The 5th/6th graders have been studying Medieval art and we viewed a powerpoint about stained glass windows in cathedrals. The students use glass stain on pieces of plexiglass to make their own picture. We first drew the lines on a piece of paper. Then, we placed the plexiglass on top of the paper. They painted their black lines first and let them dry. Then they use the glass paint to color in the areas.
First, we looked at the art of Bridget Riley and the Op art movement. We read a Scholastic Art issue which features this style of art. If you don’t get these magazines, they are a great investment. Each year, we subscribe for a class set of this magazine. Then, I save them each year in an envelope labeled with the issue’s title. After several years, you will have a collection of lots of subjects to choose from. Both of these … Read more…
This is a tried-and-true art teacher lesson plan. The students enjoyed learning the story behind Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting. We read an article about his famous painting. They also enjoyed seeing various parodies of this artwork. They envisioned their own parody of this famous masterpiece. You can also read this book about his artwork:
This lesson plan is an idea I tried at one of the National Art Education Conferences. This is such a fun project because it gives you the experience of paper pulp painting, but without the blenders or mess. One thing I will be sure to remind the kids of next time is to be sure to tear the paper into really small pieces. The larger pieces fell apart. We coated these with a modge podge after to secure them completely. … Read more…
I wanted to introduce graphic design to my 4th graders and I thought a magazine cover would be super fun. I was able to check out the mobile lab computers for one of my classes, but for the other unit, the cart was already checked out, so those kids are doing something else completely hand drawn. I showed them a short powerpoint about graphic design elements, quickly showed them my example and set them off to create their own magazine … Read more…
This is one of my favorite lessons for kindergartners! First, we identify and classify the colors as warm or cool. Then, we choose all the warm colors we have (different shades of oranges, yellows, reds). Then the first day, the paint their whole piece of paper with warm colors. After they have placed these on the drying rack there is usually about 10-15 left of class, so they sketch some dinosaurs from pictures that I have show them. The following … Read more…
The 1st graders looked at art that was about water and then created their own underwater collage using tissue paper, foil, cellophane and drawings of underwater creatures.
Frank Lloyd Wright: The 2nd graders discussed Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings. We analyzed how he integrated his buildings with the surrounding nature. The students worked collaboratively to build intricate buildings out of wooden blocks. Next, they represented these buildings with a visual drawing and infused them with their own creative elements.
This unit focused on recalling a family memory and creating a picture about this story. We read about the artist Faith Ringgold and her story quilts.
I was reading the teacherartexchange listserve from the Getty museum, which is a very cool list serve, and I felt really sorry for one teacher who only has $100 for a budget that serves 350 students. She was wondering what other typical budgets were. Here is the response I sent her, which might help you also to find good deals for your classroom: “Wow, 0 per year is ludicrous. I spend more than that each year for my own personal … Read more…
@font-face { font-family: “Cambria”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 … Read more…
On Friday, the 7th/8th graders taught the younger kids for part of the day. One of the projects they made were these lovely tissue paper flowers in a construction paper cone vase. I loved them!
Secret Cities The 4/5s learned how to draw 3-d forms and include shading and shadows. They stacked these shapes to make a “secret city”. I got this idea from a book about drawing by Mark Kistler. This artist had a series of television shows that taught kids how to draw 3-d pictures step-by-step. Here is a video of a “secret city” mural.
This is a worksheet from Carla Sonheim’s Art of Silliness class. I recommend this class, it’s very fun. The worksheets she sends you each day are very unique drawing activities. What I am doing with these is photocopying them for kids in my class to work on when they are finished with their regular art projects. (She allows photocopying for classroom use in schools, which is awesome!) Some of the kids did a drawing exercise on Friday in class where … Read more…
In my blog perusing, I found this cool junk mail tutorial. Wouldn’t it be a fun project for kids to recycle all those pieces of junk mail we all receive? The catalogs and flyers that come in the mail are out-of-control for teachers! Here is her website
