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

Valentine’s Projects

Children weaving colorful threads on a large cardboard loom in a classroom setting as part of their Valentine's projects.

 Both of these ideas I borrowed from other people’s recent blog posts.  You caught me red-handed!  I’ve gotten so many good ideas from other art teacher’s blogs.  Go ahead and check my blog roll on the side of my page and you can see some of the other ones that I read. Here are some students working on a gigantic weaving!  I’m super excited about this project.  It is an “extra” project that kids can work on when they are … Read more…

Circular Weaving

A circular weaving featuring colorful feathers, yarn, and bells artfully attached, arranged on a white background.

The 2nd graders made circular weavings this week.  Some are still finishing up.  They are like the ones we made at the weaving camp I taught.  Here is the big jumble of yarn that I have in one of the boxes.  I just put this out and the kids pulled out the yarn they wanted from the jumble.  I hate to waste yarn (or any art supplies) and this tangle of yarn is a tad bit overwhelming to untangle.  They … Read more…

Styrofoam Valentines Prints

A variety of colored paper with intricate heart designs and prints, displayed on a flat surface, perfect for Valentines.

Here are some Valentine’s Day prints I made out of a styrofoam printing plate.  You can use those styrofoam meat plates or, like I did, order the styrofoam printing plates from an art catalog (like Nasco).  These are great for little kids to print with.  All you have to do is draw with a pencil onto the foam.  Then, using water based printing ink, roll it onto a tray using a brayer.  Then, roll the inked brayer onto the foam.  … Read more…

One World One Heart– Blog Hop and Giveaway

Illustrated woman riding a crowned bird, with "One World One Heart: Blog Hop & Giveaway," and event dates Jan 30-Feb 17, 2011 in the background.

One World One Heart One World One Heart was created in 2007 by Lisa Swifka as an event hosted to connect bloggers with one another.  Each of the blogs participating hosts a giveaway.  You can find a list of participants/blogs here.   This year, I am participating!  Welcome to anyone who has stopped by my blog through this blog hop.Here’s a little about me:  My name is Marcia.  I am a K-6 Art teacher in Madison, WI.  I’m 31 years old, have a husband named … Read more…

Sketchbook Pages

Colorful abstract art with flowers, leaves, and text that reads "and under my feet here, and love in our hearts, today is the happiest birthday," as if painted on the pages of a sketchbook.

These are two pages I made while “taking” the online Strathmore Visual Journaling Course.  Pam Carriker led us through the process of using photocopies of some of our old collages, cutting them up and adding layers of gesso and paint prints.  The top one uses portions of old collages and the bottom page does not.  With the bottom page, I started by painting circular shapes with watercolor paints.  I did some writing with white pens and smears of chalk pastels.  … Read more…

Pointillist Trees

A pointillist painting of people relaxing on a lawn near a river with trees; there are umbrellas and a black dog.

  The 3/4s painted Pointillist Trees.  They have studied trees in Science.  We learned about the artist Georges Seurat by reading Scholastic Art magazine.  Students identified and described Pointillist paintings.   They created a Pointillist painting of trees showing dimension and form by color mixing.  Tips:  use the back end of the paintbrush, a q-tip or a small brush.  Keep the size of the paper small (9×12″ is plenty).

Grandma Moses Landscapes — 2nd Grade

A child's drawing of a snowy landscape with houses, a person, a reindeer, a snowman, and mountains in the background. This 2nd grade artwork has a charming quality that brings to mind the folk art style of Grandma Moses.

The goals for this project are to Classify artworks as landscape, still-life or portrait. Identify and use foreground, middle ground, and background in two-dimensional works of art. Use size relationships and simple depth techniques to show space in an artwork. We learned about the artist Grandma Moses and created a winter collage using various materials.  We read a couple books about Grandma Moses and looked at her artwork. These are two books about Grandma Moses which are great for this … Read more…

Kindergarten Penguins

Handmade penguin figurine on paper with a drawn blue sky and fish, making it a delightful kindergarten project.

The kindergartners are studying penguins in their classroom, so we made penguins out of model magic modelling compound.  One trick to get the parts to stick better is to use just a bit of regular hand lotion on your hands to make the model magic just a bit softer and squishier.  Then, we made a triorama and decorated the background for a habitat.  One thing I like about the trioramas is that it’s a good way for the kids to … Read more…

Kaleidoscope book winner

True Random Number Generator  Result: 1 Powered by RANDOM.ORG   Pam Speaker you are the winner.  Please email me your address!  you can email marciadotcom @ yahoo . com (no spaces).  Congrats! Pam Speaker said… This sounds like a neat book! I’m a first year teacher and new to blogging! I find myself looking for books often to spark creativity in my lessons and in the art room. This giveaway is a great idea :]  

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