(Affiliate links are used in this blog post, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Art is Basic!) In my last blog post, I told you about a children’s book called I’m Not Just a Scribble. The author, Diane Alber, gave us a behind the scenes interview about her process and her future books. After reading this book, some of my students in grades K-3 created these cute scribble creatures with BIG personalities! (The one on the … Read more…
Visual textures are implied textures you can see such as cloudy, shiny, and windy and can be drawn as such. The opposite of visual texture is tactile texture which is texture that you can feel. Feathers, yarn, ribbon and tissue paper are used to add real texture in this sculpture project featured in this blog post. There are many ways to teach about texture including metal tooling, clay and sculpture (like you will see here.) This bird in a nest art … Read more…
Easy, simple, fun! Brand new in my shop, a texture rubbing practice sheet.  Use this handy sheet as a practice for making texture rubbings. Kids love using crayons to make texture rubbings, but they don’t always realize that they can use them to color inside a shape. Peel various color crayons. Place a texture plate under the paper. I have used the Melissa & Doug Shade-Tex plates. Hold the crayons on the side and rub over the paper to reveal … Read more…
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…
With Halloween coming, this is an especially fun open-ended project for little kids. I did this with kids up to grade 3 and they were super excited to come up with their own monsters. Supplies needed (Amazon affiliate links used): Peel and Stick Wiggle Eyes Wiggle Eyes Stickers On A Roll Multi-Color Markers, crayons or other coloring tools White or colored construction paper Handouts for inspiration: Monster Dice Drawing and Examples of Monsters This is a real simple introduction and … Read more…
Here is a fun and easy project that I taught to my 2nd graders. We used regular firing clay and gloss glazes. Here is a video I made for my students to demo how to make the wall hangings. This was before I got my new camera so the quality isn’t as great. Cassie Stephens has done a similar wall hanging project with just the initials. Next year, I might try that!
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 came up with this lesson after browsing the internet looking for contemporary artists to study. I came across Fiona Curran’s‘s beautiful paintings with straight lines and geometric shapes. Here are some of her artworks: At the end of the year, my students were losing focus and were ready for summer to begin! I wanted a fun lesson that would involve experimentation and play. I love using colored and patterned tape so I showed the second grade students how you … Read more…
This is just a quick post to share with you a simple and fun project for the end of the year.. paper hats! The kids started with a long strip of construction paper, drew designs on their hats with construction paper crayons, punched out shapes and added fun paper extensions from the scrap box. The strip was placed around their head and stapled by me. We got more use out of our paper sculpture techniques poster (below). Easy. Fun. Practice … Read more…
Earlier this year, one of the second grade teachers approached me about an idea for an art/social studies collaboration. She had read a story to the children about a tribe which used talking sticks. She thought the students would be interested in making their own special talking sticks. This could be a great project to accompany character education on taking turns and listening. Talking sticks have been used in native tribes of the Northwest Coast (North America) and in Western … Read more…
These lovely paper masks were made by my second graders. The students learned different paper manipulation techniques including controlled tearing, punching paper with Fiskars squeeze punchers, cutting with paper edgers , crimping paper with a paper crimper, making forms, cutting spirals, folding zigzags and more. I created a poster with paper manipulation techniques using ideas that I had seen on other sculpture posters, like this one.  I should have made a poster like this years ago. I have referred students … Read more…
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…
