• Subscribe to Blog via Email

    Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 4,622 other subscribers
  • Banner with colorful artwork promoting an art shop featuring kindness coloring pages, artist activities, and resources for teachers.

Photoshop Tutorial: How to Create Photo Collages for Your Blog

By | | ,
2 Comments
Golden-themed graphic titled 'Photoshop Tutorial: How to use Photoshop Elements to make blog pics' with colorful artwork below.

Nora asked, “Hi Marcia,  I love how you lay out photos on your blog! Could you please tell me how you do this? Thanks! My blog is http://www.waitsfieldart.blogspot.com” I use either Photoshop Elements or Picmonkey to create the collages of artwork for my blog posts.  If I want to share several examples of artwork I often shrink them down and place them side by side or in a grid layout, like this: I also create photo collages as a “header” … Read more… →

Types of Lines in Art Handout

By | | ,
5 Comments
Types of Lines in Art Handout

I am working on some quick assessment sheets for key concepts in art class. I came across this famous lines handout from The Bees Knees Cousin.  I’m also not too big on worksheets and we rarely do them in art class, but they can be good for some fine motor practice and assessment.  I liked the famous lines handout and tried to download it from Scribd, but I couldn’t get it to work.  So I ended up making my own … Read more… →

Sand Art Book by Japanese Artist Naoshi & Giveaway!

By | | , ,
13 Comments
A colorful book cover titled "Ice Cream Work" by Japanese Artist Naoshi, featuring a cartoon girl on an ice cream cone vehicle in a field of strawberries.

I have an interesting and quirky book to show to you today.  The book is called Ice Cream Work by Naoshi and the cool thing is that the pictures are made entirely of colored sand!  I was given a copy of this book to review and a copy to giveaway.  To enter the giveaway for a copy of this book, simply leave a comment on this blog post. The book is very Japanese in style and reminds me of other … Read more… →

Painted Initials with First Grade

By | | , , ,
1 Comment
Five colorful, abstract art pieces with patterns and dots in a gallery-style layout, each uniquely bordered, display painted initials to add a personal touch.

One of the best parts about lesson planning and blogging is the ability to get all sorts of new ideas quickly on the Internet.  This was a fun lesson I saw first on The Busy Librarian. We read the book The Dot and the students received papers with their first initial drawn in pencil.  The students then used crayons to draw dots and circles on their initial.  Using watercolor paints, they painted dots and circles and made marks in the … Read more… →

Kindergarten Painted Bears

By | | , ,
Leave a comment
A pair of painted bears: one wearing a blue outfit and the other a green shirt. Text above reads "PAINTED BEARS," making it a fun addition to any kindergarten classroom.

I saw this super cute lesson on Hannah’s Art Club and I just loved it.  My kindergartners have a whole “teddy bear” unit where they read books about bears, do related activities and have a teddy bear picnic (they all bring in their favorite teddy bear to attend the picnic.) At the beginning of the year, simply cutting out pieces, gluing them and following directions is a huge challenge for 5 and 6 year olds.  This project introduced creating texture … Read more… →

Reader Mailbag

By | | , ,
3 Comments
Reader Mailbag

From time to time I receive comments on blog posts or emails from readers that might be interesting to other art teachers.  These new Reader Mailbag posts will highlight questions and comments that I think are intriguing and you will too! Elizabeth asked, “Do you think it’s crucial to be an extremely talented artist yourself if you’d like to teach it?”   Wow, that is a great question!  First, I think it depends on what level you are planning to … Read more… →

Paper Line Sculptures with Kindergarten

By | | ,
2 Comments
Paper Line Sculptures with Kindergarten

I usually start the year with kindergartners learning about and using lines.  In previous years we have made line paintings and line sculptures with wire and pipecleaners.  Another fun project we made was line windsocks by rolling up line paintings and adding tissue paper streamers. We’ve done line drawings (check out what my old blog used to look like before I moved it over to this website.) This year I was reminded by Cassie Stephens of a project I used … Read more… →

