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

How to Make Artist Trading Cards using Coffee Filters

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Abstract multicolored artwork featuring black lines in spiral, star, and floral shapes on a tie-dye background, ideal for Artist Trading Cards.

My third grade students recently made these fun Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs for short.)  They are sized at 2 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ and they were made using a fun technique on coffee filters. To make these cards, you will need Artist Trading Card blanks Sharpie permanent markers Crayola markers Coffee filters Spray bottle with water Scissors and glue Steps: 1. Doodle lines and shapes on a coffee filter with Sharpie permanent markers. 2.  Color in the background spaces … Read more… →

Personal Patchwork Drawings by 4th & 5th Graders

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A colorful grid composed of various patterned and solid squares, spelling out "BELIEVE," with a drawing of a cat in the bottom left square.

I got this project idea from the Art Teachers group on Facebook.  A teacher had posted a similar personal grid lesson from high schoolers with stunning results!  I loved the concept and adapted it for my 4th and 5th grade class. The first step is to divide your 12″ x 18″ paper into 3 inch squares using a ruler.  Then you fill in each squares with drawings and designs that are personalized to tell something about yourself.  The catch is … Read more… →

Artist Trading Cards

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A collage of eight colorful postcards featuring various designs, Artist Trading Cards, drawings, and text, including illustrations and cutouts.

Here are some of the Artist Trading Cards my students made for the ATC swap that Nic Hahn is coordinating.  The students filled out a sheet for the back with information about their card. You can download this sheet for free at my TPT shop. Artist Trading Cards are mini works of art, sized at 2.5″ x 3.5″.  They can be traded, collected or given as gifts.  They can be about anything!  Some of the materials my students used were: … Read more… →

Mondrian Art Project for Kids with Dab and Dot Markers

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Markers labeled yellow, red, and blue lie on an abstract art background with bold lines and colored squares, reminiscent of Piet Mondrian artwork.

I had the opportunity to try out Dab and Dot Dauber Markers and write a blog post for their website DoodleHog.  These are similar to other paint dotters, but one difference I noticed is that the colors seem richer and better than other brands I have tried.  The colors mix together very well. Piet Mondrian Dab and Dot Art Project Piet Mondrian was one of the most important and well known abstract painters.  But did you know his early work … Read more… →

Happy Veteran’s Day!

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Children's drawing with "Thank You!" text, a red flower, and a bald eagle. Handwritten note says "Thank you for your service! Happy Veteran's Day!

Today is Veteran’s Day.  A day to remember our history and the people who fought for our freedom and safety. Every year my students create Veteran’s Day posters that are displayed at the Senior Center for their Veteran’s Day ceremony.  My fifth/sixth grade students go on a trip to the program and sing a few patriotic songs and participate in the ceremony. You can see some of the artwork made in year’s past and read more about this lesson in … Read more… →

Art with Letters and Words: Painting over Adhesive Letters

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Colorful illustration of the word "DREAM" surrounded by letters, stars, hearts, triangles, and other shapes in vibrant hues.

Age Level:  Kindergarten/First Grade Learning Objectives:  Learn how artists can use letters and numbers in art Use overlap Identify and use shapes Develop fine motor skills by tracing and painting Materials Board Mate Repositional Paper Letters/Numbers Board Mate Jumbo Reuseable Stencils Other assorted stencils of your choice Painter’s Squeeze ‘n Brush paints (or other tempera paint of your choice) Watercolor paints, brush, water or brush markers White cardstock or thick paper Process:  1.  View and discuss artworks that have words … Read more… →

Pop Ups and Interactive Parts in an Artwork

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A handmade notebook with colorful scrapbook-like pages, featuring a circular orange piece with "Make things" written on it. The notebook includes interactive parts that bring each page to life.

