I love the results of this dotted pumpkin project inspired by the dotted pumpkins of Yayoi Kusama. I did this art lesson with 3rd/4th grade. (Amazon Affiliate links have been used, at no extra cost to you.) I based our project after the lesson taught on the blog Plastiquem. First, I read the book Yayoi Kusama, From Here to Infinity, which is an inspirational book about her artwork and life. This is on my list of top 10 favorite books … Read more…
I love this lesson! I teach about contemporary artist Justin Vining and the kids explore the qualities of watercolor pencils to create their own whimsical landscapes. You can see artwork from another year at this blog post. You can read my interview with Justin Vining here. I even got this lesson published in a magazine! Here are some of my 4th/5th grade students’ artworks from the end of last year. When teaching this lesson, I show the students some YouTube … Read more…
Art History Folded Petal– Getting to Know You Activity This is a fun and educational “Getting to Know You” activity I did with some classes last year. I have these art history folded petal templates in my shop. On one side are artworks from art history with a little prompt. For example, Dog Lying in the Snow, by Franz Marc. The prompt is “Draw a favorite animal. On the reverse side of the folded petals, the students draw … Read more…
I was on a mission last year to find some excellent books about KINDNESS for kids. I found NINE books to recommend to you. There were others I came across, but these were my favorites. If you have any good recommendations for books about kindness, please share in the comments! Thank you! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used in this post at no extra cost to you.) I think kids need to be taught kindness. They need to be made … Read more…
I am not quite ready to go back to school yet and I am guessing you are not ready either. But, the Art Ed Blogger’s Network is here to help you start planning! Our topic this month is the “first week of school”. A few years ago, I compiled a huge list of tips for the first days of school. These tips were submitted by art teachers all over the world. This gigantic list of tips will help you get … Read more…
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…
Every year my students and I create artworks for our school’s auction. If you look here, you can see some of the auction artworks from previous years. This year, each student in grades K-8 made textured clay circle tiles. We glued them on to several mirrors. The process to make the clay circle tiles is quite simple, yet it teaches the kids several important skills for working with clay. First, roll out a flat piece of clay (called a “slab”). … Read more…
What could be more fun than fairy houses and gnome homes? I don’t know, but let me know if you find out! I’ve discovered that kids love 1) Open-ended projects 2) Getting to choose from a huge pile of random, colorful materials 3) Miniature things 4) Using their imagination. This project is a winner for all of these reasons. I saw a question on an art teacher Facebook group which reminded me of this project my 4th/5th grade students did … Read more…
How does ART fit into STEM? STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math This month’s Art Ed Blogger’s Network topic is STEAM. How do art teachers approach STEAM in the classroom? Should art teachers embrace STEAM? There are many different opinions on STEAM. Personally, I like to bring in different subjects to the art room. I think it’s great that so many of our art projects involve other disciplines. However, I also think art for arts sake is important too. … Read more…
This year, our school has been focusing on kindness and cooperation. In art class, my students created posters to display around the school about kindness, cooperation and playground etiquette. Students cooperated together to make posters about cooperation! Each group received a slip of paper with a cooperation “slogan”. The Power of Cooperation C – Care for each other – Be Kind O – Obey rules O – Offer to help others P – Participate together as a team E – … Read more…
Two and a half years ago I posted this lesson about using Frank Stella’s artwork as inspiration for children’s drawings. I love Frank Stella’s work. After visiting an art museum and seeing an exhibit of the progression of his style, I was hooked. It is so fascinating and there is a lot to look at. The sheer size of these prints are stunning. In case you haven’t figure out by now, my favorite style of art is BUSY, abstract, super … Read more…
One day this summer, my daughter came home from camp with a circle design drawn using metallic gel pens. I thought it looked so cool, I wanted to try it with my students in 3rd/4th grade. I usually teach about mandalas and radial balance at this age level. Mandalas have religious and spiritual significance around the world. They have been used for meditation and relaxation. I showed the students mandalas including Tibetan and Navajo sand paintings, ancient Aztec and architecture. … 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…
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…
My students were treated to a visit by illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh. He is both Mexican and American. He grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City. His images are inspired by ancient Mexican art, especially the Mixtec codex of the 14th and 15th centuries. Like the people and animals in the codex, the figures in his illustrations are always drawn in profile– their entire bodies are usually shown and their ears … Read more…
