• Subscribe to Blog via Email

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

Category Archives: all grades

Art of the Brick: Nathan Sawaya Lego Exhibit

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
A sculpture by Nathan Sawaya features a human figure made of yellow LEGO bricks, ripping open its chest with bricks spilling out. This piece is part of the "Art of the Brick" Lego exhibit.

Happy Spring! It is Spring Break for us and we took a little trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. We saw an awesome Lego exhibit at the museum by artist Nathan Sawaya. If you are in the area, I definitely recommend visiting the museum to see this exhibit. My favorite pieces were the ones in which he recreated famous works of art throughout art history. There were some impressive animal sculptures as well as a fantastic … Read more… →

Watercolor Pencils and Metallic Markers Product Review

By | | ,
1 Comment
A variety of colored pencils arranged in a gradient, ranging from yellows to greens, blues, and more, on a grid background.

I was contacted by a representative at Grabie online marketplace, which I had never heard of before. Since I love trying out new supplies, I decided to go ahead with a product review. I also love to find and share different art supplies with other art teachers. They sent me two art supplies to try out. I was not compensated for my review, other than the free supplies. I told them I would be completely honest in my review and … Read more… →

Free Valentine’s Day Word Search

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
Free Valentine’s Day Word Search

Hi! Valentine’s Day is coming up and here is a fun, free word search you could give to your students. Here is the high resolution PDF version for free download. You might be interested in some of my other word searches: Winter Word Search Spring Word Search Art Word Searches Bundle Art Vocabulary Word Search I am an Artist Word Search Famous Artists Word Search Elements and Principles of Art Word Search

Thankful Turkey Bulletin Board

By | | ,
Leave a comment
Thankful Turkey Bulletin Board

We recently had everyone in our school trace their hands, cut them out and write things they are thankful for on the hands. We then used the hands as feathers for a turkey for a bulletin board. We are going to use the remaining hands for the leaves of a large tree. The other art teacher, Kathy, who is subbing for maternity leave made the body of the turkey. I think it turned out really cute!

All Are Welcome Bulletin Board

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
All Are Welcome Bulletin Board

Here is a welcoming art project you can do with your students. Read the book All Are Welcome (Amazon affiliate link at no extra cost to you.) This is a great book about including everyone at school. Have each child draw a self-portrait from head to toe. Display with the heading You Are Welcome Here! We used these handouts for reference.

Art Choice Board for Elementary Subs

By | | ,
4 Comments
Art Choice Board for Elementary Subs

Are you required to leave emergency sub plans? If so, you may want to use a choice board! My art colleague Sharon had the idea to make a choice board that can be used multiple times if there is a situation where you need to be gone unexpectedly (sickness or unexpected quarantine). Even if your school does not require this, I highly recommend having a stash of lesson plans ready to go in case you wake up sick in the … Read more… →

Easy Homemade Scratch Art

By | | ,
4 Comments
Colorful art on a black background featuring a flower, stars, and swirls in various bright colors.

Today I am going to show you a quick and easy homemade scratch art trick which is fun for kids to try. You can make your own real scratch art paper using oil pastels and watered down black paint. Or you can buy your own scratch art paper pre-made (affiliate link). This is a fun little trick that amazes and delights kids. You can make your own scratch art paper using just crayons. Start by coloring a patchwork of colors … Read more… →

Monster Origami Bookmarks

By | | ,
Leave a comment
Monster Origami Bookmarks

My students LOVED this project. I had excellent participation for this lesson and we are fully remote. I sent home origami paper to the students in a materials bag, but kids could make their own origami paper simply by cutting a square out of a piece of white copy paper. We used the directions from Red Ted Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVkJPCp_1UQ. I hope that this project helps add variety to your distance learning plans. I was so excited when my students were … Read more… →

Perler Beads- Mario and Among Us

By | | , ,
4 Comments
Perler Beads- Mario and Among Us

My 1st grade son has been really on a Perler bead kick lately. He made all of these designs this week. Here is a beginner’s guide to Perler (or fuse) beads. I thought this might be something my readers would be interested in learning about as a gift idea for a young child in their life. My son looked at some examples on the internet for Mario designs and then made them by looking at the pictures. These are from … Read more… →

Gratitude Turkey- Distance Learning

By | | , ,
2 Comments
Illustrated Gratitude Turkey with feathers labeled: school, books, friends, family, art, home, nature, chocolate, music, my dog.

Here is a fun social emotional project that works for distance learning too. I started with a how to draw a turkey sheet I found online. I wanted to link it here, but when I went to look for it again, it had disappeared! I’ve searched and searched and can’t find the original tutorial. Anyways, you can do the same thing by finding a “how to draw a turkey” step by step online and then doing the next steps you … Read more… →

Shape Collage

By | | , ,
3 Comments
Colorful abstract shapes, including crescents, stars, and organic forms in orange, red, pink, and yellow on a light background, create an enchanting shape collage.

Last blog post, I showed how to make different types of painted papers with watercolor paints. We are still doing distance learning, so my students did this lesson at home. These are the slides that I used to show them how to make a shape collage. Shape is an element of art. I like to show a lot of examples from different artists, contemporary and modern.

Painted Papers

By | | , ,
1 Comment
Two painted papers with colorful watercolor patterns and designs, including lines, dots, and squiggles.

I had my students make painted papers for one week’s assignment. Their task was to make 4 painted papers (two with swatches of color and two with line patterns.). Then, they are going to turn their painted papers into collages the next week. Here are the steps I gave them. We are fully remote here. Watercolor paints was something I put on their supply list.

Distance Learning Art: Name Design

By | | , ,
4 Comments
Distance Learning Art: Name Design

Here is a great project for the first week or day of school. I put up these directions in my Google classrooms for my students and they completed them in their own time, asynchronously. Here is my example of a Name Design NOT using block letters if that is too difficult for your students. Here is a book I read to go along with this project.

Distance Learning- First Week of Art- The Studio book

By | | , ,
1 Comment
Distance Learning- First Week of Art- The Studio book

I apologize for not regularly adding to the blog lately. It’s been a bit overwhelming here and I haven’t had the motivation. With the day off today, I felt like sharing one cool new book I bought that I have been using with my little students (grades K-2). This book called Studio, A Place for Art to Start is perfect for the first weeks of school. (Affiliate link has been used at no extra cost to you.) This book shows … Read more… →

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