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

Learning about Lines

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Learning about Lines

Lines are an excellent starting point for lessons with Kindergarteners.  To begin this line unit, we read the book Lines That Wiggle.   The students used colored tape to make straight lines across their paper.  We talked about horizontal, vertical, diagonal and ziz-zag lines. During the next class period, the students used tempera cakes to paint a variety of lines:  wavy, loopy, dotted, dashed, squiggly, spiral, jagged and more.  Aren’t these lovely and expressive? After the painting project, we moved … Read more… →

Paper Mache Maracas with Kindergarteners

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Paper Mache Maracas with Kindergarteners

Aren’t we always looking for ways to relate to other subjects?  This project is perfect to connect with your music program at school. Materials you will need: plastic Easter eggs (one per child) plastic spoons (2 per child) bean, rice or plastic beads for the inside to create the noise masking tape Elmer’s Art Paste bowl, water, whisk (to mix the paper mache paste) paper towels paint decorative washi tape Goals: make connections between music and art learn about maracas … Read more… →

Printmaking with Christmas Ornaments?? What!?

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A vibrant art journal spread with colorful snowflakes and stars in various shades on a multicolored background.

Another printmaking experiment for you!  I bought some felt ornaments and sparkly snowflake decorations from Target on clearance.  Valentine’s Day is also a good time to get decorations. Here is how I created the background shown below. Snowflake:  Place the snowflake decoration on the page.  Use spray inks to spray over the snowflake (I like the Dylusions Ink Spray, but you can also make your own by pouring liquid watercolor into a small makeup spray bottle.) Star: Use an brayer … Read more… →

Printing with Paperclips

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Close-up of a grid of purple square spirals arranged neatly on a beige surface.

I checked out the book Print & Stamp Lab from the library and there was a cool idea in there with printing with paper clips (among many other found objects.)  When I was at Target, I found these cool purple paperclips and decided to try it out. First, find a scrap wooden block to use as a base.  Place layers of double stick tape on top of the block.  Firmly press your paper clips on to the base.  You can … Read more… →

Top Posts of 2014

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A box of 32 colorful crayons with various shades visible through a transparent window, ideal for All About Me projects.

Hi!  I hope you all had a very merry holiday season.  We had a great December here, other than our kiln setting off a sprinkler at school and causing some minor flooding and damage.  (That was a disaster.)  I usually do a year in review on my blog every year just for funsies and it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. First I will share my personal highlights (in chronological order) and then I will share the 10 most … Read more… →

Learning about Patterns, Shapes and Henri Matisse

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Learning about Patterns, Shapes and Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse is one of my favorite artists.  I love his bold colors and beautiful shapes.  While teaching about patterns, painting, collage and shapes, I recently introduced his artwork to my kindergarteners and 1st graders. First, we learned about his artwork through this Henri Matisse presentation.  We also read the book called Oooh! Matisse, which is a fun, colorful book (but not very informative about his artwork.)  The book is good for discussing and thinking about the shapes in his … Read more… →

Easy No-Cook Salt Dough Recipe

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Square piece of salt dough with a heart imprint, on a purple background with the recipe for making No-Cook Salt Dough.

My daughter had a make-your-own play doh night at her preschool (YMCA, which has been really great so far!) and I thought it would be a fun activity for my little students right before winter break.  We used the recipe that they used at my daughter’s school, because the dough came out really nice and soft!  There are only three ingredients: regular flour, salt and alum (can be found in the spice section at your grocery store).  Well, and water.  … Read more… →

Celebrate Oops Day!

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Celebrate Oops Day!

Have you read the book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg?  Celebrate Oops on January 15, 2015! It is a super fun, interactive book that teaches kids that it’s OK to make mistakes!  From their website:  “CELEBRATE OOPS! is an initiative designed to build confidence and turn accidents into teaching moments. Launching on January 15, 2015 CELEBRATE OOPS! will instill an important life lesson (it’s okay to make mistakes) and foster a great spirit of creativity in your classroom and/or library.” Watch a … Read more… →

Manga Faces: 3rd Grade

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Manga Faces: 3rd Grade

The creative students at Artisan des Arts made manga self-portraits and I loved them so much I wanted to try it with my own students.  The students used the website Face Your Manga to create an avatar.  (Of course, out of the thousands of symbols, hair details, eyes and other options, we came across two that were not good for kids, so next year I think I’m just going to print out examples of eyes, noses, mouths, etc and have … Read more… →

Practice Rolling Clay Coils with Kindergarten

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A child’s hands sculpting from clay on a white paper background laid on a wooden table, practicing with rolling clay coils.

I wanted my Kindergarten classes to practice rolling coils with clay before we started on our actual clay project.  I had written out all of their names on long pieces of paper at the beginning of the year, but decided to change the project I had planned. I gave each child a paper with their name written on it.  They practiced rolling clay coils with their fingers and then bent the coils to fit on the letters.  This was a … Read more… →

Sale at TPT

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Banner with the text "6 Fabulous Art Projects for a Creative Start to School" and three children's art pieces displayed.

There is a big sale going on at TPT from Dec. 1-2ish. Let’s celebrate super cyber savings! The sale runs: December 1st 12:01AM (ET) through December 2nd 11:59PM (ET) Many sellers will have 20% sales, plus use the promo code: TPTCYBER to add an extra 10% to your entire order. I have two new products in my shop I’d like to tell you about.  First is a Henri Matisse PowerPoint that is appropriate for students in grades K-2.  (Since K … Read more… →

Primary Colors & Piet Mondrian

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Primary Colors & Piet Mondrian

Materials you will need: images of Piet Mondrian’s artwork construction paper precut black strips glue stick red, yellow and blue crayons (or markers) scissors Goals: identify, describe and analyze the artwork of Piet Mondrian use balance and space to create an interesting composition develop fine motor skills by using glue sticks and coloring solidly identify the primary colors Steps: 1.  Show and discuss the artworks of Piet Mondrian.  Ask the students to describe the artworks and tell about his style … Read more… →

Kid’s Gift Guide: Make an Art Kit for a Holiday Gift!

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Kid’s Gift Guide: Make an Art Kit for a Holiday Gift!

As an art teacher, I’d like to encourage you to give gifts that inspire creativity in children.  Instead of more plastic trinkets, stuffed animals or electronics, how about something that will get your kids building and creating?  An art kit is always a great idea. Things to include in an art kit: 1.  Paper such as the Strathmore Visual Journal or a watercolor pad. I love this watercolor paper from Target. 2. Neon Gel Crayons:  I love the smooth feeling … Read more… →

Mandalas | 3rd & 4th Grade

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Mandalas | 3rd & 4th Grade

Materials you will need: Compass Pencil White paper Things to color with like markers, crayons, colored pencils Sharpies (optional) Crayola Twistable Neon Crayons (optional) Goals: understand the meanings and purposes of mandalas in other cultures learn to use a compass use radial symmetry in artwork develop fine motor skills and craftsmanship personal expression Steps: 1.  Start by showing and discussing mandalas around the world.  There is a slideshow linked above or create your own. 2.  Demonstrate how to use a … Read more… →

Art with Words | 1st Grade

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Art with Words | 1st Grade

The 1st graders looked at the art of Stuart Davis and read some of the words, letters and numbers in his artwork.  They analyzed his pictures and tried to figure out why he might have included text in his art.  I teach about him every year and the kids create artwork with letters and numbers.  You can see the ones we made last year at with this  blog post. This year the students wrote words in an artistic way and … Read more… →

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