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

Tag Archives: collaborative art

Collaborative Mural Inspired by Tula Pink

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A colorful geometric art display featuring various patterned and brightly hued triangles on a green background, inspired by Tula Pink's designs.

I wanted to share our wonderful results of this collaborative mural project inspired by the artist Tula Pink‘s Tridazzler Quilt. This idea was created by Don Masse, of Shine Brite Zamorano. Check out his blog here to see the directions for this project. Here is the Tridazzler Quilt the project was inspired by. We precut squares and triangles for the kids. First, they glued the triangle to the square. Then they used a ruler to draw the lines and then … Read more… →

Bucky on Parade- Group Puzzle Artworks

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Bucky on Parade- Group Puzzle Artworks

This summer, my kids and I had fun hunting for Buckys!  Bucky Badger is the mascot of the University of Wisconsin.  Bucky on Parade  was a community and public art event.  85 painted Bucky sculptures were placed all over the city and surrounding areas.   Kids (and adults) followed the maps to find the Buckys.  Prizes were awarded as kids checked them off their list.  The Buckys were auctioned off to raise money for charity. Here are some pictures of our … Read more… →

Positive Words Banner: Inspiring for Back to School

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An inspiring display with colorful words like "Curious," "Amazing," "Creative," "Awesome," and "Imagine" drawn on a whiteboard, adorned with various decorations.

At the end of the year last year, my students created this colorful and inspiring banner that we are displaying in the hallway now.  We loosely marked out the ABCs on a large banner and kids thought of positive words to go along with each letter.  Then, we used letter stencils of varying sizes to write the words.  These were colored in with patterns and designs. I had this project set up as a choice activity after they were done … Read more… →

Children’s Mural at Church about the Beatitudes

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A colorful illustration of people around a campfire with "Pure of Heart, Humble" written at the bottom.

I realized I never posted pictures of our finished mural at church.  I’ve been so busy with end-of-the-year stuff for school. I worked on this mural all year with the 4th/5th grade Sunday School class.  It is 4 ft x 8ft. These were the best kids to work with! They had great ideas, were mature and got along so well! The process was a long one, with a few mistakes along the way.  We started by getting plywood for our … Read more… →

Cube Mural Inspired by Street Artist Thank YouX

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Two colorful, decorated cubes with drawings and patterns. One side features a goose, resembling the style of street artist Thank YouX.

Earlier this year, my co-worker Jayne found the idea to make a collaborative school-wide paper mural based on the artwork of Thank YouX.  The idea for a student mural originally came from Jenell Novello and you can see the lesson plan write-up on Artsonia.  She also so generously provided the lesson plan and templates on Google docs. Thank You X got his name by accident.  In 2009 Andy Warhol’s spray painted portrait was spotted on a city street in L.A..  … Read more… →

Butterfly Origami Gift

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A wire birdcage filled with colorful origami birds and adorned with vibrant butterfly origami on the outside.

The other art teacher at my school is retiring this year.  I wanted to put together a collaborative present by students to honor her.  We were both hired here at the school 10 year ago.  She loves origami so I knew it had to be something origami-related. I had all of her 7th and 8th grade students learn how to fold origami butterflies.  Now, I am terrible at origami, so I wanted it to be relatively easy to figure out … Read more… →

Collaborative Class Artworks

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Collaborative colorful drawing with stars and text "Wish Upon a Star" in the center. Various stars and designs fill the background, showcasing unique artworks by each participant.

Every year our school has a family FUNdraiser with a silent auction portion.  My art classes always contribute a few artworks to the auction.  This year, I came across an idea on an art teacher Facebook group.  The canvas had the words “You are my sunshine” written across the middle.  Each student contributed a sunshine drawn with Sharpie markers or paint markers.  We used painted white wooden cradled canvases similar to this one. First I did You are My Sunshine … Read more… →

God’s Eyes Woven Wall Hanging

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God’s Eyes Woven Wall Hanging

My 3rd and 4th grade class just finished making woven God’s Eyes (Ojos de Dios).  Students chose yarn and wrapped the strands around the sticks.  Then they were all tied to a large stick I found in my neighbor’s yard.  Some kids made multiples so they could take one home right away. I was surprised how almost all of them had never made these before.  I guess I went to a lot of summer camps where we made stuff with … Read more… →

Large Group Weaving on a Garden Fence

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A fabric weaving activity displayed on a pink bulletin board with a decorative border.

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… →

Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith

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Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith

Have you heard of the artist Shinique Smith?  I just love her artwork!  It’s very gestural, colorful and it just draws me in to look at more closely.  I love the use of fabric with graffiti-like painted marks.  Her art combines traditional art media with non-traditional materials like clothing and stuffed animals.  She is influenced by street graffiti and Japanese calligraphy.  She works in paintings, drawings, installations, wrapped bundles, sculptures and videos.  There was an exhibit of her artwork in … Read more… →

Easy End of Year Art Project: Collaborative Banners

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Easy End of Year Art Project

Are you looking for an easy end-of-year art project?  On the last days of school, I had some students that needed to finish up art projects and others that really just wanted to be done with the school year.  This was a fun and easy collaborative project that many students opted to participate in. I got the idea from Romero Britto’s word artworks, like this one and I think I may have seem *something similar* somewhere at some time.. but … Read more… →

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