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…
Welcome to the 4th post in my series On Teaching Art. The first post and the background behind this series is On Teaching Art: Art vs. Craft. The second post was On Teaching Art #2: Organizing Curriculum. The third post was On Teaching Art #3: Integrating Art with Other Subjects. The question posed for this blog post is: “What are the important principles for teaching art that my students should remember? For instance, I can imagine that it’s important for them … Read more…
There are lots of great ideas on the internet and I have enjoyed reading so many art teacher blogs. There are over 300 art blogs on the art teacher blog directory. That is a lot of blogs to browse! Some are older and haven’t been updated in awhile. Once in awhile I will notice someone on a forum or blog saying “Help! I’m switching to middle school! Any good ideas?” I thought it would be more useful to have the … Read more…
Our local public library partnered with us to have a bookmark contest. The kids in grades K-5 each designed a bookmark based on a favorite book. We provided a template for them to compose their drawing. The library will pick a number of winners to print as bookmarks for distribution at the library. We’ve done this before at school and when the designs were returned to us, we chose other designs and copied them at an office store on card … Read more…
Every year my sister-in-law hosts an Easter bonnet party. All of the guest come with Easter bonnets that were homemade and there is a contest for the wildest or most artistic hat. The crazier, the better! This would be fun to do for other holidays. Maybe you could create a 4th of July hat or a Christmas hat! Start with a base hat. The pink hat we bought from Target and my hat we bought from Michael’s craft store. Tie … Read more…
Welcome to the 3rd post in my series On Teaching Art. The first post and the background behind this series is On Teaching Art: Art vs. Craft. The second post was On Teaching Art #2: Organizing Curriculum. The question posed for this installment is: How can art be integrated into math, science, social science, and literacy? That is a great question and I very often connect art lessons with their units of study in the classrooms. Integrating art with other … Read more…
There’s my student’s artwork in the upper right corner of this panel: the lion watercolor on muslin cloth. Every year our state has a state wide art show in the capitol in Madison. This weekend, I went with my daughter, my friend and her daughter to see the art show. Here are the two of them in front of a big banner at the show. Daria’s friend said, “Mommy, this one blows my mind.” So cute.. she is … Read more…
We had our regional art show through the Wisconsin Art Education Association this week. The artwork was displayed all week at the local mall. Many schools participated with art from kids in grades K-12. It is always so fun to see what other schools are doing. The high school artwork is always so amazing! We had our closing reception today and many families showed up. It was a great turnout despite the freezing rain. One artwork from each teacher was … Read more…
I passed out Summer Art Challenge Sheets at the end of the school year last year. Any of the students could participate in it over the summer and then turn in their artwork at the beginning of this year. It is kind of like a summer reading program, where you record what you’ve read and get prizes. Here are the basic parameters of the challenge: “Welcome to the Summer Art Challenge! You are invited to play along and stretch your … Read more…
Over the summer I tested out several ways to make bubble prints. I experimented and discovered they way that works best for me. I decided to do bubble printing with some students this week, because it is the week before break and I wanted something fun and out-of-the-ordinary to do with them. So apparently bubbles are out of season right now. I went to Hobby Lobby however, and found this pack of 24 small party bubbles. Pop off the top … Read more…
These traditional snowflake paper cuts are so simple, yet so fun. I know other art teacher bloggers have posted them recently too. Here are some we made this week.
Today I held an after school clay class for grades K-5. I had 11 kids sign up and we made pocket pots. These are so fun! After painting them, we will attach a wire to the top and they can hang on the wall to hold items like keys or money. I took pictures of the kids as they worked. Roll out a slab of clay. Trace an oval template and cut out. Cut a straight line across the oval, … Read more…
