color! I let them use markers in places if they wanted. We read this book:
