Isn’t this graphic the cutest?! I am part of an Art Ed Blogger’s Network which is a collective of writers who blog about a certain topic each month. At the bottom of the post is a link to all the participating bloggers. The theme this month is about Summer Art. What is an Art Journal? An art journal is a visual diary… it is place for artists to express themselves using imagery, words, colors, patterns and designs. An art journal … Read more…
This month the Art Ed Blogger’s Network is talking about student engagement and participation. When I tell people that I am an art teacher, some people who say ”Wow, that must be so much fun! I bet the kids all just love art.” Well, there are fun times, but there are times when not everyone is engaged in the media or project we are working on. I’m sure this happens in all classrooms. Sometimes it is due to lack of alignment … Read more…
Hi! Welcome back to another artsy school year! I had a brilliant breakthrough this summer while reading Facebook Art Teacher groups online. Someone had created a video about their rules and procedures for their art room. I saw that and I thought that I DEFINITELY needed to do that! As a K-4/5 art teacher (I no longer teach the 5th/6th graders.. that grade level went to our new art teacher), I see a lot of classes. But, I still probably … Read more…
I hope you are having a good summer. I have spent some time doodling with watercolors, my favorite artsy thing to do. Today I am going to show you how I transform puddles of watercolor to flower doodles. Here is an example of a finished watercolor flower doodle. This step-by-step is fun, summery art project for you or your kids to try. I like to share what is fun and exciting for me, because maybe you will take something from … Read more…
I have a fun creativity drawing project and excellent children’s book to share with you today. I came across this book called A World of Your Own by Laura Carlin and thought it looked intriguing, so I ordered it. I love the illustrations in the book and the story encourages children to think of how they would imagine a world of their own. On a day when I was out sick, I left this book for the substitute teacher to … Read more…
Thank you to all who voted for my blog in the AOE Blog of the Year contest. While I did not win, I am still happy to have been a finalist. Congrats to all of the bloggers in the contest! Today I am going to show you a super fun project that my students worked on this week. This summer we planted a garden. My husband diligently set up a plastic fence to keep out the rabbits. We watered it … Read more…
We have received our artist trading cards from Mini Matisse‘s MEGA HUGE ATC SWAP! My students were very excited to receive their cards. I divided the cards up into bags for each class and then the kids randomly chose numbers to pick their order. Then, they were able to come up to the front and make their selection. They were very pleased to find out where the card came from! Here are the cards that were mailed to us from … Read more…
Halloween is almost here! We’ve been having fun with a variety of Halloween art projects. Kindergartners made collage pumpkins with a variety of tactile materials like feathers, yarn and foam shapes. First graders made texture rubbing pumpkin pictures and traced leaves from construction paper. Second graders made pumpkin patch pictures with water soluble crayons, paints and Sharpies. Happy Halloween!
While vacationing in Michigan this summer, I came across some really cool public sculptures of different themed ducks. You can see pictures of these sculptures on this previous blog post. At the beginning of the school year, I showed my students lots of examples of these public sculptures and we talked about how one of these public art exhibitions works. City of St. Joseph Public ART St. Joseph Ducks Facebook Page Then, they used a simple duck template and transformed … Read more…
At the end of the year last school year, I passed out Summer Art Challenge sheets. Each of the students who participated received a certificate and a prize or two or three depending on how much of the challenge they completed. Visit this past blog post to read about the challenge activities. Here is the certificate I passed out. I blocked off my name and the school name/year, so you can use this award sheet and just add your name … Read more…
Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you an interview with Margaret Peot, author of the new book Stencil Craft. Earlier this week I wrote a book review, with the chance to win copies of this book (there is still time to enter). You can see that blog post here: Stencil Craft Book Review and Giveaway. Since I am an elementary art teacher, Margaret is also going to share a fun project to do with little children. 1. What … Read more…
Summer is the perfect time to create art with your child. Nature provides endless inspiration for art. Here are three fun art activities using leaves that you can do with kids or just on your own! This post was created as part of the Elmer’s Crafty Bloggers team. Learning Activity Topic: Using nature to inspire art Educational Foundation: 1. Identifying and sorting items from nature 2. Using shapes and variety to create a composition 3. Learning about negative and positive … Read more…
This year my professional goal was to learn more about contemporary artists and to create art lessons inspired by these artists. I taught about William Wegman and Justin Vining. We looked at contemporary artists inspired by microscopic things and living artists that used Disney as inspiration. At the end of the year, my students learned about Shinique Smith, Nicolas Lampert and various artists that used stuffed animals as a theme in their art (blog posts to come soon about all … Read more…
Our silhouette mural is finished! It went pretty quickly once we got started. Each of the figures represents different subject areas at school. Students in grades 4-6 did most of the painting and I had some students in 7-8 grade do touch-ups, edging and fine details. I made a video slideshow of the steps we made to paint the mural to show for the whole school. The school presentation has lots of photos of students in it. I made … Read more…
Many of my students contributed feathers to this giant eagle bulletin board. Our school is Eagle School and I wanted to do a group artwork where many kids could participate in designing a piece of the picture. I was out sick one day and I had my students each create a patterned feather with the substitute teacher. If your mascot is not an eagle, you could do this bulletin board with a peacock or really any bird would work!