Art Project for Dot Day

By | | ,
Leave a comment
Dot Day Art Projects

Another Dot Day has come and gone.  I’ve seen lots of dot projects all over the internet already.  Here is what my kindergartners made this year.  You can read all of the lesson details on this previous blog post.  I didn’t do Dot Day with all of my classes, because I did a big Dot Day thing last year.. which you can see all of our fabulous artwork on last year’s blog post.  If you don’t know, International Dot Day … Read more… →

Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith

By | | , , , ,
8 Comments
Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith

Have you heard of the artist Shinique Smith?  I just love her artwork!  It’s very gestural, colorful and it just draws me in to look at more closely.  I love the use of fabric with graffiti-like painted marks.  Her art combines traditional art media with non-traditional materials like clothing and stuffed animals.  She is influenced by street graffiti and Japanese calligraphy.  She works in paintings, drawings, installations, wrapped bundles, sculptures and videos.  There was an exhibit of her artwork in … Read more… →

Summer Art Challenge Display

By | | , , ,
Leave a comment
A colorful bulletin board displays various kids' artworks, including paintings, crafts, and paper cutouts created during a summer art challenge.

At the end of the year last school year, I passed out Summer Art Challenge sheets.  Each of the students who participated received a certificate and a prize or two or three depending on how much of the challenge they completed.  Visit this past blog post to read about the challenge activities. Here is the certificate I passed out.  I blocked off my name and the school name/year, so you can use this award sheet and just add your name … Read more… →

Easy Collaborative Art Banners with Motivational Words

By | | , , ,
1 Comment
Colorful "Word Banners" header featuring illustrated words: Read, Wonder, Succeed, Smile in vibrant patterns.

  At the end of the year in June, I posted about a collaborative word banner project I did with all of my students.  Write inspirational words using block or bubble letters on large banner paper.  Outline with paint.  Color patterns and designs inside with markers.  Use printouts of Romero Britto‘s artwork for pattern inspiration. I also used this as an option for students who finished their other art projects and wanted to help out.  I saved them for the … Read more… →

Art Games and Puzzles for an Enrichment Center

By | | , ,
2 Comments
Enrichment Center featuring colorful blocks, toys, puzzles, and games, including Spot It!, Floor Puzzle, and Pick a Paint.

I have a bookshelf in my classroom that students can go to when they are done with their class assignments.  I also have free choice days where students can select from a wide range of activities.  Since students finish at all different times it is a good idea to have art enrichment activities for them to do.  I like to have low mess activities with little extra guidance needed for those students that finish early.  Here are some of the … Read more… →

First Day of Kindergarten & 1st Grade Art

By | | , ,
5 Comments
Child's drawing of a person on a giraffe by a tree and pond, with text: "I had art today! My art days are Tuesday & Thursday. 1st Grade Art is fun!

We had our first week of school!   Beth Carter posted wonderful pictures of her students drawings on the first day with the title “I had art today!”  I borrowed the concept and made sheets for my kindergartners and first graders to take home on their first day of art class. Here is the PDF download of “I Had Art Today!” I had my students draw a picture of themselves as an artist or a picture of themselves in class with … Read more… →

Art Room Organization

By | | , , , , ,
6 Comments
Art Room Organization

I love organizing things, especially art materials.  It makes it easier to find things you need when your room is organized!  I am always revamping my organizational systems and I feel like my room now is arranged pretty well for my needs.  I am sure I will find some things that need tweaking over the next few years. On each table I have a plastic drawer set labeled with pencils & eraser, glue sticks & scissors, and markers.  On the … Read more… →

Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings

By | | , , , , ,
2 Comments
Illustration of a tree figure and a green bear with a water gun, labeled "Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings.

After looking at the art of contemporary artist Nicolas Lampert, my students combined two or more different objects or creatures to create hybrid drawings.   Here are the steps to this lesson: 1.  Start by discussing the machine animal collages and the machine insect collages by Nicolas Lampert.  Ask questions such as” How do you think Nicolas made these pictures? How do they make you feel? Why do you think he combined animals or insects with machines? How would these … Read more… →

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