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What to do with all of your kid’s art?

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Kid's artwork on a mantel with a "Because Nice Matters" sign, apples, a clock, and cups.

Here is a post that I am putting on my school class website for parents: Children are prolific artists.  I have found some interesting ways to document your child’s art journey and display favorite works of art. 1.  First, you could create a book!  Take photographs of your child’s drawings, sculptures and paintings and use a service like walgreens.com to create a photo album.  Many of your child’s artworks are already photographed by me on our Artsonia gallery.  You could … Read more… →

First Days of School

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We start our teacher meetings this Thursday and Friday.  School starts this coming Monday!  I was looking back at my blog to see what I did last year on the first days of school.  I did this creativity exercise.  I’m still up in the air about what we’re going to do for the first week.  I have some good ideas, but I haven’t finalized anything yet.  What are you going to do?  What have you done in the past? Keep … Read more… →

Inspirational Book I’m “reading”

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I am going through this book called The Element, by Ken Robinson.  I’m actually listening to it in my car on cd!  I find that listening to books on cd is a good way to pass the time in the car.  I’ve only listened to about a half an hour, but I already recommend it.  It is all about creativity, nurturing different types of intelligences, finding and developing talent and pursuing a career that utilizes all of your creative talent.  … Read more… →

Book Review!

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Orange retro bus displayed against a black-and-white background.

Here is a really cool book I found. It’s called “Willy Whyner, Cloud Designer.”  I’m not really sure how I would use this in the classroom, but the pictures are awesome.  It’s about a boy who’s a dreamer and thinks about clouds.  Then he goes into the business of designing clouds. Look!  His parents look like the people from American Gothic! Clouds in the sky! A moon cloud!  A whale cloud! Even advertising clouds! Don’t forget to leave a comment … Read more… →

Giveaway, Part 2

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A goat with an orange ear tag numbered 3 looking into the camera with a curious expression inside a pen

Part 2 of my Giveways starts now!  I am cleaning out my book shelves.  Several of the books I have are duplicates from my home collection with the ones my school has.  Since I have reached 200 followers, I want to thank the people that read and respond to my posts and contribute awesome blog posts in return.  Even if you have never commented before, now is your chance.  If you would like a chance to win this book, I … Read more… →

Changing and how you communicate

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Three colorful abstract art pieces created by 5th and 6th graders, with "EAGLE Art Nest 5/6" written in the center panel, beautifully communicate their creativity and imagination.

I changed the look of my home page on this blog and changed the title to “Art is Basic”… the url will remain the same, because I figure I don’t want to change that and have people be confused.   I also updated my school’s art page.  I changed the whole look of it and deleted all the old posts from last year, so it’s ready for a fresh new start. You can see that here: What do you all have … Read more… →

Women Artists

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Two abstract, ghostly figures: one dark with a hat, the other light and faceless, holding flowers, set against a muted background.

I would like to introduce to you some of my favorite women artists.  Molly, over at Her Speak, posted about some of her favorites.  Without further introduction, here are some to get you thinking, exploring and looking. Shinique Smith Media:  Fiber, Mixed Media Installation Status:  Alive I just discovered her artwork this year.  She had a solo exhibit at the contemporary art museum here in Madison.  Her work is totally up my alley.   Sandy Skoglund Media:  Installations, Photographs, Conceptual … Read more… →

Old School Throwback!– with YOUR LINKS

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Colorful abstract cityscape with tall buildings, black ladders, squares, and dots against a blue, green, and red background.

Here is a an OLD lesson that I taught about 6 years ago at my previous school.   I think these turned out lovely.  These chalk drawings were inspired by the Pueblo dwellings of the Native Americans. We read about the lives and homes of these people and then drew a picture of some homes inspired by the style of their dwellings.  We used a chalk stencil method to make the background… similar to this technique, but we cut out the … Read more… →

Buried Treasure

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A vibrant, abstract artwork featuring colorful flowers, stars, and swirling patterns with the word "alive" in the center.

The full collage/doodle Seth Apter is hosting a Buried Treasure blog hop.  Each participant reposts a really cool blog entry that they had posted a while back, that may have been buried after some time, a hidden gem of sorts.  This is my entry, which I had posted a while back at my other blog.  You can see all of the other hidden gems at his blog.   I was into some insane doodling here…. lots of watercolor paint, markers, … Read more… →

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