Near the end of the school year our 5th/6th grade students put on a Medieval Day for the entire school. They researched and planned activities including dancing, food sampling, jousting, catapulting, exhibits and displays and of course, ART! My 5th/6th grade classes made paper mache knight sculptures starting with a newspaper armature. They added Medieval clothes and weapons to accessorize. Some of the materials we used were cardboard, wood, cloth, leather, raffia, doll hair, yarn and felt. One of my … Read more… →
Hi folks! What have you been doing this summer? It’s already flying by, isn’t it? Here is a recap of my summer so far. What I HAVE been doing: keeping Daria busy playdates with friends Children’s museum, zoo, pool, splash parks, playgrounds feeding Desmond and changing lots of diapers organizing my room at school (I will give you a tour of my revamped room when it’s all done.) grilling out, eating icecream, going out to eat family reunion in IL … Read more… →
I am proud to have been published in the following wonderful magazines & books! I would love to write for your magazine or publication. Email me with details. I have experience writing about elementary art, mixed media art and other artists (interviewing artists and writing about their projects.) A World of Artist Journal Pages book Five pages of artwork included Another Encyclopedia of Theme Activities for Young Children book Mixed-Media Weaving lesson plan What Can You Do With a … Read more… →
Happy Halloween! These painted pumpkins were a hit with my first graders. Every year I do some sort of pumpkin project with my students. Whether it is actually painting on little pumpkins or creating an oil pastel drawing, creating art based on the seasons is exciting for the kids. These are similar to Artsy_T’s painted pumpkins. We mixed our paints with a little bit of paper mache (Elmer’s Art Paste) to make them a bit more translucent. (Not a necessary … Read more… →
Perhaps you are new to my blog or you would like to see some of my favorite kindergarten art projects from the past. Look no further! Here is a round-up of my 10 favorites. 1. Cool Hands, Warm Heart 2. Map of My Heart 3. Paper Mache Rattles 4. Texture Teddy Bears 5. Line Sculpture with Wire and Pipe Cleaners 6. The Dot 7. Clay Leaf Dishes 8. Paper Weavings 9. Line Paintings 10. Sunflower Observational Paintings Also, I updated … Read more… →
Welcome to the 4th post in my series On Teaching Art. The first post and the background behind this series is On Teaching Art: Art vs. Craft. The second post was On Teaching Art #2: Organizing Curriculum. The third post was On Teaching Art #3: Integrating Art with Other Subjects. The question posed for this blog post is: “What are the important principles for teaching art that my students should remember? For instance, I can imagine that it’s important for them … Read more… →
As art teachers our hands are covered in glue and paint all day. We are on the go and juggling so many different tasks. We definitely need our own creative outlet. We need time for ourselves… to play, to relax, to express ourselves. Keeping an art journal is a great way to de-stress. I am taking the 21 Secrets online workshop. Obviously, with a limited amount of free time along with a limited amount of disposable income, I have always … Read more… →
Welcome to the second post in my series On Teaching Art. The first post and the background behind this series is On Teaching Art: Art vs. Craft. The question posed for this installment is: How can we organize planning for art instruction? Carrie Birmingham said, “For instance, I can imagine planning around art elements like line and color, or planning based on great artists, or planning based on curricular connections, or planning based on children’s development. There are probably a … Read more… →
I passed out Summer Art Challenge Sheets at the end of the school year last year. Any of the students could participate in it over the summer and then turn in their artwork at the beginning of this year. It is kind of like a summer reading program, where you record what you’ve read and get prizes. Here are the basic parameters of the challenge: “Welcome to the Summer Art Challenge! You are invited to play along and stretch your … Read more… →
First, DON’T FORGET TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY FOR THE PICK AND DRAW GAME!! I will be picking a winner on April 1. Rainbow Fish is an awesome kids book to go with fish art projects. The kindergartners made rainbow fish sculptures from water bottles. I learned about this idea at the NAEA conference. The lady who presented it did it with large 2 liter bottles, but I used little water bottles instead. Steps:1. Cut off the bottoms of the water … Read more… →
The third/fourth grade classes made paper mache masks. We used inspiration from the Pacific Northwest Coast masks and viewed a video about their culture. Here are the steps we used. Start with a papermache mask form (we used some from Nasco). Then, add appendages with newspapers, LOTS of masking tape, pieces of cardboard, yogurt containers, etc. So much fun to build up a mask! After all the parts are very secured with tape (and I mean lots of tape, MORE … Read more… →
We are starting to make rattles like the Native American rattles. Here are the steps so far: Tape a wooden paint stirrer to a small paper plate. Place beans, rice, dry noodles on the plate. Put another paper plate on top and tape shut!  Our next step will be to add paper mache on top and paint symbols on the rattle. We will also add feathers and yarn to the handle. I divided the kindergartners in 2 groups so that … Read more… →
Summer months are slow in blogland for teachers. Most art teachers are taking a break from teaching all day. Some are doing art camps or personal travels, but I know that in the summer months, not as many teachers post ideas, since we’re not teaching full time now. However, summer free time is a perfect time to research ideas, look at art eye candy, experiment and have fun! So, what I would like to do to help you out in … Read more… →
Well, I haven’t updated since this past Sunday, so I will briefly tell you what I’ve been up to.. parent-teacher conferences were on Tuesday. We are in the middle of various projects… monochromatic rhythm paintings (which are awesome and I will share with you later)… Rainbow Fish paintings, bird paintings, American landscape paintings.. wow, I guess we are doing a lot of paintings now. The 4/5s are doing a mosaic/fresco project which I will show you when we are further … Read more… →
@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }@font-face { font-family: “Adobe Caslon Pro”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } The 3/4s viewed a video about Pacific Northwest Coast art. They made a spirit animal mask using similar characteristics. These are made out of paper mache and are painted with a limited color palette. Â
