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

Symmetrical Felt Wall Hangings

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A colorful, abstract art piece on red fabric with shapes, buttons, and patterns hanging by a yellow string.

For this project, the first graders learned about symmetry and fabric arts.  I tied this lesson into quilt making and the children identified symmetry in some pictures of early American quilts and discussed why people would make quilts and why they would use scraps to sew their quilts. Then, using burlap, felt and fabric scraps, they made their own fabric wall hanging showing symmetry.  We used regular Elmer’s glue to  adhere everything.  At the end, I brought out buttons and … Read more… →

City Collages- 2nd grade

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A city collage of colorful paper houses under a starry night sky with a large purple moon.

The second graders had a lot of fun making these recycled city collages.  I got the idea from this project on Pinterest.  The second graders are studying urban and rural communities, so it ties in with their class curriculum.  I precut a whole bunch of squares and rectangles from magazine pages on the cutting board. Then, the students used the shapes (and also paint chip strips) to construct buildings.  Later, they added colorful tape and stickers.

Book Giveaway Winner

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Two geometrically shaped pieces of art covered in colorful strips of tape, sitting on a white background.

I photocopied some leaves on paper for the kids to play with.  This student used colored tape and marker to transform his leaves.  It thought these were fun. The Alternative Art Journals book giveaway goes to mom2h who said…“I am just starting to explore art journaling, and in fact, have your art journal blog ( and a couple of others) placed at the top of my bookmarks to remind myself to seek out ideas. I haven’t taught it, but we … Read more… →

Quick Tip: Making Time for Art

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Abstract colorful painting with various patterns, shapes, and textures in a white frame.

How do you make time for your own art?   Do you spend time making your own art? Quick Tip:  Keep an art journal where you can try out techniques for your teaching.  I had been trying out all sorts of techniques for Gelli plate printing and I made lots of samples for my 5th/6th grade class.  When I had all of the papers painted, I took some pieces home and arranged them into a collage for my art journal. 

Leaves!– Kindergarten

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Artwork featuring two white leaf silhouettes against an orange background, bordered by a yellow frame evokes the simplicity often found in kindergarten creations.

Always a popular fall activity, we made leaf rubbings last week. Then, using our new Gelli Plates, we pulled prints of the leaves.   To do this, we rolled acrylic paint on the plate.  The kids then rolled textures in the paint using texture rollers.  Leaves were placed on top.  Then, white paper was placed on top of the plate.  We rubbed the back of the paper with our fingers and then pulled the paper off to reveal these leaf prints.                                                                         … Read more… →

Alternative Art Journals Book Giveaway

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Book cover of "Alternative Art Journals" by Margaret Peot featuring various creative art pieces and drawings.

The editors at F + W media were kind enough to send me a review copy of Alternative Art Journals: Explore Innovative Approaches to Collecting Your Creativity, by Margaret Peot.  I anxiously awaited the arrival of the book and it came today.  I love art journals (as you may know) and this book could be a great addition to your resource library.  If you click on the link above you can “search inside the book” at amazon.  There are several … Read more… →

Books and Question about Kiln Shelves

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Two children sitting on grass blowing bubbles, one catching a bubble on her hand while the other blows through a wand.

This week, I received two books that had a few of my activities published in them!  I responded to a call for lesson plans by Gryphon House and was happy when mine were chosen.  These look like fun books for a pre-school or kindergarten teacher.  The activities are geared for early childhood.  I have been seeking out various outlets for publishing, since I have always wanted to be a writer.  It’s also fun to get free copies of the publications … Read more… →

3rd Grade Color Mixing and Self Portraits

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A 3rd-grade child's drawing of a person with glasses and brown hair, raising both hands. The bright, abstract background showcases playful color mixing.

These 3rd grade self-portraits were charming and delightful.  We spent two class periods mixing colors for the background.  Each student experimented with combining colors to see what would happen.  Then, we used construction paper to make the faces and markers to add details.  I guided them step-by-step with tips for drawing and placing the features.  The students used mirrors when drawing their features. 

Halloween Ideas

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Halloween-themed orange craft figure with black circles for eyes, a red nose, and a white mouth wheel, wearing a black string.

Hello!  Halloween is quickly approaching.  It is one of my favorite times of year.  Too bad my daughter (3 years old) is scared of costumes and does not like them.  She has said a firefighter costume *might* be okay and she might possibly put one on.  I’m not doing any Halloween themed after school art classes this year (I have a shrinky-dink one that I am doing this week), but I thought I would re-post some of my fun Halloween … Read more… →

Complementary Color Collages– 1st Grade

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Colorful abstract collage featuring geometric shapes in orange, blue, and neon red on a clean white background using complementary colors.

Complementary Color Collages by the 1st Grade This project introduces the first graders to complementary colors.  I show them the color wheel and I explain how the complementary colors are across from each other on the color wheel.  They are the “opposites”.  If you mix the two of them together you would get a brownish or grayish color.  We talk about the primary/secondary colors and focus on the pairs of red + green, blue + orange, and violet + yellow.  … Read more… →

Alphabet Art: First Grade

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Abstract crayon drawing with overlapping letters and various colorful geometric shapes filling the entire canvas, resembling vibrant Alphabet Art created by a 1st Grade classroom.

This is a lesson I love to teach at the beginning of the year.  The first graders create a picture using letters.  I show them how draw the letters and stack them, twisting and turning the page, making sure to connect the letters.  Below is an example of the shapes formed from the letters.  I really loved this one, because even though the boy used letters (a lot of “O’s) to make the design, it is very abstract and not … Read more… →

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