You are part of the puzzle! Each student in my older grades (3-5) made a puzzle piece about themselves and their interests. I should have written: You are a PIECE of the puzzle. Or, I could have said: We all fit together. I know, it’s kind of corny, but the puzzle piece making was fun. I bought a set of wooden puzzle pieces (the package came with two pieces) and I traced them onto several pieces of tagboard to make … Read more…
Patty Palmer from Deep Space Sparkle asked me to share tips about assessment with her Member’s Club. I am no expert on assessment, but I thought I could share a few good ideas about what works for me when assessing my students in art. If you are not a member of the Member’s Club, you can still see my 3 top tips for assessment by watching the video below. How do you assess your students? Do you have any tips … Read more…
I’m pretty excited my article in the October issue of Arts & Activities is on the cover! I wrote about an art project my students did after learning about the artist William Wegman. I had the awesome opportunity to interview Wegman on the phone and include the interview as a large part of the article. I’m very glad that they included a bunch of my students’ artwork (3rd grade). You can read the whole article here: http://pubdev.ipaperus.com/ArtsandActivities/AAOctober2016/?page=20 If you would … Read more…
Today I am going to show you some fun pictures of super cool art teacher finds that I picked up at an Art Re-Swap. My city has an art supply swap at least once a year and it is probably one of my favorite events of the year! How it works is people bring in old supplies and “stuff” that can be used in art projects. Then, you can take anything you want from the piles of stuff other people … Read more…
Hello friends! Did you know Art is Basic has a newsletter? If you sign up for my newsletter, you will receive emails about once or twice per month from me. The newsletters will point you to blog posts you may have missed, tell about new products and give you words of encouragement or art teaching tips. I will never spam you or send you too many “salesy” emails. You can sign up with this form below (you might have to … Read more…
Hi! Welcome back to another artsy school year! I had a brilliant breakthrough this summer while reading Facebook Art Teacher groups online. Someone had created a video about their rules and procedures for their art room. I saw that and I thought that I DEFINITELY needed to do that! As a K-4/5 art teacher (I no longer teach the 5th/6th graders.. that grade level went to our new art teacher), I see a lot of classes. But, I still probably … Read more…
At the end of last year my students created some inspirational quote artworks using artistic lettering and their choice of media. I typed up a list of inspirational quotes (below) for them to choose from. Many of the students had their own ideas and wanted to use a quote they already knew and liked. I saved the artwork for the beginning of this year so that we would have some artwork with inspirational sayings on them for the start of … Read more…
Student-directed vs. teacher-directed and choice vs. “cookie cutter projects” (I hate that phrase, it’s so annoying) are big discussions with art teachers online lately. This is an example of how teacher-directed projects (perspective and interior models) can include lot of student choice and opportunities for creativity. When I went to the Art Institute of Chicago this Spring, I was lucky to be able to see the traveling van Gogh bedroom paintings exhibit. My friend Dawn told me that she used … Read more…
I have been working on making printable activity sheets to put into sketchbooks for my students. My plan is to have them work on some of these for “bell ringers” or 5 minute warm-ups while they are waiting for the rest of their class to arrive (my students travel from class to class on their own and some trickle in minutes later than others… it’s a complicated scheduling story which I can explain if you are interested.) The sketchbooks will … Read more…
Earlier this year, I bought the packet “Teaching the Elements of Art” made by Teaching in Paradise. This shape tracing project was included in the packet. With Courtney’s permission, I am sharing the beautiful results my students produced. We used pattern blocks that I had in my classroom. The students arranged the blocks to make shape pictures and traced them. After the designs were traced, they outlined them with a darker color and colored them in. Some of the students … Read more…
**This is a cross-post from my personal art blog. To enter the giveaway for a free copy of this coloring book, please leave a comment on the original post.** Today I am part of a TLC Book Tour for a new coloring book called Inkspirations Fruit of the Spirit. There are a few reasons I decided to be a part of this book tour. 1) I wanted to show you how we have enjoyed coloring books. 2) This is a … Read more…
First, I want to give a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who follows my blog. I appreciate your support in reading my blog, leaving comments, pinning images and sharing my posts. Whenever I get a positive comment or email from a reader, it just MAKES MY DAY and makes all the time worthwhile. Without this kind of feedback and support, I would not continue blogging! A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who bought resources during the TPT Best Year Ever … Read more…
Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a huge Back-to-School sale. I am joining in. I keep my prices affordable as it is, but this sale is a huge steal! I have over 50 art teacher resources available in my shop. Everything is 20% off (EDIT: except the HUGE GROWING BUNDLE, because that is already ridiculously cheap) August 1-2. Add the coupon code: BestYear for additional savings (28% off total). I have some resources you might be interested in! NEW: Elements of … Read more…
I like to start the first art class of the year with a children’s book about art and something quick and easy to get the kids making art. Here are some of the books I have used over the years on the first day of school or throughout the year. I like to read general books about art & creativity on the first day. I save the books about specific artists or topics for when we study those. Here are … Read more…
Here is a fun poster that can be used to hang in your classroom or print out for kids. These are 10 tips to help kids deal with strong emotions. Click to download the free PDF: 10 Ways to Calm Down The download is sized at 11″ x 14″ but you could probably easily choose to fit to 8.5″ x 11″ in your printer settings. Here is the backstory behind why I made this poster. I am a Girl Scout … Read more…
