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Search Results for: shape

Art Projects that Go Along with Children’s Books

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A selection of children's books on a gradient background, featuring titles like "It's Okay to Be Different," "Elmer," and "The Shape of My Heart." Each book boasts colorful, engaging covers and inspires art projects that beautifully complement the stories within.

Are you looking for art projects that go along with children’s books? Here are 10 art projects that go along with children’s books!  I love to include children’s books in my art lessons.  It’s a great “hook” to capture their interest and also it provides a way for students to see beautiful illustrations and learn about concepts, cultures and other people.   In this post, I share a few of my favorite children’s books that go along with art projects.  Amazon … Read more… →

15 Easy Winter Art Projects for Kids

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15 Easy Winter Art Projects for Kids

Hey, Elementary Art Teachers! Are you looking for some fun winter art project ideas to do right now?  I have lots of winter art projects I have done over the years.  Save this blog post, because you can look at these ideas later when you are out of ideas. If you have signed up for my newsletter, you have already received this fun round-up, but I figured it was something that would be useful to other art teachers as well who haven’t … Read more… →

Grabie 100 Watercolor Set: My New Favorite

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Discover the Grabie Watercolor Set, a favorite among artists. This exquisite collection features 100 vibrant watercolor paints in a sleek metal case, complete with paintbrushes, a colorful floral box, and a blank watercolor sheet ready for your creativity to unfold.

As you may know, I have a little collection of watercolor sets and I love trying out new ones. Previously, my all-time favorite watercolor set was the Sakura Koi travel set. It was just so portable, handy and the colors are vibrant. When I saw this new set by Grabie, I was intrigued and wanted to try it out. 100 yummy colors! Grabie sent me a sample to try out and review for the blog. I was NOT disappointed! (Amazon … Read more… →

Free Viking Ship Templates | Art Project

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Four colorful Viking ship artworks with decorative sails on a blue and white background; text reads "Viking Ship Artwork, free templates for your next art project!

My first grade students had a blast making these Viking ship pictures. They have been studying about the Vikings in their Language Arts & Social Studies class, so it was a fun cross-curricular project. (See more images of Viking ships here.) I have provided free templates for you to use! You can find them for free at my shop here. Here’s how you use them: I hope you enjoy this project as much as my students did! It was a … Read more… →

Test Driving Some New Art Materials!

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A selection of art materials, including new markers, watercolor crayons, gel pens, and metallic outline markers, awaits on a table for some creative test driving.

One of my favorite hobbies is discovering and finding new art supplies. Watch as I test out some fun, new (to me) art materials. I’m not sure how new they are, but they were all exciting finds for me. As an Amazon influencer I receive a small commission through links on this blog (at no extra cost to you.) The earnings go to support the upkeep of this website. I am completely honest in my reviews and won’t tell you … Read more… →

Art Sub Plan- Free! Geometric Shaded Animals

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Illustration of a black and white shaded animal with geometric patterns and instructions for shading. It includes steps for choosing, drawing, and using pencil within shapes, along with defined goals and value scale—an ideal art sub plan.

This is an art project perfect for a substitute lesson plan. When you have to take a sick day, you never know if your sub is going to have an art background or not. This is a simple, one page art handout with goals, steps and an example. The second page has a value scale to practice shading on. In order to print out the full, high resolution handouts, visit my TPT shop for the FREE download! This was actually … Read more… →

Eagle Mural with Summer Camp

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A colorful abstract depiction of an eagle, reminiscent of a summer camp creation, seamlessly blends vibrant, overlapping shapes against a stark black background.

This is a very large canvas we painted during our summer camp! A family donated some big canvases that they decided not to use at home. This canvas is about 5 feet tall! This was available for the kids to work on throughout the week during summer camp when kids wanted to take a break from the other proejcts they were doing. It is now proudly hanging in our stairwell.

Abstract Art Project: Mixed Media Explorations

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Colorful poster titled "Mixed Media Explorations" showcases an art project with two illustrated worksheets, featuring diverse art materials and a captivating piece of abstract art.

