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

Birds Activity for Kids Free Printable Downloads

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The cover of the book "Birds" by Carme Lemniscates features a child sitting under birds in a park with trees, offering an engaging kids activity.

Hi! The winner of the Createures game is Karen Riehle. Congrats! I love GIVEAWAYS. Another one will be coming soon in the next couple of weeks! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you.) Candlewick Press sent me a review copy of the book Birds by Carme Lemniscates, along with a few free activity downloads to share with you. See the bottom of this blog post for the bird activity printable downloads. Birds is a thoughtful, poetic homage … Read more… →

ABC Books for the Art Room

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ABC Books for the Art Room

Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win the new drawing prompt game Createures. Enter by reading the details on the last blog post. I love using children’s books in the Art classroom. Over the years I have collected variety of books related to art, artists, themes we study or simply have inspiring pictures. This blog post is a round-up of several ABC books that I like to use in Art class. The first one is called B is … Read more… →

Createures- Art-Generating Prompt Cards

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Createures, a unique card game, features cards with a lion, jellyfish, grasshopper, two-headed creatures, and a science lab. Two game boxes are in the background. The game includes prompt cards for an added layer of fun and creativity.

**Giveaway now closed *** Have you heard of the new art-generating prompt game called Createures? I received a review copy of the prompt cards and an EXTRA COPY to give away for FREE to one lucky reader! ($19.99 value) Here’s how it works. You can pick three “subject” cards and then 1 extra feature card, plus 1 background card. Then you use your creativity and imagination to draw a new creature that combines features from all 5 cards. I love … Read more… →

Glue Line Spider Webs with Model Magic

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Glue Line Spider Webs with Model Magic

I got this idea from my son’s afterschool program… they were making these one day a couple weeks ago and I loved them some much I decided to use the idea for my own classroom right away! My son’s after school program is great, they are always doing fun art projects and they have a wonderful new facility. I would link to them, but for personal privacy reasons I hesitate to put that info online. I did some searching and … Read more… →

Alphabet Monsters

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Alphabet Monsters

My 1st graders had read a variety of ABC books about art and we made letters that were illustrated with objects that started with that letter. To finish up our unit on alphabet related art, we made these cute ABC monsters. I bought the cardboard letters from Discount School Supply. These were colored with Kwik Stix (Amazon affiliate link) and then eyes, hair and mouths were added with construction paper.

Spooky Haunted House Art Project for Kids

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Spooky Haunted House Art Project for Kids

I got the idea for this spooky haunted house picture from this picture I found online. For the background, we did a marker ink printing process using washable markers on plastic ziploc bags. I learned this technique from Lauralee Chambers who does it using tin foil. You simply color with washable markers on a plastic bag, spray with water and then press your paper on the bag and rub the back. I love the mysterious effect it has on these … Read more… →

Mr. Doodle Inspired Doodling Pictures

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A colorful, abstract drawing of a unicorn with a rainbow mane and hearts in the background, inspired by Mr. Doodle’s whimsical style.

My 4th/5th graders learned about the artist Mr. Doodle and watched several videos of him doodling. You can see his artwork on his Facebook page. We talked about emphasis and the focal point and how to make the main image the largest. All of the supporting doodles would be smaller and surrounding the image. Take a look at some of the doodle art my 4th/5th grade students made after being inspired by the work of Mr. Doodle.

Art Journaling Workshop at the NAEA Conference

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Art supplies and colorful journals surround the text: "Hands-On Ticketed Workshop: Art Journaling for Personal Meaning and Creative Development at the NAEA Conference.

Good news! My proposal to lead a hands-on workshop at the National Art Education Association convention was accepted. The convention is from March 26-28 and you can sign up on the NAEA website. My workshop is titled: “Art Journaling for Personal Meaning and Creative Development.” Relax with art journaling and leave with multiple creative techniques you can use immediately in your classroom.  Explore vision boards, collage, watercolor doodling, word play and the art of chance. I’m super excited to lead … Read more… →

Rainbow Order Coloring Template

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Rainbow Order Coloring Template

The first day of school was an orientation day for Kinders and new kids. We had a very shortened schedule and I saw the Kindergartners for about 10-15 minutes. I never feel like I know what the best use of that time is, because it is too short to do any real art projects and it is the first time I am meeting them. So, I decided to read them a story about colors and then do a simple coloring … Read more… →

Outdoor Art Creator Badge- Brownie Girl Scouts

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Colorful birdhouses, a green art piece with sticks, and a leaf artwork are featured in the "Outdoor Art Creator Badge" exhibit.

Last year, my 3rd grade Girl Scout troop did a variety of art projects. One of the badges we earned was the Outdoor Art Creator Badge. Here are some of the activities we did to earn the badge. I thought I would share with you, because these are some fun projects you could do with a group of kids, maybe in an after school, day camp or scout program. Here is a link to the PDF guide for the badge, … Read more… →

Art Class Behavior Reward Charts

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Art Class Behavior Reward Charts

This is a new resource in my shop! I use these as reward charts for free days in my classroom. Each art class kids can earn points for things like quiet listening, being respectful to others, working hard, talking at a reasonable voice level, cleaning up and so forth. Fill in one spot on the chart for each point (for example, color in one paint splotch). When the class fills up the sheet, they receive a group reward. “Free Days” … Read more… →

Open House Idea for Art Class

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Open House Idea for Art Class

At our Back to School night we have parents come in to meet the teachers, learn about curriculum and find out all about the school! This year, as the parents came in to my room, I asked them to answer these questions: Why is art important? & Why should people study art? I left out blank sticker labels and Sharpies for the parents to answer the questions. Afterwards I stuck all of the answers to paper for a quick bulletin … Read more… →

Hopes and Goals Girl Scout Art Project

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Hopes and Goals Girl Scout Art Project

Here is a fun and successful project for kids to do at the start of a new year! We did this with my Girl Scout troop of 3rd graders last January at the beginning of the new year. We talked about setting goals and intentions of what we wanted to accomplish such as personal goals for sports and activities, academic goals, goals for Girl Scouts or to be a better person and friend. It was right at the start of … Read more… →

Growth Mindset Coloring Bookmarks

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Growth Mindset Coloring Bookmarks FREEBIE! You got this! Four crayons surround a bookmark with motivational text.

New coloring package available in my shop! I have been working hard on making these Growth Mindset Coloring Bookmarks for you. First, I know everyone loves FREEBIES! As my gift to you, here is a sample from the Growth Mindset coloring bookmarks. Click on the image for a high quality PDF download, FREE! How to use these? I think they are perfect for a variety of settings…. character education, Back to School activities, after school daycare, indoor recess, free choice … Read more… →

3 Back to School Ideas

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Colorful and creatively designed children's backpacks with various patterns and drawings, featuring rainbows, hearts, and unicorns. Ideal for back to school, these backpacks inspire imaginative ideas among young students.

During the first week of school, you want to be teaching routines and expectations for your art class. I always like to ease into the school year with some simple, yet creative projects to get to know my students. I am going to share with you three fun Back-to-School ideas that you can try in your art classroom. 1. Creative Backpack My students used the template created by Hey Art Mama to make these creative backpacks. (I do not receive … Read more… →

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