Another year is rapidly coming to a close, so I thought I would spend some time reviewing my favorite projects and blog posts from this year. Here are my favorite posts, in no particular order! 15. How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor 14. Clay Castles 13. Postage Stamp Art Project 12. Heart Photography Project with 3rd Grade 11. 25 Amazing Books for Teaching About Art 10. Editorial cartoons are a unit I teach every year. We even were … Read more…
For those of you who celebrate, I hope you all have a very warm and happy Thanksgiving with your family.
Last week, I posted about line drawings that my kindergarten students made with oil pastels and watercolor paints. To finish these off, my students glued paper strip lines (folded to make zig zags, curled and pleated) to the bottom of the page. The students reinforced their learning of types of lines and were introduced to paper manipulation techniques. Then, we rolled and stapled them at the top and bottom to create a hanging windsock. A little bit of double stick … Read more…
This is one of my favorite lessons and is a great way to start off the year. Many of you have seen the book The Dot and this lesson is inspired by that book. There is a cute animated video from the book that you can see here and there is a whole website about the International Dot Day which is September 15. The kindergarteners start by tracing lids on colored paper and cutting out the circles. They are glued … Read more…
Perhaps you are new to my blog or you would like to see some of my favorite kindergarten art projects from the past. Look no further! Here is a round-up of my 10 favorites. 1. Cool Hands, Warm Heart 2. Map of My Heart 3. Paper Mache Rattles 4. Texture Teddy Bears 5. Line Sculpture with Wire and Pipe Cleaners 6. The Dot 7. Clay Leaf Dishes 8. Paper Weavings 9. Line Paintings 10. Sunflower Observational Paintings Also, I updated … Read more…
I was sent a free copy of this new children’s book to review and share with you. It is called Too Much Glue, written by Jason Lefebvre and illustrated by Zac Retz. It is a very cute story of a boy who uses TOO MUCH GLUE on his artwork in art class, does a flying jump into the puddle and gets stuck there. What I love about the book: It’s a unique story, I have not seen a story like … Read more…
At the end of the school year, my kindergarten art class made some really colorful fish after reading the book Rainbow Fish . The students drew their fish on large posterboard (these were BIG fish). Then, they cut out paper pieces (I encouraged them to cut circles) from a variety of patterned and foil papers. Then, some of the kids chose to use paint dotters to add additional color. I I did this project again, I would have the kids … Read more…
One of our projects for the school fundraiser this year was this lovely fingerprint butterfly by the kindergarten class. I was inspired by this fingerprint artwork! I cut out the shape of a butterfly as a stencil and each kid used a different color to add their fingerprints. This was then cut out and glued on to a blue piece of paper. The artwork was a hit and the families loved it! It turned out very cute and was a … Read more…
I introduce paper weaving with my kindergarten class. We use colored strips, scrapbook paper and wrapping paper. Here is a paper weaving tutorial. Check out my Weaving Ideas Pinterest board if you want to see more fun weaving techniques. –>
Our local public library partnered with us to have a bookmark contest. The kids in grades K-5 each designed a bookmark based on a favorite book. We provided a template for them to compose their drawing. The library will pick a number of winners to print as bookmarks for distribution at the library. We’ve done this before at school and when the designs were returned to us, we chose other designs and copied them at an office store on card … Read more…
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Global warming is all because people don’t like purple. Help us by saving purple! Please SAVE PURPLE! Oh, how I LOVE this kindergartener’s creative imagination. Every class period I am treated to her charming drawings and interesting ideas. One of the best parts of my job.
This art project is an oldie, but a goodie. I’m not sure where I first saw this project. I think maybe one of the other art teachers taught this lesson in one of my previous school districts. I have seen some lovely variations of this project online. Here is a beautiful one from Pixels and Paintbrushes. It looks like we were both working on them at the same time. 🙂 We began by tracing mitten templates on a piece of … Read more…
These were made by my kindergartners. I have seen a lot of gorgeous heart pictures around the internet lately. None of the techniques we used to make these are brand-new but maybe they are new-to-you! The kids experimented with watercolor pencils on a sheet of paper. They practiced mixing and blending colors. A large heart was traced on to their picture (when dry). Then, these were cut out. We stamped gadgets on the hearts using pink, red, purple and gold … Read more…
Each year, I tend to try something different for Valentine’s Day. I like to spice things up, don’t you? Here are some from the past that I have done. 1. Valentine’s Heart Collages  2. Cool Hands, Warm Heart 3. Easy Clay Hearts for Kindergarten I have made these for Christmas presents, but they would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. 4. Maps of My Heart (by Kindergarten) 5.  Styrofoam Printed Valentines Follow @marcia_beckett
