Here is a fun poster that can be used to hang in your classroom or print out for kids. These are 10 tips to help kids deal with strong emotions. Click to download the free PDF: 10 Ways to Calm Down The download is sized at 11″ x 14″ but you could probably easily choose to fit to 8.5″ x 11″ in your printer settings. Here is the backstory behind why I made this poster. I am a Girl Scout … Read more…
I hope you are having a good summer. I have spent some time doodling with watercolors, my favorite artsy thing to do. Today I am going to show you how I transform puddles of watercolor to flower doodles. Here is an example of a finished watercolor flower doodle. This step-by-step is fun, summery art project for you or your kids to try. I like to share what is fun and exciting for me, because maybe you will take something from … Read more…
The other art teacher at my school is retiring this year. I wanted to put together a collaborative present by students to honor her. We were both hired here at the school 10 year ago. She loves origami so I knew it had to be something origami-related. I had all of her 7th and 8th grade students learn how to fold origami butterflies. Now, I am terrible at origami, so I wanted it to be relatively easy to figure out … Read more…
Great news! I have been published in the Summer issue of School Arts magazine. I wrote an article about artwork my students made after learning about the art of contemporary artist Justin Vining. You can read the article here. I wrote a blog post last year all about this project: Inspired by Artist Justin Vining. I love Justin’s artwork and you can see pictures of his artwork on his website.
Hi! I recently finished rewriting my K-6 art curriculum plan. We are required to do this every 4 years. You can see my first blog post about organizing curriculum that I wrote a few years back. I use the curriculum plan as a guide for my yearly planning. If students are interested in one area of art more than another, I tend to adapt my plans. If I have a brilliant idea for something new I want to try with … Read more…
Every year our school has a family FUNdraiser with a silent auction portion. My art classes always contribute a few artworks to the auction. This year, I came across an idea on an art teacher Facebook group. The canvas had the words “You are my sunshine” written across the middle. Each student contributed a sunshine drawn with Sharpie markers or paint markers. We used painted white wooden cradled canvases similar to this one. First I did You are My Sunshine … Read more…
What are Kwik Stix? Today I will share with you my first vlog. What is vlogging? Video blogging. In this video, I will share with you a new product I am loving and tell you my opinions. In the picture below, the butterfly was painted with paint dotters. The background designs were drawn with Kwik Stix. The designs drawn on top of the shapes are drawn with Kwik Stix. You can blend the Kwik Stix with water and a paintbrush. … Read more…
Many of you probably know of Ian and Melissa from Apex High School. They have developed a list of Artistic Behaviors for the high school level. I have been following along and seeing how they teach their students. Seeing their list gave me the idea to create posters that shows kids what artists do and what exactly is an artist. I decided to simplify the behaviors for elementary school students and start from the basics. Start from the ground and … Read more…
In my last post, I wrote an overall recap of the National Art Education Association conference. I also gave a summary of the artist Jesse Reno’s speech. In another post, I put together a little art history quiz of artworks from the Art Institute of Chicago. Today I am going to share with you some highlights from a few of the presentations. If you would like to see all of the handouts from the presentations that were uploaded, they are … Read more…
When I found out that Jesse Reno was going to be at the National Art Education Conference this year, I was stoked. I’ve been following his artwork and blog for several years and I love how layered and complex his paintings are. You have to watch his process of transforming one thing into another while painting. He has several videos on his blog where you can watch him paint. I was excited to hear him talk, but it would have … Read more…
How well do you know artists throughout history? Take this quiz to test your knowledge. If you are reading from a blog reader or email, you may need to click on over to the actual blog post. Art History Quiz from Marcia Beckett This past week I had the pleasure of attending the National Art Education Association conference in Chicago, IL. I have lots of information to share with you from some of the great sessions I attended. Coming … Read more…
I have something to share with you that I’ve been working on for a long time. Well, a couple of months. It takes forever for me to accomplish anything lately (I have a clingy toddler who doesn’t like to sleep) so I work in short spurts whenever I get a chance. Many of you probably know of Ian and Melissa from Apex High School. They have developed a list of Artistic Behaviors for the high school level. I have been … Read more…
Hello! Today I am going to catch up on some of the clay projects my students have been working on. The last few weeks we have been busy learning clay techniques, building and glazing. We weren’t able to use regular clay for the past year since the kiln was out of commission, so my students were itching to work with clay! The 5th/6th grade classes made Clay Castles. We connected a clay unit to their study of the Middle Ages. … Read more…
I have a fun creativity drawing project and excellent children’s book to share with you today. I came across this book called A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin and thought it looked intriguing, so I ordered it. I love the illustrations in the book and the story encourages children to think of how they would imagine a world of their own. On a day when I was out sick, I left this book for the substitute teacher to … Read more…
Thank you to all who voted for my blog in the AOE Blog of the Year contest. While I did not win, I am still happy to have been a finalist. Congrats to all of the bloggers in the contest! Today I am going to show you a super fun project that my students worked on this week. This summer we planted a garden. My husband diligently set up a plastic fence to keep out the rabbits. We watered it … Read more…
