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

Decoupaged Stool and Romero Britto Inspired Hearts Canvas

Colorful decoupaged stool seat with abstract designs and inspirational words like "Strong" and "Creativity," against a black background.

My students and I recently made two colorful artworks for our school fundraiser. We painted a stool with acrylic paints. I had kids from grades K-3 come up two or three at a time to take turns painting the sections. After the base layer was dry, we used magazine cutout words to decoupage the stool. Black sharpies were also used to outline and accent the edges. Students in grades K-3 helped with this project and I had some older kids … Read more…

Cube Mural Inspired by Street Artist Thank YouX

Two colorful, decorated cubes with drawings and patterns. One side features a goose, resembling the style of street artist Thank YouX.

Earlier this year, my co-worker Jayne found the idea to make a collaborative school-wide paper mural based on the artwork of Thank YouX.  The idea for a student mural originally came from Jenell Novello and you can see the lesson plan write-up on Artsonia.  She also so generously provided the lesson plan and templates on Google docs. Thank You X got his name by accident.  In 2009 Andy Warhol’s spray painted portrait was spotted on a city street in L.A..  … Read more…

Chicks at School

Handmade art of three yellow chicks with feathers on paper, ideal for school projects or classroom decoration.

We have some chicks at school.  Chicks, like baby chickens. One of the science teachers taught the kids about the life cycle of chickens and the kids watched as the eggs were incubated and hatched. They grow so quickly! With all the excitement of the hatching chicks, the students were thrilled to create some chick artwork.  Here is a mural/bulletin board that students in grades 2-3 worked together on. Next, we did a step-by-step project in kindergarten to make a … Read more…

Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

Triangle Collage on Canvas for School Auction

Every year, my 5th/6th grade class carves rubber stamps with symbols they have designed.  This year, we stamped extra prints on tissue paper with acrylic paint to make collaborative artworks.  To stamp, simply use a foam brush to lightly paint acrylic paint on the stamp. Then, the tissue papers were decoupaged (with hard-finish Mod-Podge) on these fun triangular canvases called Squangles.  These are going to be put in our school auction at the end of the year.  We made three … Read more…

Group Eagle Bulletin Board with Patterned Feathers

Group Eagle Bulletin Board with Patterned Feathers

Many of my students contributed feathers to this giant eagle bulletin board.  Our school is Eagle School and I wanted to do a group artwork where many kids could participate in designing a piece of the picture.  I was out sick one day and I had my students each create a patterned feather with the substitute teacher. If your mascot is not an eagle, you could do this bulletin board with a peacock or really any bird would work!

Drawing Maps for Figurines with 2nd Graders

Toy animal figurines, brown houses, and a colorful building are displayed on a map drawn by 2nd graders, featuring blue waterways and green spaces.

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…

Colorful Mobile for Kids

Colorful Mobile for Kids

We recently finished a mobile that will soon hang in our window wells in the hallway. Third, fourth and fifth grade students created single strand mobiles using Twisteez wire, foam pieces, feathers, beads and other random materials.  They made these at the end of the year last year when they had a few extra minutes in class.  I got the idea from the Single Strand Mobile group kit on Nasco.  However, we did not purchase that kit, because I figured … Read more…

African Adinkra Carved Stamps & Art for AUCTION– 5th and 6th grade

A pattern of hand-stamped yellow symbols, including eyes, paws, and triangles arranged on a white background using Carved Stamps.

My 5th and 6th grade students studied Africa and the African Adinkra stamped cloths.  I showed them a slide show of images. Examples of Adinkra symbols were shown for inspiration.  Check out my African Adinkra Pinterest board for handouts of symbols.  The kids could use these ideas and embellish upon them or come up with their own symbol based on some of these ideas. They used linoleum cutters to carve their own rubber stamps on the Dick Blick Art soft carving … Read more…

Third and Fourth grade collaborative circle paintings

A vibrant and colorful abstract painting with various shapes, patterns, and swirls in multiple colors, inspired by collaborative circle paintings often created by third grade students.

I was so excited to see this idea of Circle Painting!!   I first learned about it at Barbara’s Thought of the Day and then at We Heart Art.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. for this wonderful idea.  We are making several collaborative canvases with this technique and they are going to be raffled off at our end of the year school FUNdraiser.  The kids had a blast creating these paintings.  This is the first video I have edited … Read more…

Carved Stamps– 5th/6th grade

Abstract painting with black flower patterns on a background of alternating pink and purple squares, using carved stamps for unique texture.

My 5th and 6th grade class carved stamps from E-Z Cut and then we printed them many times.  They looked at African Adinkra stamps and then used those designs for inspiration.  We printed them on artist trading cards, a design on paper and then on two large group artworks.  The ones pictured here are our large group artworks.  We are going to put this artwork in the school raffle fundraiser at the end of the year.  I’m also going to … Read more…

Water bottle Flowers

Vibrant flowers crafted from painted water bottles, arranged closely together.

At the very end of last year, my third grade students cut apart plastic water bottles to make these flowers.  I started them off by cutting the bottom of the bottle off, then they continued with scissors.  You can round off the edges to make the petals look more realistic.  Then, these were painted with acrylic paint.  I hot glued these down to a large white piece of foam board.  Some kindergarten students also made little round lumps of model … Read more…

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