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

Painting on Cloth | 3rd Grade

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A bird with a colorful, patterned body pecks at the ground near a small tree with a decorative red border, resembling a vibrant painting on cloth.

Painting on cloth gives such nice, soft colors and is a challenging change from painting on paper.  We tied our lesson into African Korhogo cloth painting and you can read about this project in previous posts here. We used unbleached muslin cloth and regular watercolor paints (Crayola or Prang.)  The kids drew their design on paper first, then put the paper under the muslin.  You can see the lines through the cloth.  Then, they traced the design onto the muslin … Read more… →

On My Nightstand.. Books I’m Reading

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On My Nightstand.. Books I’m Reading

I have a rare moment of quiet.  My 4 year old is out to lunch with her cousins and my 4 month old is taking a nap.  You know you’re a teacher when the first thing you think is.. “ooh!  I can make some signs for my classroom.”  Then, the second thing you think is  “I could write a blog post!”  Maybe I will have time to do both.  It’s really amazing how much you can get done in a … Read more… →

Preschool Arts & Crafts

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Preschool Arts & Crafts

Many of you have probably know I have a 4 1/2 year old daughter.  If you are friends with me on Instagram you have seen pics of her.  I LOVE that she loves art.  She has a creative spark to her and her favorite art materials are oil pastels, watercolors and markers.  She doesn’t like getting messy, so we usually have a wet paper towel or baby wipe nearby.  This summer she went to a preschool camp (which was in … Read more… →

28% off Back to School Sale

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28% off Back to School Sale

I decided to join in on the Back to School sale at TPT! If you have ever thought you’d like one of my PDF packets, now is the time!  I don’t do sales very often.  I work hard on the packets and they are only resources I would (and do) use in my own classroom. The money I earn I use for things like online workshops (to enhance my art/teaching skills), buying books and art supplies or um… this year … Read more… →

Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

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Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

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… →

Secret City Drawings: 3rd & 4th Grade

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Four abstract pencil sketches composed of various geometric shapes and interconnected structures within frames.

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… →

New Set of Art History Sketchbook Prompts: SET #3

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New Set of Art History Sketchbook Prompts: SET #3

This summer, I have been working on creating a new PDF set of Art History Sketchbook Prompts.  The first two sets have been very popular and there are so many artists I want my students to learn about. These cards are a great way for students to do some independent learning if they finish an art project early. This is set #3 of the Art History Sketchbook Prompts, with all NEW artists! These art history cards feature a selection of … Read more… →

Cardboard Chairs and Preschool Bird Art

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Cardboard Chairs and Preschool Bird Art

Hi folks!  What have you been doing this summer? It’s already flying by, isn’t it?  Here is a recap of my summer so far. What I HAVE been doing: keeping Daria busy playdates with friends Children’s museum, zoo, pool, splash parks, playgrounds feeding Desmond and changing lots of diapers organizing my room at school (I will give you a tour of my revamped room when it’s all done.) grilling out, eating icecream, going out to eat family reunion in IL … Read more… →

Review of Multi-Media Art Paper

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Review of Multi-Media Art Paper

Remember these samples I got from the Pacon company?  Several of you were curious about the multi-media art paper, so I decided to test it out. I primarily use watercolor and collage in my personal art and I am always looking for good paper to use.  I first tested this out by painting shapes and patterns with watercolor.  I do tend to use quite a bit of water when blending colors. Here are the results.  Here are the pictures (without … Read more… →

Foreign Language Art Postcard Contest

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Foreign Language Art Postcard Contest

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… →

Action Painting with Preschoolers

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Preschoolers painting with a giant paintbrush made from a cardboard tube on a long paper roll laid out on the ground, engaging in action painting.

The Pacon company sent me some free supplies to try out.  These are what I received.  Since it is the summer and I’m not teaching any classes, I decided to do a project with my daughter who is 4 years old. We rolled out the fingerpaint paper and poured some Crayola fingerpaints . She wanted to paint her pony with the paints.  I let her, because we have so many of those darn things from garage sales.  She knew to … Read more… →

Father’s Day Interview | Grandpa & Dad Questions | Free Printable

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Father’s Day Interview | Grandpa & Dad Questions | Free Printable

I was trying to find a good activity for my daughter to do for Father’s Day and decided to make my own.  Here is an interview printable for your little ones.  Have fun! For the PDF downloads, click the links below.  I recommend printing from the PDF files because they are crisper with a higher resolution. Fathers Day Printable Grandpa Printable

Art Project for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

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Art Project for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

At the beginning of the year when Kindergartners are learning how to write their letters I like to read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom  and teach an art lesson using the alphabet.  Most of the kids have already read this book, but it is a quick read and has a great rhythm.  The kids do love the book.  If you want to get a laugh though, read the one-star reviews on Amazon, lol. Start by painting a paper with … Read more… →

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