This is a fun art project I like to use to get students exploring different types of materials at the beginning of the year. It’s also a low-pressure way to introduce mixed media and abstract art. Set up the room by placing a wide variety of art materials in a centrally located place in your room. The way this works is that you start by drawing an abstract design on your paper using a variety of shapes and lines to … Read more… →

Vincent: Starry Starry Night book

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Book cover of "Vincent: Starry Starry Night" featuring a child in a garden filled with sunflowers and irises, capturing the essence of Van Gogh.

Hello! I wanted to share with you this sweet new book I received as a review copy. This book is so tender and lovely and has a fantastic social-emotional connection. This book was inspired by the song by Don McLean. Starry, starry night Paint your palette blue and gray Look out on a summer’s day With eyes that know the darkness in my soul. (Don McLean, “Vincent”) The book is called Vincent: Starry Starry Night (Amazon Affiliate links used. I … Read more… →

Art Sub Plan for Elementary Students- Animals in Cars!

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Illustrated animals in cars shaped like food items provide the perfect creative art assignment for elementary students, including detailed drawing guidelines ideal for an engaging art sub plan.

Hello! I have been working on a series of “print and go” substitute teaching plans for elementary art class. These will be set up with goals and steps clearly written for a sub. You can print off these handouts for the students, gather supplies and have things all set to go in case you have an emergency illness and need to stay home. Some I will be offering for free on my blog and others will be in my shop. … Read more… →

What To Do On the First Day of Art Class

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Colorful watercolor frame with a paintbrush and palette surrounding the text "First Day of Art Class, Projects & Books.

Hello! I am already seeing lots of posts in Facebook groups asking what to do in the first few days of art class. In this post, I will walk you through what I plan to do this year in my classes. This is very similar to what I have done in other years. First, I start all classes with basic introductions and talking about the room and art class. We go over the rules and expectations. I use a video … Read more… →

Creative Sub Plans: Cut Paper Art Idea

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Paper collage of a campsite featuring a blue tent and a campfire, set against green hills and a sky with white clouds.

I found this post in my draft folder. I had written the post and then it was right before Covid hit, so somehow I missed posting it! This is one of my go-to sub plans. Use up the paper in your scrap bin and make a picture just using cut paper shapes. All you need to do to prepare is leave the scrap box available and provide a few examples. You can print these out or make your own! I … Read more… →

Drawing Activities with Lynda Barry

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A drawing of a smiling monkey holding a heart that says "I'm so glad you're here!" with numerous hearts surrounding it on a whiteboard.

In April, I had the pleasure of attending the National Art Education Association conference in Minneapolis. I was really excited because Lynda Barry was going to be one of the keynote speakers. I have been a fan of her work for many years. Lynda is a comic/graphic novel artist, author and teacher and is known for her quirky, autobiographical work. Her raw and expressive comics encourage readers to explore their own creativity through writing and drawing. She has taught creative … Read more… →

Making Zines Art Project for Kids

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A display of six zines and comics on a striped fabric surface, including "A Simple Guide for Making Friends," "Life as an Axolotl," and others with various illustrations and text, showcases a creative art project for kids interested in making zines.

If you want to see the awesome zines my students made, check out my Kids Zine blog post by clicking here. If you are looking for my zine template, it is here. Yesterday I went to a really fun event called the Madison Print and Resist Zinefest. I have been to this before and it has always had loads of really interesting zines. I was on a mission this time though. I decided I am going to do a zine … Read more… →

Foam Printmaking

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A yellow and black foam printmaking artwork depicts a stylized dinosaur-like creature with rectangular shapes and surrounding triangles.

Recently, I did styrofoam printmaking with my 4th/5th grade classes. Styrofoam printing is a relatively easy way to introduce printmaking to a group of kids. It is messy and can be challenging, so I’m providing a video demonstration in this blog post. The materials needed are: For this project, I gave the students an open-ended theme. They could choose either 1. Something from Greek mythology (they were studying ancient Greece and Rome) or 2. Something from a book they read. … Read more… →

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