My first grade students had a blast making these Viking ship pictures. They have been studying about the Vikings in their Language Arts & Social Studies class, so it was a fun cross-curricular project. (See more images of Viking ships here.) I have provided free templates for you to use! You can find them for free at my shop here. Here’s how you use them: I hope you enjoy this project as much as my students did! It was a … Read more…
Do you have an art journal? I love to make collages in mine. Here is a heart collage that would be fun for kids to try. I started by lightly sketching a heart on my page. Then I tore off pieces of washi tape to add pattern. Next add torn pieces of paper, scraps and stickers. Cut out words from magazines or use printed positive words and phrases. Continue covering the heart piece by piece, right up to the edges. … Read more…
One of the first projects my 4th/5th grade students created this year were personal “About Me” folded squash books. The kids were introduced to a simple foldable bookmaking technique and then they personalized them with drawings and collages about themselves. Each section of the book had a prompt to get them started. I showed them a video demonstration of how to assemble the book and I provided square templates printed on card stock. Both the video, templates and instructions are … Read more…
Two pages of high resolution downloads are available for free at my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. This is fun for fall leaf inspired projects!
In my last post, I showed you some of Sabrina Ward Harrison’s artwork and talked about what she shared with us at her artist visit. Her artwork is very inspiring, messy and beautiful. Please check out the other post to learn all about this artist. After the presentation, smaller groups of kids in grades 3-6 had a collage workshop with Sabrina. She demonstrated how to use Mod-Podge to paste down pieces of her pinwheel shape. While she demonstrated the pinwheel … Read more…
We recently had artist Sabrina Ward Harrison visit our school to give an artist talk and workshop with the kids. Today I am going to introduce you to her artwork and life as an artist. In Part Two of this post, I will share with you some of the amazingly diverse mixed media collages that the students made in response to learning about her artwork. All of the artwork on this page was made by Sabrina. Her message to the … Read more…
Here is a fun and beautiful Valentine’s project! I call it “Confetti Hearts” with a side of Matisse. This idea came to me after seeing these painted hearts on Pinterest. Start by tracing a heart template or free handing it if the kids are older. Then using one of my favorite products, Kwik Stix, add dashes and dabs of the “paint” all over the heart, like confetti. You can surely use oil pastels or paints, but Kwik Stix have the … Read more…
Little artists love digging into a big box of fabric scraps to find the perfect patterned piece that speaks to them. We have an upcoming Fine Arts Night with the theme of Animals. We are calling it “Wild about the Arts”, which someone suggested in the Facebook art teachers group. The 1st graders made these fun creature collages. First we read the book Zigzag by Robert Souci and looked at the illustrations of fabric dolls. The students made creature collages, either … Read more…
Are you looking for a fun art project to try over winter break with your kids? Here is one that is sure to be festive, fun and creative! What you will need: watercolor paints pencil watercolor paper paint brush cup of water markers. For my own art, I prefer Micron markers, Sakura Koi markers, and Molotow White markers. stickers of your choice glue magazines assorted paper scraps of your choice 1. Begin by drawing a Christmas tree shape on a piece of … Read more…
Personal Collages: 4th and 5th Grade We read the book Emily’s Blue Period, which is about a girl whose parents are divorcing and now she has two homes. Emily was learning about Pablo Picasso, his Blue Period and his collages in her art class. She goes through her own “blue period” of sadness. Her art teacher asks the class to make personal collages about their homes. She doesn’t know what to do because she has two homes now. She ends up … Read more…
For me it is always a challenge to keep up with Kindergarten art projects. I see my classes twice per week for 40 minutes, so they get to do a lot of art! They go through lessons and projects quickly, their attention spans are short and they have difficulty sometimes with very basic skills. Here are three Kindergarten art lessons that are fairly easy to prepare for, teach important art concepts and use the same selection of materials. The first … Read more…
We have some chicks at school. Chicks, like baby chickens. One of the science teachers taught the kids about the life cycle of chickens and the kids watched as the eggs were incubated and hatched. They grow so quickly! With all the excitement of the hatching chicks, the students were thrilled to create some chick artwork. Here is a mural/bulletin board that students in grades 2-3 worked together on. Next, we did a step-by-step project in kindergarten to make a … Read more…
Paul Klee was an important painter in the history of modern art. I have always been drawn to his colorful, abstract pictures. Children can relate to the simple geometric shapes and bold colors. His art has been related to Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. Swiss artist Paul Klee painted the Castle and Sun with simplified shapes, but viewers can easily see the way the shapes form a castle or city-like scene. For this lesson, we are going to paint colorful swatches … Read more…
I usually start the year with kindergartners learning about and using lines. In previous years we have made line paintings and line sculptures with wire and pipecleaners. Another fun project we made was line windsocks by rolling up line paintings and adding tissue paper streamers. We’ve done line drawings (check out what my old blog used to look like before I moved it over to this website.) This year I was reminded by Cassie Stephens of a project I used … Read more…
Another Dot Day has come and gone. I’ve seen lots of dot projects all over the internet already. Here is what my kindergartners made this year. You can read all of the lesson details on this previous blog post. I didn’t do Dot Day with all of my classes, because I did a big Dot Day thing last year.. which you can see all of our fabulous artwork on last year’s blog post. If you don’t know, International Dot Day … Read more…
