I wanted to show you the winter food drive bulletin board with lots of snowflakes! It was a great community project for the kids and our Student Council.
This is a clay lesson that has been a big hit with my students. You can see my previous posts about this project here and here. The 4th/5th grade class studies ancient Egypt in their social studies class and they are excited to learn more about the art and architecture in my class. I show them a Powerpoint with an overview of Egyptian art and then they work on drawing a sarcophagus design of their own. I encourage them to … Read more…
We are coming up with lots of good ideas for Spirit Days at our school. The first post on Spirit Day ideas was popular with Google searches, so I must not be the only one who is always on the look out for new and fresh ideas for fun days at school. Many art teachers wear multiple hats and end up leading groups like Student Council or plan school wide events. Here are more Spirit Day ideas we came up … Read more…
I was happy to receive a review copy of I Heard You Can Draw: A Story for Class Artists Everywhere, written by M. D. Savran, who is an art teacher and author/illustrator in the Tampa Bay area. I’m always happy to support other art teachers! The description reads: “Sarah loves to draw. When Mrs. Earl catches her drawing a picture in math class, the entire second grade discovers her talent! Suddenly, everyone asks her to draw pictures for them (strange … Read more…
Another year is rapidly coming to a close, so I thought I would spend some time reviewing my favorite projects and blog posts from this year. Here are my favorite posts, in no particular order! 15. How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor 14. Clay Castles 13. Postage Stamp Art Project 12. Heart Photography Project with 3rd Grade 11. 25 Amazing Books for Teaching About Art 10. Editorial cartoons are a unit I teach every year. We even were … Read more…
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of my blogging friends. These are some cards I made a couple of years ago.
The week before winter break, the first graders made colorful coffee filter snowflakes. 1. Color the coffee filters with washable markers. 2. Spray with a water bottle and watch the colors magically spread like tie-dye. Allow to dry overnight. 3. The next day, fold the circle into half and then half again and half again. Cut out little shapes and pieces of the coffee filter. 4. Glue the snowflake on to a colored piece of construction paper. Glue on confetti, … Read more…
Aren’t these fantastic? I love these pop-up winter scenes. Guess what? I just made a companion Facebook page for my blog! I thought it would be fun to have another avenue to easily share all kinds of artsy inspiration I come across. Most of the Facebook updates will be links to other blogs, articles and interesting artistic things I find around the web. Of course, I will also share things about my blog, but MOST of the posts will be … Read more…
Maybe you are thinking about becoming a teacher or more specifically, an art teacher. Maybe you are already in a teaching program or perhaps you have just started thinking about your future career plans. Do you know what it’s like to be a teacher? What are the best ways to prepare yourself for the job? I was invited to write a blog post about my story of becoming a teacher and to give advice to someone transitioning into a teaching career. … Read more…
Over the weekend, our school had a book fair at Barnes & Noble. There were musical performances by the students, story book read-alouds and an author visit. A percentage of the sales went to our school to buy books for our library. It was great fun and I think we will get a significant amount of books for our school! I was asked to have a craft table with a holiday theme. I decided we would make ornaments and pins. … Read more…
I’m pregnant! I’m due at the end of April and we are having a boy. Holy cow! I still can’t believe it.
Hey friends.. I always love seeing what other people are interested in (especially art books and products) so let me show you what’s on my Christmas wish list this year! 1. The Big Book of Art, an interactive book for preschoolers. Partly for my inspiration, partly for my daughter… Here is what the description says, “This is your first book of art! Grab it, flip through the pages, turn it upside down?what do you see? Scribbles and splotches, shapes and … Read more…
I loved these zig zag dolls by Patricia Saunders that were published in School Arts magazine earlier this year. We have a large tub of fabric and felt scraps that I wanted to start using up. After reading the book Zigzag the students dove into the box of fabric and started creating their own dolls and creatures. We just used regular Fiskars kids scissors (set aside especially for cutting fabric) and school glue. The pieces were glued on to white … Read more…
During the month of December, our Student Council is collecting canned and boxed food items for a local food pantry. Last year we had a “chain of giving” theme, where students could attach a colored chain (designated by grade level) to a long paper chain that traveled around the school. We wanted to have another theme this year that would encourage kids to bring in items. The principal and some of our students came up with the idea of a … Read more…
Are you looking for a last-minute Thanksgiving craft to keep the kids occupied after your turkey dinner? How about a “thankful wreath”? 1. Cut out the inside of a paper plate, so only the rim is left. 2. Cut out construction paper leaves and write one thing that you are thankful for on each leaf. 3. Glue these to the paper plate.4. Gather an assortment of fun “additions”: cut out felt leaves, artificial or real fall leaves, foam stickers and … Read more…
