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Author Archives: Marcia Beckett

About Marcia Beckett

Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.

Call to Art: Free Professional Development!

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I wanted to let you know about some inspiring and informational professional development that is starting this week!   I am recommending this Un-Conference to energize art teachers.  While you are at home this week, be sure to check out this Call to Art: A Free Un-Conference for Art Educators.   I know many of these presenters and they are amazing art educators with a passion for what they do.  I’m sure you will leave with some new ideas to implement when you return to … Read more… →

Notre Dame Watercolor and Ink Drawings

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Notre Dame Watercolor and Ink Drawings

I realize I had never shared these amazing Notre Dame watercolor and ink drawings my 4th and 5th grade students made at the end of last year. We learned about the architecture of the building and the kids used watercolor and Sharpie pen to create these beautiful pictures. This technique can be used with any architectural lesson or perhaps a lesson on Medieval gargoyles.

Watercolor Circles- Expressive Faces or Flower Doodles

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Watercolor Circles- Expressive Faces or Flower Doodles

I haven’t posted much lately because I’ve been focusing on other things– I’m in charge of the cookies for our Girl Scout cookie sales and that is like a part-time job! Also, I’ve been getting ready for my presentation at NAEA. If you are going to the NAEA conference, let me know.. I would love to meet up with new people! I have a lot of fun art journaling exercises prepared, including this one- using watercolor circles as a launching … 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… →

Thankful for… Mobiles

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Thankful for… Mobiles

What kinds of artworks have you done with the theme of Thanksgiving? I wanted to do a mixed media fibers project with my students so we made these gratitude mobiles. Students wrapped and twisted strips of fabric, yarn and wire with beads on embroidery hoops to create hanging mobiles. They attached card stock tags with words written to show what they are thankful for. Have you made any “thankful for” art projects? Please leave a comment and share!

Birds Activity for Kids Free Printable Downloads

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The cover of the book "Birds" by Carme Lemniscates features a child sitting under birds in a park with trees, offering an engaging kids activity.

Hi! The winner of the Createures game is Karen Riehle. Congrats! I love GIVEAWAYS. Another one will be coming soon in the next couple of weeks! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you.) Candlewick Press sent me a review copy of the book Birds by Carme Lemniscates, along with a few free activity downloads to share with you. See the bottom of this blog post for the bird activity printable downloads. Birds is a thoughtful, poetic homage … Read more… →

ABC Books for the Art Room

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ABC Books for the Art Room

Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win the new drawing prompt game Createures. Enter by reading the details on the last blog post. I love using children’s books in the Art classroom. Over the years I have collected variety of books related to art, artists, themes we study or simply have inspiring pictures. This blog post is a round-up of several ABC books that I like to use in Art class. The first one is called B is … Read more… →

Createures- Art-Generating Prompt Cards

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Createures, a unique card game, features cards with a lion, jellyfish, grasshopper, two-headed creatures, and a science lab. Two game boxes are in the background. The game includes prompt cards for an added layer of fun and creativity.

**Giveaway now closed *** Have you heard of the new art-generating prompt game called Createures? I received a review copy of the prompt cards and an EXTRA COPY to give away for FREE to one lucky reader! ($19.99 value) Here’s how it works. You can pick three “subject” cards and then 1 extra feature card, plus 1 background card. Then you use your creativity and imagination to draw a new creature that combines features from all 5 cards. I love … Read more… →

Glue Line Spider Webs with Model Magic

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Glue Line Spider Webs with Model Magic

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… →

Alphabet Monsters

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Alphabet Monsters

My 1st graders had read a variety of ABC books about art and we made letters that were illustrated with objects that started with that letter. To finish up our unit on alphabet related art, we made these cute ABC monsters. I bought the cardboard letters from Discount School Supply. These were colored with Kwik Stix (Amazon affiliate link) and then eyes, hair and mouths were added with construction paper.

Spooky Haunted House Art Project for Kids

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Spooky Haunted House Art Project for Kids

I got the idea for this spooky haunted house picture from this picture I found online. For the background, we did a marker ink printing process using washable markers on plastic ziploc bags. I learned this technique from Lauralee Chambers who does it using tin foil. You simply color with washable markers on a plastic bag, spray with water and then press your paper on the bag and rub the back. I love the mysterious effect it has on these … Read more… →

Mr. Doodle Inspired Doodling Pictures

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A colorful, abstract drawing of a unicorn with a rainbow mane and hearts in the background, inspired by Mr. Doodle’s whimsical style.

My 4th/5th graders learned about the artist Mr. Doodle and watched several videos of him doodling. You can see his artwork on his Facebook page. We talked about emphasis and the focal point and how to make the main image the largest. All of the supporting doodles would be smaller and surrounding the image. Take a look at some of the doodle art my 4th/5th grade students made after being inspired by the work of Mr. Doodle.

Art Journaling Workshop at the NAEA Conference

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Art supplies and colorful journals surround the text: "Hands-On Ticketed Workshop: Art Journaling for Personal Meaning and Creative Development at the NAEA Conference.

Good news! My proposal to lead a hands-on workshop at the National Art Education Association convention was accepted. The convention is from March 26-28 and you can sign up on the NAEA website. My workshop is titled: “Art Journaling for Personal Meaning and Creative Development.” Relax with art journaling and leave with multiple creative techniques you can use immediately in your classroom.  Explore vision boards, collage, watercolor doodling, word play and the art of chance. I’m super excited to lead … Read more… →

Rainbow Order Coloring Template

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Rainbow Order Coloring Template

The first day of school was an orientation day for Kinders and new kids. We had a very shortened schedule and I saw the Kindergartners for about 10-15 minutes. I never feel like I know what the best use of that time is, because it is too short to do any real art projects and it is the first time I am meeting them. So, I decided to read them a story about colors and then do a simple coloring … Read more… →

Outdoor Art Creator Badge- Brownie Girl Scouts

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Colorful birdhouses, a green art piece with sticks, and a leaf artwork are featured in the "Outdoor Art Creator Badge" exhibit.

Last year, my 3rd grade Girl Scout troop did a variety of art projects. One of the badges we earned was the Outdoor Art Creator Badge. Here are some of the activities we did to earn the badge. I thought I would share with you, because these are some fun projects you could do with a group of kids, maybe in an after school, day camp or scout program. Here is a link to the PDF guide for the badge, … Read more… →

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