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How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor Paints – 5th and 6th Grade

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White, fluffy clouds float against a serene backdrop.

Clouds.  Aren’t they amazing? Two years ago I took a very helpful watercolor painting class.  One of our assignments was to paint clouds. Connecting Art with Science I love to make connections with other subjects.  This one is perfect for my 5th/6th grade because in Science class they study cloud identification.  They come into my class with a broad understanding of clouds which makes my lesson richer. Clouds and Art Resource The Clouds in Art Gallery is amazing.  This gallery … Read more… →

Cross Hatched Animal Drawings- 3rd and 4th grade

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A pencil sketch of a bird in flight with a long beak and black and grey shaded wings, using cross-hatched animal drawings techniques.

These lovely cross-hatched animal drawings were made by my 3rd/4th grade class.  The students used pictures from Zoobooks magazine for reference and practiced hatching and crosshatching techniques. I love using illustrated books to connect with our curriculum.  For one, it gives a real life connection.  Second, it might spark their interest in reading more quality books. We  looked at the beautiful cross hatched drawings by Brian Selznick, author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck.  Those are both awesome … Read more… →

Back to School and Cute Ornament Gifts

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Child's drawing of Santa Claus inside a snowglobe, with white dots representing snowflakes.

After the long winter break, we are back to school! The week before school got out, I was home sick on that Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, we had a snow day on Thursday and Friday, so it’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve been at school. When I came back there were some holiday presents given to me by students. Here are two adorable ornaments I received. My daughter loved this beautiful bird! Handmade ornament by a student. Isn’t this … Read more… →

Celebrating 2012– Highlights of My Year

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Colorful, whimsical design with the quote "Live in the sunshine & embrace today," surrounded by flowers and patterns.

I read Carin’s post today about her creative achievements of 2012 and it got me thinking “what would be on my list if I were to make one?”  At first I thought, well, I don’t have a whole lot to say, but then I thought back to all the little things I am proud of, that made me happy and experiences I had this year that were fantastic. I’m not going to lie, this Christmas season I was not fully … Read more… →

Papermache Masks– 3rd and 4th grade

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A colorful handmade mask painted in blue and green tones, adorned with feathers, inspired by Pacific Northwest Coast Masks.

This is an art project that I repeat every year, because it is such a great process for the kids… starting with an initial sketched idea, building an armature, applying paper mache, painting and adding embellishments.  I tie this lesson to the Pacific Northwest Coast masks. You can see masks from previous years here and the process photos here. Thank you if you voted for me in the Art Ed blog of the year contest!  While I did not place … Read more… →

Holiday Round Up

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Holiday-themed paper backgrounds with white paper snowflake cutouts arranged in a grid pattern.

Two of my classes made pictures frames like these: They turned out really cute and I did not take pictures until after the kids glued their pictures in, so I did not want to post any of the frames with their pictures in it. This year, I did not do too many holiday art projects, but here is a round-up of some that I have done in the past. Sock Snowmen  Snowflakes with Glitter Snowglobe Pictures Picture Frame with Tooling … Read more… →

Glass Fusing

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Colorful handmade glass pendants featuring abstract designs, crafted using glass fusing techniques, laid out on a light surface.

The fourth-sixth graders made these glass fused pendants.  We are gluing the “bails” on the back to make necklaces.  The kids are going to give these as holiday gifts to a family member or friend.  They each made two pendants. This is the first time I have done fused glass with kids.  I used the how-to guides from the System 96 website and ordered the glass from Delphi glass. Have you done fused glass in your kiln before?  If so, … Read more… →

Free Printable Holiday Card to Color

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Two bears in festive winter hats adorned with holly and snowflakes, framed by a decorative border. Text: "Merry and Bright.

Free Printable Christmas Card! Marit, founder of Featuring magazine, suggested that we all make print and color holiday cards to post on the website. This was perfect, because now my holiday card is done for school.  For the past few years, I have made little cards from my artwork to use as thank you notes at school.  If a kid gives me a holiday card or gift I will give them one of my little artwork cards.   Some kids at school … Read more… →

Mixed Media Canvases with Kids

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Colorful abstract painting with floral patterns, vibrant hues, text reading "love," and decorative border designs, created using mixed media techniques.

Thanks for your kind comments about my fingers!  They are actually healing much faster than I expected. As you might know, I am a lover of all things mixed media!  I also enjoy occasionally teaching an after school art workshop for my students (I’d love to do more, but since my daughter goes to daycare it’s a bit tricky.)  I thought painted canvases would be a great gift for kids to give someone in their family, so I decided to … Read more… →

Egyptian Clay Sarcophagus– 4th/5th grade

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Hand-drawn eagle artwork with intricate designs, one on blue paper, and one on a craft object resembling an Egyptian Clay Sarcophagus, signed "Jenny." Ideal for a 4th or 5th grade project.

These are the fun sarcophagi the 4th/5th graders made from clay.  We spent a few days learning about Egyptian art and drawing them on paper.  See my previous post about the drawings. Due to my finger problem, I’m not going to type out full directions for the clay sarcophagus.. but we traced the template onto slabs of clay for the top and bottom, built the bottom up with coils and then carved designs in the top of the box.  Kids … Read more… →

Vote in the Art Ed Blog of the Year contest!

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Exercise your right to vote! I just found out from Jessica over at The Art of Education that my art education blog has been selected as one of the finalists to win “Art Ed Blog of the Year!”    There are so many great blogs on this list and they are all ones that I follow on my blog reader.  Take a look at all the ones posted and you will get so many good ideas for your teaching.  Art is Basic … Read more… →

Found Object Faces– 1st grade

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A child's artwork of a face crafted with ribbons, flowers, buttons, and other craft items on paper, signed "Norah" at the bottom left.

(these are the projects I burnt my fingers on!)  USE LOW TEMP GLUE GUNS!!! Anyways, these are really charming and fun projects. The 1st graders learned about recycled art and how to use unconventional materials in art.  We read 2 books by Hanoch Piven, which feature portraits made out of objects. The children brought in objects from home that represented aspects of themselves and we assembled the parts into faces in art class.   We used foam board and matboard for … Read more… →

Winter Collages

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A vibrant blue background featuring an array of colorful paper snowflakes and other whimsical cut-out shapes scattered across it.

My posting is going to be limited for a little while.  I burnt four of my fingers on a hot glue gun yesterday and had to go to the urgent care.  Basically the glue dripped on four fingers on my left hand… I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge peeling the hot glue off my fingers and crying.  Definitely a shock to the system.  They are ok now… just some throbbing on and off.   I ordered low temp glue … Read more… →

Frogs in a Pond (with Monet) 1st Grade

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An abstract painting of a frog with colorful shapes in the background, inspired by Monet.

I love lessons where I can tie in different areas of study, art history and art techniques!  This is a project I developed that incorporates study of frogs, Monet and watercolor painting. To start this project, we learn about the artist Claude Monet and his paintings of ponds and lilypads.  We read a book about Monet from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series. (This series is awesome for read-alouds in class.  I love the picture books about … Read more… →

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