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How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation

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Three young girls in white dresses dance on a grassy lawn in front of a large white tent with cars parked nearby.

I decided to take the summer off from teaching any classes or workshops.  This is the first summer in about 9 years that I haven’t worked or taught any workshops at all.  Daria will only be little once!  We’ve been having a blast with many activities. Swim Lessons Daria has really loved taking swim lessons.  While she is at her lesson, I’m not really supposed to “hover”, so I’ve been either working out in exercise center (there’s a window so … Read more… →

Free Art Videos to a Good Home & Re-Art Swap!!!

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Three educational art DVDs: "Dropping in on Matisse," "Principles of Design," and "Getting to Know Color in Art."

Three free VCR tapes to a good home!  Just leave a comment.  First come, first serve.  Only in the US please. What is the story behind these videos?  Well, this weekend I volunteered at one of my favorite events of the year… the Re-Art Swap at Absolutely Art, a local art gallery.  You bring in bags of old art supplies that you don’t use and can pick from piles of stuff that other people bring in… all for free!  It’s … Read more… →

Cloth Paper Scissors article

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Cover of Pages magazine featuring art journals, a red crab painting, and an article about creative book and art journaling projects.

I am honored to have an article published in the Summer 2013 edition of Cloth Paper Scissors PAGES magazine.  It is on the newsstands now.  The digital version is available here. I wrote about my watercolor doodles and showed how to photocopy the paintings, cut them up and use them in art journal pages.   I have a lot of these types of paintings on my blog, like here, here, and this page using the watercolor doodles. Cloth Paper Scissors does … Read more… →

Lego Art Project Round-Up

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Colorful background of LEGO bricks with the text 'LEGO Art Project Round-Up' in a yellow box at the center.

Keeping with the Lego theme, I thought I would round-up some of the coolest Lego art projects I’ve found on the internet.  Thanks to all these people for their awesome ideas! 1.  Lego Drawings from Shine Brite Zamorano 2.  Lego Stamping from Filth Wizardry 3.  Designing your own minifigure with this template Check out these cool lego figure designs from The Art Teacher’s Closet. Our school is building an addition, so I thought at the beginning of this coming school … Read more… →

Lego Brickworld Convention, 2013: Part Two

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A collage of LEGO creations: a man with a green apple face, an astronaut, and a detailed spaceship model displayed at the 2013 Brickworld Convention.

First off, I just want to say that I had a fabulous time at home yesterday tuning in to all of the “ridiculously relevant” presentations from the Art of Education online conference.  First ever online art teacher conference!  Hats off to Jessica for organizing it!  What a lot of work I’m sure it was.  It was nice to see a lot of familiar names from the blogging world and I learned some new things.  There were several Ipad ideas presented … Read more… →

Lego Brickworld Convention, 2013: Part One

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Lego Brickworld Convention, 2013: Part One

Last weekend I took a trip with my husband and daughter to Schaumburg, IL to see the Lego Brickworld Convention.  My husband is an avid Lego collector and builder.  As an art teacher, I saw some fun things I snapped pictures of to share with you.  It was really great to see kids and parents together enjoying a fun hobby.  Many of the exhibits were made by adult Lego builders and others were made by parents with their kids.  Here … Read more… →

On Teaching Art: Things to Think About

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On Teaching Art: Things to Think About

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… →

New Art Teacher Blog Directories

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Elementary Art Blog Directory" displayed on a colorful, paint-splattered background.

There are lots of great ideas on the internet and I have enjoyed reading so many art teacher blogs.  There are over 300 art blogs on the art teacher blog directory.  That is a lot of blogs to browse!  Some are older and haven’t been updated in awhile.  Once in awhile I will notice someone on a forum or blog saying “Help!  I’m switching to middle school! Any good ideas?”  I thought it would be more useful to have the … Read more… →

15 Spirit Week Ideas for School

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15 Spirit Week Ideas for School

So, you’re in charge of Spirit Week!  Do you need some good ideas? (See how I used a photo with the kids’ faces obscured?  Don’t use pictures where the kids are identifiable unless you have permission from the parents or school.  This photo was on our public school website so I grabbed it from there.)   Be sure to check out my newer post “10 More Spirit Day Ideas for Scho0l”.   Spirit Days can be fun scattered throughout the … Read more… →

Clay Pinch Pot Monsters with 2nd Graders

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Clay Pinch Pot Monsters with 2nd Graders

This is a tried and true clay lesson for kids.  Who doesn’t love cute monsters? The 2nd graders started by making pinch pots.  This handout shows you how. Turn the pinch pot on its side and add eyes, teeth, ears, tongues, feet and other details.  We painted ours with acrylic and tempera paints.

Featuring Magazine.. new issue is almost here!

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Hi!  Happy Summer! When I am not teaching art to little kiddos, I spend some of my free time writing articles and submitting them to various magazines.  I am a contributing editor for Featuring magazine, which is a relatively new international art magazine.  I am so proud of our magazine and I wanted to share our latest issue with you. Wowza, Issue #4 is almost here!  We’ve been working really hard on this issue and even though we’ve had many … Read more… →

Summer Time Plans

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Summer Time Plans

Phew.  I can’t believe another school year is over.  I was just thinking yesterday that it was crazy that I have been teaching for 11 1/2 years already.  I’ve been at my current school for 7 years!  Don’t the years all start to blur together?  When you try to remember classes you had years ago the memories are fuzzy.  It’s amazing how every year there is more to learn and new things to try. The yearbooks finally came in, the … Read more… →

2nd Grade Oil Pastel Landscapes

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A child's drawing featuring a river, mountains, palm trees, a small house, and a pond under a blue sky. This delightful landscape appears to be made using oil pastels by a 2nd grader.

This oil pastel drawing project is inspired by the artwork of Paul Gauguin, in particular his painting Tahitian Landscape. To build up a little enthusiasm, when the kids arrived to class there was an envelope at their seat.  I told them to open the envelope and see what was inside.  I had printed off pictures of Tahitian Landscape, laminated them and then cut them into puzzle pieces.  The kids worked quickly to put together the puzzles.  Then, I introduced the … Read more… →

Silhouette Paper Cuttings for 3rd and 4th Graders

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Silhouette paper cuttings depict a bird flying near a castle with two towers and a central, tall structure against a white background.

Did you know Hans Christian Andersen was an accomplished paper cutter?  He created some very intricate and amazing silhouettes. I used a chapter from the book The Amazing Paper Cuttings of Hans Christian Andersen to teach about his paper cuttings. Perhaps if your students are reading fairy tales, this would be a great author/artist to incorporate. The third and fourth grade class drew silhouettes on black paper (using regular pencils) and cut them out.  (Some chose to create their picture … Read more… →

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