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We made a few updates to our mural at school. We painted the original in 2015. This year, after some unfortunate defacing with Sharpie, we cleaned it up and realized some areas needed touching up. So my helpful middle school study hall kids decided to touch up and help me with some additions. They added the chicks and chicken at the front (every other year our Science department hatches chicks). And then we decided to add a tree branch with … Read more…
My 1st graders had a blast making these found object puppets from recycled materials. We read this book by Hanoch Piven. To get the full lesson plan with materials list, parental note, background info and student reflection sheet visit my Teachers Pay Teachers shop to download.
We made 3 fingerprint plates for our school auction. The materials we used were Bisque fired dinner plates from Mayco. Underglaze in various colors Fine line writer bottle (filled with glaze) Clear Gloss Glaze The first was a Dr. Seuss themed “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” plate for the Kindergartners. The fish are made from their fingerprints. The second was a bird plate for the 1st graders. All of the birds were made from the kids’ fingerprints. Their … Read more…
This month the Art Ed Blogger’s Network is talking about student engagement and participation. When I tell people that I am an art teacher, some people who say ”Wow, that must be so much fun! I bet the kids all just love art.” Well, there are fun times, but there are times when not everyone is engaged in the media or project we are working on. I’m sure this happens in all classrooms. Sometimes it is due to lack of alignment … Read more…
Every year my students and I create artworks for our school’s auction. If you look here, you can see some of the auction artworks from previous years. This year, each student in grades K-8 made textured clay circle tiles. We glued them on to several mirrors. The process to make the clay circle tiles is quite simple, yet it teaches the kids several important skills for working with clay. First, roll out a flat piece of clay (called a “slab”). … Read more…
Earlier I wrote a tutorial on how to make sailboats from milk cartons. My 1st grade students have finished making their sailboats. Here are some of their finished projects! After the boats were made, the students drew pictures of their boats. I had stuffed animals available if they wanted to draw a stuffed animal in the boat. Have you ever made boats with your kids?
What could be more fun than fairy houses and gnome homes? I don’t know, but let me know if you find out! I’ve discovered that kids love 1) Open-ended projects 2) Getting to choose from a huge pile of random, colorful materials 3) Miniature things 4) Using their imagination. This project is a winner for all of these reasons. I saw a question on an art teacher Facebook group which reminded me of this project my 4th/5th grade students did … Read more…
Coloring for kindness!! Kindness and character education are important topics in the classroom. Unleash the therapeutic benefits of zen-coloring for mindfulness! These fun and unique coloring pages feature inspirational phrases, perfect for accompanying lessons on kindness or just for anytime! Check out my TPT shop for these Kindness Coloring Pages. Coloring helps people of all ages to de-stress and spark creativity. It can be a way to meditate and focus on the moment. This set includes 10 KINDNESS- themed coloring … Read more…
This month, the Art Ed Blogger’s Network is talking about how to enrich art class for students who finish early. I think this is an ongoing concern for most art teachers. Kids work at all different paces. Some students will finish their artwork lickety-split with half the class period left. Others will work on the same technique or project and spend multiple periods working on the same piece. So you will often have students at all different paces and at … Read more…
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…
You may have heard me mention Pipsticks before. I love stickers. One of my dreams is to own a toy/craft/art supply/STICKER store. Who knows if that will happen some day, but I have always loved stickers! When I was a kid, I even made up a (short-lived) club called Sticker Maniacs. They are fun to use in art journals and to stick all over greeting cards. You’ve seen those toy unboxings on YouTube right? Today, I am going to do … Read more…
This month we were very proud that my 2nd grade daughter’s artwork was selected to be in her school’s Youth Art Month show at the public library. This is Daria below, with her art teacher, Ms. Tuttle. They have their own iPads they carry with them at school (which is very cool and I am starting to wish we had at our school!). They have done a lot of things on them in their regular classroom, like making presentations on … Read more…
I went to a really fun painting workshop last summer for a weekend which I never shared on my blog…. until now! The workshop is called Zen Painting and it was taught by Jodi Ohl. I have been following Jodi Ohl’s blog for many years. When I was looking for some hands-on professional development for the soul, I noticed she was teaching at Shake Rag Alley, which is only 45 minutes away from my house. My co-worker Martha, who teaches … Read more…
We tried out these super cool little coding robots at a Girl Scout event this weekend! We had so much fun! This is the Ozobot in the video: https://amzn.to/2I45BzH (Amazon affiliate link) If you are reading from a blog reader or email, you may need to click on over to the YouTube video link to watch it.
