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…
This oil pastel drawing project is inspired by the artwork of Paul Gauguin, in particular his painting Tahitian Landscape. To build up a little enthusiasm, when the kids arrived to class there was an envelope at their seat. I told them to open the envelope and see what was inside. I had printed off pictures of Tahitian Landscape, laminated them and then cut them into puzzle pieces. The kids worked quickly to put together the puzzles. Then, I introduced the … Read more…
Take off your shoes and make yourself comfortable. This fun lesson is perfect to teach observational drawing with minimal supplies and easy set up. 1. Take off a shoe. 2. Observe the lines, shapes and contours of the shoe. 3. Concentrate and draw all of the lines you see on the shoe. Don’t forget the little details, such as shoelaces, the tongue and any patterns you see on the shoe. *Optional Step* Enlarge the shoe drawings on a photocopier. 4. … 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…
We are on Spring Break now, so I’m going to use this time to catch up on some blog posts! I have a lot of projects that are finished that I have started writing posts about. How about you? How many blog posts do you currently have in your “draft” folder? Here is a lesson on drawing Greek vases that I teach to my 4th and 5th graders. We start by reading the Scholastic Art issue about Greek pottery. It … Read more…
The 3rd graders studied Africa in their social studies classroom and we learned about African masks in art class. The students watched a video that explained about the functions of masks, celebrations, rituals and materials used to make the masks. (Crizmac Tribal Designs video) Using markers, the third graders drew their own masks. The students were encouraged to include human and/or animal features and to personalize the masks with colors and designs of their own choosing. When we made … Read more…
I teach one-point perspective every year to the 3rd/4th grade class. In the past couple of years I typically have taught city perspective drawings. I saw this fantastic aquarium perspective lesson from Once upon an Art Room (grade 7), and I just had to try it with my little ones. Some of the kids liked the aquarium idea and others changed them into viewing rooms for other animals. We had wildlife sanctuaries, zoos and aquariums.
This art project is an oldie, but a goodie. I’m not sure where I first saw this project. I think maybe one of the other art teachers taught this lesson in one of my previous school districts. I have seen some lovely variations of this project online. Here is a beautiful one from Pixels and Paintbrushes. It looks like we were both working on them at the same time. 🙂 We began by tracing mitten templates on a piece of … Read more…
I hope you are having a very happy Valentine’s Day! My first graders finished up these lovely Valentine’s hearts. I got the idea for this project from Columbus Elementary School. Thanks for the idea! Â
Teaching about editorial cartoons is a great way to bring current events into the classroom. Every year our students in grades 4th-8th participate in a local editorial cartoon contest. The students watch a video about editorial cartoons and they discuss, analyze and interpret current editorial cartoons. Cartoons for the Classroom is an excellent resource for lesson plans about editorial cartoons. If you are going to teach about editorial cartoons, this website is a must-see. The cartoon templates we used are … Read more…
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
These lovely cross-hatched animal drawings were made by my 3rd/4th grade class. The students used pictures from Zoobooks magazine for reference and practiced hatching and crosshatching techniques. I love using illustrated books to connect with our curriculum. For one, it gives a real life connection. Second, it might spark their interest in reading more quality books. We looked at the beautiful cross hatched drawings by Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck. Those are both awesome … Read more…
This is a great project that ties together math, art, and social studies. We looked at the repeating patterns and shapes in Islamic tile designs (they are studying Islam in social studies) for inspiration. The tutorial for this project is in a blogpost I made earlier. The only difference is that this year we used light tables to trace the image through the triangles.
As much as possible, I like to tie in art projects to what the students are learning in their other classrooms. The 4th/5th grade class studies ancient civilizations and has a big unit on Egypt. In art class, I showed them a long slideshow about Egyptian art and architecture. Then, the students made a sarcophagus drawing. They all started with a shape tracer for the sarcophagus. I don’t often use tracers, but once in awhile, I think it helps to … Read more…