I read my 5th/6th grade class the book Beautiful Oops, which many art teachers are already familiar with.  It’s a great message, but also the interactive parts are very inspiring and fun! We also looked at Barney Saltzberg’s other book A Little Bit of Oomph.  Both of these books have parts that fold out, pop out, twist or turn! Here is a video from Workman Publishing about the oomph book.  You can see the pages of the book if you … Read more… →

Artist Trading Card Backs

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Artist Trading Card Backs

Hi there!  Are you participating in Nic Hahn’s massive ATC swap with schools all over the world?!   If you missed the sign ups for this, don’t despair.  There are other ways to make and swap ATCs.  You can set up your own swap with another school or your kids can swap with each other in your classroom. What is an ATC? ATC stands for Artist Trading Card.  They are miniature works of art the size of a baseball card. Nic … Read more… →

How to Use PicMonkey to Make Photo Collages for a Blog

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How to Use PicMonkey to Make Photo Collages for a Blog

Today I am going to show you how I use Picmonkey.com to make header images for blog posts (like the one shown above.)  I make these headers because it’s visually appealing, it makes it clear for the reader what the post is about and these images are great for getting traffic from Pinterest. I figured out how to add a voice narration! Hurray. I love learning new things. If you are reading from a blog reader or email, you may need … Read more… →

Sand Painting

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Sand Painting

I did it!  I made my first sand painting.  After reviewing the book Ice Cream Work by Naoshi, I decided to try out the SUNAE sand painting technique.  You can read my whole review at this previous blog post. The book is very Japanese in style and reminds me of other Japanese cartoons and illustrations.  Her artwork is very colorful, fun and cute!  I really like her style.  You can see the book on Amazon (affiliate link) Ice Cream Work, … Read more… →

Halloween Art Ideas

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Halloween Art Ideas

Halloween is almost here!  We’ve been having fun with a variety of Halloween art projects.  Kindergartners made collage pumpkins with a variety of tactile materials like feathers, yarn and foam shapes. First graders made texture rubbing pumpkin pictures and traced leaves from construction paper.  Second graders made pumpkin patch pictures with water soluble crayons, paints and Sharpies. Happy Halloween!

Rubber Ducky Art Project for Kids

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A grid of 16 colorful and creatively decorated duck drawings, each uniquely themed and detailed, making it an amusing art project for kids.

While vacationing in Michigan this summer, I came across some really cool public sculptures of different themed ducks.  You can see pictures of these sculptures on this previous blog post. At the beginning of the school year, I showed my students lots of examples of these public sculptures and we talked about how one of these public art exhibitions works. City of St. Joseph Public ART St. Joseph Ducks Facebook Page Then, they used a simple duck template and transformed … Read more… →

Dr. Seuss Art Project for Kids: 2nd Grade

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Children’s colorful drawings inspired by Dr. Seuss, with text overlay: "2nd Grade Dr. Seuss Art Project.

I love Dr. Seuss’ art.  Did you know in addition to writing books he created over 10,000 works of art.  Amazing!  The book The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is a must-have for art teachers who love Seuss. My students, of course, also love Dr. Seuss and read many of his books in their language arts class. We watched a YouTube video about the Secret Art of Dr. Seuss and one with a slideshow of his artwork.  The second slideshow … Read more… →

Photoshop Tutorial: How to Create Photo Collages for Your Blog

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Golden-themed graphic titled 'Photoshop Tutorial: How to use Photoshop Elements to make blog pics' with colorful artwork below.

Nora asked, “Hi Marcia,  I love how you lay out photos on your blog! Could you please tell me how you do this? Thanks! My blog is http://www.waitsfieldart.blogspot.com” I use either Photoshop Elements or Picmonkey to create the collages of artwork for my blog posts.  If I want to share several examples of artwork I often shrink them down and place them side by side or in a grid layout, like this: I also create photo collages as a “header” … Read more… →

Types of Lines in Art Handout

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Types of Lines in Art Handout

I am working on some quick assessment sheets for key concepts in art class. I came across this famous lines handout from The Bees Knees Cousin.  I’m also not too big on worksheets and we rarely do them in art class, but they can be good for some fine motor practice and assessment.  I liked the famous lines handout and tried to download it from Scribd, but I couldn’t get it to work.  So I ended up making my own … Read more… →

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