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Free Curated Connections Workshop

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Free Curated Connections Workshop

Have you ever considered all the things kids learn from looking at art? Empathy. Curiosity. Visual intelligence. Self-awareness. Higher order thinking. The list goes on and on. But how often do students spend looking at art? Not long enough. My friend Cindy is on a mission to change that. She founded Art Class Curator and the Curated Connections Library to share smart, creative, engaging ways to teach art history and art appreciation. With her techniques, students do more than look at … Read more… →

Sharpie Drawings on Tin Foil

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Sharpie Drawings on Tin Foil

I did learned this technique from my co-worker Jayne, who taught it during summer school last year. I think drawing on tin foil is a unique experience for kids that can be done using a variety of themes! My third and fourth graders had a great time making these abstract drawings using Sharpie markers on tin foil. To prepare the surface, pull out a sheet of tin foil and carefully flatten it on to a piece of cardboard or matboard. … Read more… →

Decoupaged Stool and Romero Britto Inspired Hearts Canvas

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My students and I recently made two colorful artworks for our school fundraiser. We painted a stool with acrylic paints. I had kids from grades K-3 come up two or three at a time to take turns painting the sections. After the base layer was dry, we used magazine cutout words to decoupage the stool. Black sharpies were also used to outline and accent the edges. Students in grades K-3 helped with this project and I had some older kids … Read more… →

Notre Dame Cathedral Art Projects- Stained Glass Windows

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After the devastating fire this week at the Notre Dame cathedral, I put some of my previously planned lessons on hold. We are making a bulletin board in tribute of the Notre Dame cathedral. One of my classes is making some stunning and highly detailed pen drawings of parts of the cathedral and the gargoyles. Watercolor washes will be added to the background. I am super impressed with how these are coming along, but none are finished to show you … Read more… →

Activa Clay and Jack Richeson Metallic Paints

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Hi! I am here today to tell you about 2 products that I enjoyed learning about at the NAEA Convention in the vendor halls. What is the vendor hall at NAEA? The vendor hall is one of my favorite parts of the convention. I love trying out new art materials, techniques and buying art resources! Here are some of the things I got as samples or purchased in the vendor hall. (Most were free!) In the vendor hall, I stopped … Read more… →

Encaustic for Elementary, Tooling Foil and One Step-Mosaics!

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Encaustic for Elementary, Tooling Foil and One Step-Mosaics!

I experimented with some amazing and fun art techniques at the NAEA ’19 Conference that I am going to share with you today. These are ticketed hands-on workshops that are longer (2 hours) and cost a little extra ($39 each). But, the extra cost is SO worth it! INSIDER TIP: Before I start going through some of the tips that I learned, I wanted to tell you that if you download the NAEA Convention App for your phone, you can … Read more… →

Peter H. Reynolds on Creativity

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One of the presentations I was most looking forward to going to at NAEA ’19 was the author Peter H. Reynolds. Most elementary art teachers are familiar with his books.. they are all so colorful and teach about those concepts we want our students to learn. The Dot The book called The Dot is the one that I think most people have heard of. I have done lots and lots of projects about dots using this book. You can see … Read more… →

Amy Sherald and Howard Gardner at NAEA ’19 Conference

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The National Art Education Association conference this year had some thought-provoking and inspiring speakers, as usual! In this post, I will tell you about Amy Sherald and Howard Gardner. Next, I will share about Peter Reynolds! Amy Sherald, portrait artist The first speaker I went to see was Amy Sherald, who is best known as the portrait artist for Michelle Obama’s presidential portrait. Here is a video of her talking about this portrait. Amy Sherald creates large scale figurative paintings … Read more… →

NAEA Conference 2019

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I had a very exciting trip to Boston last week for the National Art Education Association Conference. If you have never been to one before, you should really try to go some year. It’s quite the experience! The conference was from Thursday-Saturday last week and it was jam-packed full of workshops, speakers, vendors, meeting friends, site-seeing and walking back and forth around the hotel/conference center. I am going to split up my experience into a few different blog posts. Here … Read more… →

Hot Air Balloon Watercolor Paintings

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Hot Air Balloon Watercolor Paintings

In this hot air balloon painting project, my 2nd grade students learned about types of lines, watercolor gradations and warm & cool colors. I saw beautiful, colorful hot air balloon paintings awhile ago from Painted Paper, which you can see by clicking here. I knew I wanted to try something similar. The students learned about warm and cool colors. I set up liquid watercolors in little cups inside muffin tins. I have tried so many different ways to set up … Read more… →

Girl Scout Cookie Math

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Girl Scout Cookie Math

Some of you might know that I am a Girl Scout troop leader! This blog is mostly for talking about art teacher related things, but I thought other Girl Scout leaders might find this useful! I made this math sheet up for my Girl Scout troop! They are 3rd graders and they enjoy math, so I figured they would get a kick out of this sheet. (For the one I gave my girls, I used their names. I changed the … Read more… →

100 Positive Mindset Mantras and Quotes for Kids

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100 Positive Mindset Mantras and Quotes for Kids

My students are making kindness bookmarks now when they have free time. These are some positive mindset affirmations and mantras that I wrote or collected. Great for kids! Great for art projects or art journaling! For a high resolution PDF copy, visit my TPT shop for a FREE DOWNLOAD: 100 Positive Mindset Phrases for Kids

Pop Art Snowmen Project

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Pop Art Snowmen Project

I have a new art lesson plan to show you! I wrote this for a substitute lesson, but you can make it as simple or complex as you want to. My students were very interested in watching me design my snowman picture and they were amazed at how detailed the background was, but also they felt confident they could create a Pop Art snowman picture of their own. This lesson is available for purchase in my shop and includes Snowman … Read more… →