The creative students at Artisan des Arts made manga self-portraits and I loved them so much I wanted to try it with my own students. The students used the website Face Your Manga to create an avatar. (Of course, out of the thousands of symbols, hair details, eyes and other options, we came across two that were not good for kids, so next year I think I’m just going to print out examples of eyes, noses, mouths, etc and have … Read more…
Materials you will need: Compass Pencil White paper Things to color with like markers, crayons, colored pencils Sharpies (optional) Crayola Twistable Neon Crayons (optional) Goals: understand the meanings and purposes of mandalas in other cultures learn to use a compass use radial symmetry in artwork develop fine motor skills and craftsmanship personal expression Steps: 1. Start by showing and discussing mandalas around the world. There is a slideshow linked above or create your own. 2. Demonstrate how to use a … Read more…
Did that get your attention? How about this? The Science teachers at my school often have the kids create drawings about what they are studying. One of them asked if I wanted to coordinate and have my third graders do more observational drawing. I borrowed these fun scientific specimens and some plants from the school greenhouse for my students to draw. If you want to buy some of your own specimens, they are not cheap, but once you have them … Read more…
One of the first projects my first graders made were these “All About Me Crayons”. I had seen and taught this lesson probably 10 years ago and decided to revisit it.  I can not remember exactly where I saw this idea, but as many lessons are, we get ideas and see projects all over the place.  I try to credit when I can, but some of these I have been doing so long!   We started the day by reading … Read more…
These gorgeous radial designs were made by fifth and sixth graders by using their name. You can see all the steps to make these in a previous blog post. The only difference is that now we use light tables (or hold it up to a window) to trace the design over and over again.  We focus on learning about the characteristics and history of Islamic art, which connects with their studies in Social Studies class. We love using the … Read more…
Learn shading! Practice drawing cubes, spheres and more. Add dimension and depth to your drawings! All this can be achieved with SECRET CITY DRAWINGS. Check out this awesome video. GUYS, LOOK AT HIS CLOTHES! amazing. Once in awhile I will show the kids this goofy video and have them draw along for kicks and giggles. If I’m running low on time, we’ll skip the video and just use handouts from his book (affiliate link to Amazon). The kids practice drawing … Read more…
Last fall, we participated in the Wisconsin Association for Language Teachers postcard contest. The theme was Languages: Literacy for Life. The students created postcards to fit this theme and one winning card was chosen to be reproduced in a pack of postcards that was given to all of the association members. The members were encouraged to use the postcards in correspondence to parents or administration. This would be a wonderful idea for arts advocacy! This is the card that was … Read more…
I came up with this idea from my daughter’s obsession with playing with her figurines and maps. She has a few of these map sets that come with a large fold-out map, a book and a bunch of related figurines (they have these at Barnes & Noble). This project taps into children’s natural interest in miniature toys! I showed the 2nd graders this map with some figures (many of them had similar maps at home) and told them to bring … Read more…
First of all, thanks for being a loyal blog reader (or) welcome, if you are new! I have a personal update to share with you… I went on medical leave this week and Monday was my last day of work for the time being. My pregnancy is complicated and I could not work anymore. The baby is healthy, but physically I need to lay down as much as possible and it is really hard to sit or stand without a … Read more…
Did you join the Artsy Book Club on Facebook? It was started by Cassie Stephens. You should come join us! We are starting to work through the book One Drawing A Day: A 6-Week Course Exploring Creativity with Illustration and Mixed Media. The first assignment was a pen drawing of a still life set up of stuff you find around you. Drawing immediately with pen is harder than it seems. I was so worried about drawing a line wrong … Read more…
The week after winter break was up in the air. Due to construction, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to use our art room and we didn’t know if we would have easy access to supplies. I planned for most of my classes to complete observational drawings during that week period, since they all could use the same supplies and learning to observe the edges and shapes of objects is great training for the eye. It … Read more…
This is a great project to try at the beginning of the year or as your students are reviewing the alphabet and beginning to learn to write words and phrases. I got this idea from the book Dynamic Art Projects for Children. Ours are not exactly as the ones in this book, but very similar. We started by looking at the art of Stuart Davis and reading the phrases, words and numbers that we saw in his artwork. The … Read more…
Here are two templates to use for postage stamps: one full stamp or a sheet of nine. You could also just draw them in boxes and then cut them out with those craft scissors that have the funky edges. My 4th/5th grade class designed their own postage stamps. I brought in a box of stamps for them to look through and see up close. I also showed them a short Powerpoint about stamps throughout history. There is information on the … Read more…
My Kindergarten students learned about types of lines. They used oil pastels to draw a variety of line types and then painted over them with watercolor paints. We are going to turn these into windsocks! Stay tuned to see how we transform their paintings.
Here is an easy Starry Night inspired project that I like to teach to my kindergarten art classes. There is a great Van Gogh book for kids called “Getting to Know the Greatest Artists”, by Mike Venezia (my favorite series of art books for kids.) After viewing the swirling lines, dots and dashes that Van Gogh used, the students create a wild and swirly night sky scene with markers. A silhouettte landscape or city scene is added on the bottom … Read more…
