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

1st Grade Fabric and Felt Collages

1st Grade Fabric and Felt Collages

I loved these zig zag dolls by Patricia Saunders that were published in School Arts magazine earlier this year.  We have a large tub of fabric and felt scraps that I wanted to start using up.  After reading the book Zigzag the students dove into the box of fabric and started creating their own dolls and creatures. We just used regular Fiskars kids scissors (set aside especially for cutting fabric) and school glue.  The pieces were glued on to white … Read more…

Rainbow Fish! with Kindergarten

Rainbow Fish!  with Kindergarten

At the end of the school year, my kindergarten art class made some really colorful fish after reading the book Rainbow Fish . The students drew their fish on large posterboard (these were BIG fish).  Then, they cut out paper pieces (I encouraged them to cut circles) from a variety of patterned and foil papers. Then, some of the kids chose to use paint dotters to add additional color. I I did this project again, I would have the kids … Read more…

Silhouette Paper Cuttings for 3rd and 4th Graders

Silhouette paper cuttings depict a bird flying near a castle with two towers and a central, tall structure against a white background.

Did you know Hans Christian Andersen was an accomplished paper cutter?  He created some very intricate and amazing silhouettes. I used a chapter from the book The Amazing Paper Cuttings of Hans Christian Andersen to teach about his paper cuttings. Perhaps if your students are reading fairy tales, this would be a great author/artist to incorporate. The third and fourth grade class drew silhouettes on black paper (using regular pencils) and cut them out.  (Some chose to create their picture … Read more…

5 Valentine’s Day Projects for Kids

Abstract artwork featuring a large heart with a star in the center, surrounded by smaller hearts and various patterns, making it an ideal project for kids on Valentine's Day.

Each year, I tend to try something different for Valentine’s Day.  I like to spice things up, don’t you? Here are some from the past that I have done. 1.  Valentine’s Heart Collages  2.  Cool Hands, Warm Heart 3.  Easy Clay Hearts for Kindergarten  I have made these for Christmas presents, but they would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. 4.  Maps of My Heart (by Kindergarten) 5.   Styrofoam Printed Valentines Follow @marcia_beckett

Surreal House Collages

A surreal scrapbook-style collage featuring pets, makeup, home decor, and a woman with long blonde hair against a pink background.

The fourth and fifth graders learned about Surrealism for this project.  I started by showing them how to set up their houses using colored construction paper.  These pictures were LARGE.. the size of a posterboard.  The individual colored construction papers were 9×12″.  Each child started with 4 sheets of colored construction paper to set up their house.  Then, they flipped through magazines to cut out furniture and items for their houses.  After they had found a bunch of furniture, I … Read more…

Complementary Color Collages– 1st Grade

Colorful abstract collage featuring geometric shapes in orange, blue, and neon red on a clean white background using complementary colors.

Complementary Color Collages by the 1st Grade This project introduces the first graders to complementary colors.  I show them the color wheel and I explain how the complementary colors are across from each other on the color wheel.  They are the “opposites”.  If you mix the two of them together you would get a brownish or grayish color.  We talk about the primary/secondary colors and focus on the pairs of red + green, blue + orange, and violet + yellow.  … Read more…

Fabric Collages

Colorful, patterned fabric collage with hearts, stars, and "Peace" text on a background of diamond shapes.

I never posted about these fabric collages that we finished at the end of the year last year.   The third and fourth graders made these. We worked together to paint fabrics! We painted with acrylic paints on muslin fabric. We sprayed the fabric with water to allow the paint to spread more easily. We made graffiti fabrics! We had lots of painted fabrics at the end. We even painted over ugly patterned fabrics. Then, we chose our pieces and cut … Read more…

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