• Subscribe to Blog via Email

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

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.

Art Teacher SHOWCASE!!

By | |
Leave a comment
Abstract black geometric characters on a narrow, rectangular canvas are showcased with a signature at the bottom.

 For the next installment of Art Teacher Showcase, I am highlighting Ilse Verhoeven.  I have been reading her blog for about a year now.  What is your blog? 1) http://artlessonsfrombelgium.blogspot.com/ Tell us about yourself and your teaching.2) I’m a Belgian art-teacher. I have been teaching for 7 years. The last four years I have been teaching children with learning difficulties too. I love teaching them.Finding projects for those children isn’t always easy. It can’t be too difficult, but I want … Read more… →

Book Review 1

By | |
2 Comments
A hand holds a book open to a factory scene with workers and conveyor belts sketched in blue.

I love using children’s books in my lessons about art.  Even the older kids like being read to.  It’s a way to spark their interest in art, encourage a love of reading and make their learning connections much richer.  And, it doesn’t really take that much time to incorporate a short story in the period.   I know class time for art is limited, so you want to make the most of every minute.  Consider just reading a portion of a … Read more… →

Puppets!

By | | , , , ,
3 Comments
Yellow cat puppet with button eyes, black felt whiskers and nose, and red felt ears. This puppet is made from soft fabric.

Puppets were made during my summer art class!  For this project, I drew a puppet template, which the kids traced and cut out from felt.  They cut out 2 pieces, a front and back.  Then, I hot glued them together.  The kids then cut out other pieces of felt and added googly eyes to decorate their puppet.  They attached these pieces with Elmer’s glue.  We added a large stick inside also to hold the puppet up.  We made these really … Read more… →

Madison Children’s Museum

By | | ,
2 Comments
Stick figures of a boy and girl above the text "It's Playtime" on a purple and white background.

Daria and I went to the Madison Children’s Museum today.  She was scared of pretty much everything.  I don’t know why, maybe it was because it was loud and crazy there.  This was one thing she did really enjoy.  It would probably not be too hard to set up something like this at home or a preschool.  Painting on a large window.They had different color paintsspray bottlesand window wipers to play with!  So much fun for little ones! http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2011/06/its-playtime-10-summer-time-fun.html

Art Teacher Showcase Installment #1– Stephanie Clegg

By | |
Leave a comment
A book page features an intricate drawing with hairlike lines extending across the face, making it an eye-catching addition to any Art Teacher Showcase.

This is my first installment of Art Teacher Showcase, where art teachers across the world will be sharing with you their favorite lesson and invite you to visit their blog.  If you would like to participate, see the bottom of this post. The first art teacher is Stephanie Clegg!My blog is called Mrs. Clegg’s Class blog.  My blog started out as a place for students to find out information about assignments and due dates.  It has since involved into more … Read more… →

Stats

By | |
6 Comments

Does anyone else look at their stats and become confused by them?  One of my pages, the Clay Viking Ship lesson was viewed about 800 more times than any of the other lesson plan pages.  I didn’t realize clay viking ships were so popular!  🙂   Of course, the blog directory was a big hit, receiving the most page views. 

Superheroes on Canvas

By | | , , , ,
Leave a comment
Canvas painting of a child's drawing of a person in bright colors, set against a red background with scattered dark spots.

In my summer art class, we painted superhero canvases.  The kids decided what superhero they would like to be and drew these on dry wax paper with markers and colored pencils.  Then I used gel medium (on the backs of the paper) to adhere their images to the canvas board.  Then, they used paints to paint a background.  I love them!!  There is a link to the dry wax paper at the bottom of this post.  The ages of my … Read more… →

Yay, Summer! Yay, Blogs!

By | |
4 Comments
Colorful text reading "I wish YOU the happiest of happy times" with decorative stars around it, evoking a cheerful summer vibe.

I’m at 185 followers now!  So exciting.  Anyways, once I reach 200, I’m going to do a book giveaway.  This summer I need to have a garage sale and sort through all my books on my book shelf.  I, of course, have oodles of art books to get rid of, so I think I will offer a couple of them up here for a random follower! Please also sign up for my ART TEACHER SHOWCASE.  Just send me info about … Read more… →

Art Teacher SHOWCASE!!

By | |
1 Comment
This is a handcrafted, colorful mask with painted animal features and fur details.

Summer months are slow in blogland for teachers.  Most art teachers are taking a break from teaching all day.  Some are doing art camps or personal travels, but I know that in the summer months, not as many teachers post ideas, since we’re not teaching full time now.  However, summer free time is a perfect time to research ideas, look at art eye candy, experiment and have fun!  So, what I would like to do to help you out in … Read more… →

Art Camp 1st Day

By | | , ,
2 Comments
Close-up of a metal latch attached to a white, grid-patterned surface with red scribbles on the left side.

I am teaching 2 days of art camp in the afternoons this week.  On Monday, one of the projects we made were sun tiles.  I picked up some glossy ceramic tiles from the hardware store.  They looked at a few pictures of Mexican clay suns and they sketched their sun idea on a piece of paper.  Then, using pencil and sharpie markers, they drew their sun on the tile.  On the back of the tile I superglued a picture hanger.  … Read more… →

So it’s summer!

By | |
1 Comment
A vibrant, abstract art journal page titled "Impossible Colors" featuring various shapes, textures, and mixed media elements that capture the essence of summer.

So it’s summer time!  I’ll still try to post a bit here and there. What are my plans? 1.  I’m doing a mini art camp next Monday and Tuesday for 2 1/2 hours each day at school. I have 10 kids signed up!  I will post pics of some of our art work.  I have a TON of fun stuff planned.  It’s going to be focused more on personal expression and creativity and the kids will have choices.  I think … Read more… →

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… →

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