In my last blog post, I reviewed the book Old Tracks, New Tricks. It is a super cute and creative book. The book itself is good for up to about 1st or 2nd grade, in my opinion. The kids at my school saw me drawing this train track picture and some of the 3rd graders wanted to try it. I’m thinking 1st through 3rd grade might be best for this art project. I will test it with the Kindergartners and … Read more…
Get the whole free download here! I have a fun book to share with you today. Innovation Press sent me a free copy of Old Tracks, New Tricks to review. I selected to receive this book because it looked cute and I thought my 3 year old son would really like it even if it was too young for my classes. I think this book would be most appropriate for Pre-K to grade 2. The book is adorable and so creative! … Read more…
My kindergartners recently made these pretty coffee filter snowflakes. The process is simple. First, color the coffee filter with Crayola washable markers. Then spray with water. The colors will run and blend together. Let dry. During the next class, fold the circle in half three times. Cut out shapes as you would a regular snowflake. Unfold and glue to a black piece of paper. Add designs with metallic paint markers or Crayola Metallic Markers.
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…
Here is a simple lesson to introduce your students to the primary colors. We started out by reading the book Mouse Paint, which is a fun story to teach about primary colors. My kindergartners, while I love them dearly, were having difficulties lately with classroom procedures. We needed to go back to the basics with simple materials until they understood how and why to clean up. I pulled out this idea that I got about 11 years ago when I first … 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…
With the election coming up, my kindergarten classes answered the sentence “If I were President, I would make the world a better place by…” and they drew themselves as President. I got this idea from my daughter’s art teacher, as they did it for President’s Day last year. I started by reading them a book about what a president does. This is one that I found that I really liked. If I Were President by Catherine Stier (affiliate link provided.) After … Read more…
New product alert! I’ve been working on this fun and very educational printable booklet for Kindergarten and 1st Grade in art class. This printable booklet features the ABCs of art class. This book is perfect for Kindergartners and 1st graders. The booklet has a cover and 24 pages students can work on independently or as a class. This would be perfect for substitute lesson plans, centers or as a warm-up in class. The pages are rich with art concepts, some … 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…
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…
Vassily Kandinsky was one of the first pioneers of abstract art. Abstract art is art that does not attempt to show things realistically, but uses lines, shapes, colors and textures to show emotions and meaning. Kandinsky was from Russia and initially went to law school. He was always fascinated by color and in his thirties, he decided to go to art school. Kandinsky thought showing the inner beauty was most important. He believed that color could express … 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 saw this super cute lesson on Hannah’s Art Club and I just loved it. My kindergartners have a whole “teddy bear” unit where they read books about bears, do related activities and have a teddy bear picnic (they all bring in their favorite teddy bear to attend the picnic.) At the beginning of the year, simply cutting out pieces, gluing them and following directions is a huge challenge for 5 and 6 year olds. This project introduced creating texture … 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…
