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Tag Archives: drawing

Non-objective Drawings by 3rd and 4th Graders

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Non-objective drawing featuring colorful shapes, with a black wave, a blue circle, and multicolored squiggles on a white background.

I love non-objective art. Non-objective art means that the art does not represent or depict person, objects or places.  It is a picture with lines, colors and shapes as the subject. I teach this drawing project every year and the results are always beautiful. The children learn about concepts such as types of line, organic and geometric shapes, shading, values, variety of sizes, variety in general, overlapping, texture (from rubbing plates) and how to categorize non-objective, abstract and realistic art. … Read more… →

Inspired by Artist Justin Vining: Abstract Whimsical Landscapes

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A whimsical landscape with swirling roads, trees, houses, a sun, and various colorful patterns.

This may have been my favorite unit we studied all year!  We looked at the whimsical landscapes of contemporary artist Justin Vining.  Here is one of his paintings: We watched videos of him talking about his influences, watched time lapses of his paintings and emailed him some questions about himself.  He responded to our questions in this interview I posted previously.  This was a perfect artist to study for us because Justin lives in Indiana in a rural area and … Read more… →

Shape Paintings and Color Mixing with Kindergartners

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Abstract painting with swirling patterns, bold black lines, and vibrant colors in shades of pink, blue, and green created using color mixing techniques.

Wow, I’ve been so busy.  Aren’t we all though, right?  But really, this is one of the most busy times of year.  Parent-teacher conferences this week and March is when the yearbook needs to be finished up.  I also put up an art show at the public library (which I will post about later) and we have been working like crazy on our mural in the hallway!  The mural is almost done and I am just waiting until everything has … Read more… →

Art Inspired by Microscopic Things (3rd grade)

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A vibrant watercolor painting with abstract shapes and colorful splashes in various hues like red, green, blue, and yellow, reminiscent of microscopic wonders.

My students are really interested in science and I always love when I can connect an art lesson to things they talk about in their science classes.  This unit came about because on a day when I was absent last month, one of our Science teachers subbed for my classes (we have quite a few part-time teachers at our school and teachers will often fill in for each other when there are absences.) The students went to the Science room … Read more… →

Group Eagle Bulletin Board with Patterned Feathers

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Group Eagle Bulletin Board with Patterned Feathers

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!

Pop Art Portraits: 2nd Grade

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2nd Grade children's colorful and abstract self-portraits inspired by Pop Art, displayed on a board in grid layout.

Hi there!  I have a bunch of old projects I want to post about and I will just post them with short descriptions. This lesson is a popular one for teaching about Pop Art and Andy Warhol. We read the book Andy Warhol (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists). The students drew a self-portrait by looking at themselves in a mirror, outlined them in black pen and then I photocopied the pictures four times. The students colored their portraits … Read more… →

Manga Faces: 3rd Grade

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Manga Faces: 3rd Grade

The creative students at Artisan des Arts made manga self-portraits and I loved them so much I wanted to try it with my own students.  The students used the website Face Your Manga to create an avatar.  (Of course, out of the thousands of symbols, hair details, eyes and other options, we came across two that were not good for kids, so next year I think I’m just going to print out examples of eyes, noses, mouths, etc and have … Read more… →

Mandalas | 3rd & 4th Grade

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Mandalas | 3rd & 4th Grade

Materials you will need: Compass Pencil White paper Things to color with like markers, crayons, colored pencils Sharpies (optional) Crayola Twistable Neon Crayons (optional) Goals: understand the meanings and purposes of mandalas in other cultures learn to use a compass use radial symmetry in artwork develop fine motor skills and craftsmanship personal expression Steps: 1.  Start by showing and discussing mandalas around the world.  There is a slideshow linked above or create your own. 2.  Demonstrate how to use a … Read more… →

Accordion Books | Drawing Scientific Specimens | 3rd Grade

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Accordion Books | Drawing Scientific Specimens | 3rd Grade

Did that get your attention?  How about this? The Science teachers at my school often have the kids create drawings about what they are studying.  One of them asked if I wanted to coordinate and have my third graders do more observational drawing.  I borrowed these fun scientific specimens and some plants from the school greenhouse for my students to draw. If you want to buy some of your own specimens, they are not cheap, but once you have them … Read more… →

Day of the Dead | Symmetrical Paper Skulls | 1st Grade

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Day of the Dead | Symmetrical Paper Skulls | 1st Grade

October 31 to November 2 is the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead.  My first grade students learned about the celebration a bit in their Spanish class and then in art class, we read a story about the holiday and drew these symmetrical skull pictures.  The book we read was Day of the Dead, by Tony Johnston.  It’s a nice story with great pictures.  My only complaint is that the book is very very small, so the kids have to … Read more… →

Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

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Radial Name Designs: 5th & 6th Grade

These gorgeous radial designs were made by fifth and sixth graders by using their name.  You can see all the steps to make these in a previous blog post.  The only difference is that now we use light tables (or hold it up to a window) to trace the design over and over again.   We focus on learning about the characteristics and history of Islamic art, which connects with their studies in Social Studies class. We love using the … Read more… →

Secret City Drawings: 3rd & 4th Grade

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Four abstract pencil sketches composed of various geometric shapes and interconnected structures within frames.

Learn shading!  Practice drawing cubes, spheres and more.  Add dimension and depth to your drawings!  All this can be achieved with SECRET CITY DRAWINGS.  Check out this awesome video.  GUYS, LOOK AT HIS CLOTHES!  amazing. Once in awhile I will show the kids this goofy video and have them draw along for kicks and giggles. If I’m running low on time, we’ll skip the video and just use handouts from his book  (affiliate link to Amazon). The kids practice drawing … Read more… →

Drawing Maps for Figurines with 2nd Graders

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Toy animal figurines, brown houses, and a colorful building are displayed on a map drawn by 2nd graders, featuring blue waterways and green spaces.

I came up with this idea from my daughter’s obsession with playing with her figurines and maps.  She has a few of these map sets that come with a large fold-out map, a book and a bunch of related figurines (they have these at Barnes & Noble). This project taps into children’s natural interest in miniature toys! I showed the 2nd graders this map with some figures (many of them had similar maps at home) and told them to bring … Read more… →

Adventures in Shapes, Shading, Texture and Lines

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An abstract pencil drawing featuring various shapes, lines, and doodles scattered across the canvas with intriguing texture and shading in black and white.

First of all, thanks for being a loyal blog reader (or) welcome, if you are new!  I have a personal update to share with you… I went on medical leave this week and Monday was my last day of work for the time being.  My pregnancy is complicated and I could not work anymore.  The baby is healthy, but physically I need to lay down as much as possible and it is really hard to sit or stand without a … Read more… →

Fruit and Flowers, Mice and Me!

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Bright, abstract painting featuring large flowers, fruits, and leaves against a pink and purple background. This lively piece encapsulates the essence of "Fruit and Flowers.

Fruit and Flowers: I colored in the sketch that I showed you here.  I mostly used colored pencils, watercolor pencils and watercolor paints. A Mouse: My 5th/6th graders are painting animals and my go-to demo is always a mouse or hamster.  I love cute rodents.  The kids are always astounded when I show them how to make furry texture with a fan brush!  So fun.  Do you have go-to images you use when demonstrating techniques? Me: Here I am at … Read more… →

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