Kindergarten Painted Bears
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…
Marcia
Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.
Reader Mailbag
From time to time I receive comments on blog posts or emails from readers that might be interesting to other art teachers. These new Reader Mailbag posts will highlight questions and comments that I think are intriguing and you will…
Paper Line Sculptures with Kindergarten
This is an art lesson I have been doing since I first started teaching elementary art many years ago! This project is great for the kindergartners because it develops fine motor skills, teaches paper manipulation, introduces types of lines and…
Art Project for Dot Day
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…
Abstract Paintings Inspired by the Art of Shinique Smith
Have you heard of the artist Shinique Smith? I just love her artwork! It’s very gestural, colorful and it just draws me in to look at more closely. I love the use of fabric with graffiti-like painted marks. Her art…
Summer Art Challenge Display
At the end of the year last school year, I passed out Summer Art Challenge sheets. Each of the students who participated received a certificate and a prize or two or three depending on how much of the challenge they…
Easy Collaborative Art Banners with Motivational Words
At the end of the year in June, I posted about a collaborative word banner project I did with all of my students. I also used this as an option for students who finished their other art projects and…
Art Games and Puzzles for an Enrichment Center
I have a bookshelf in my classroom that students can go to when they are done with their class assignments. I also have free choice days where students can select from a wide range of activities. Since students finish at…
First Day of Kindergarten & 1st Grade Art
We had our first week of school! Beth Carter posted wonderful pictures of her students drawings on the first day with the title “I had art today!” I borrowed the concept and made sheets for my kindergartners and first graders…
Art Room Organization
I love organizing things, especially art materials. It makes it easier to find things you need when your room is organized! I am always revamping my organizational systems and I feel like my room now is arranged pretty well for…
Hybrid Machine-Animal Drawings
After looking at the art of contemporary artist Nicolas Lampert, my students combined two or more different objects or creatures to create hybrid drawings. Here are the steps to this lesson: 1. Start by discussing the machine animal collages…
Animal Shrinky Dinks in Summer Art Camp
This summer I taught a one week art workshop called Artsy Animals. The camp had kids going in to grades 1-4 and it took place for 3 hours every day. Now camp was much more laid back than regular art…
Medieval Day at School
Near the end of the school year our 5th/6th grade students put on a Medieval Day for the entire school. They researched and planned activities including dancing, food sampling, jousting, catapulting, exhibits and displays and of course, ART! My 5th/6th…
New Ideas and Resources to Teach about Contemporary Art
In previous blog posts, I talked about contemporary artists you may not have heard about before and I put together a round-up of blog posts about contemporary art projects. Today I have some more ideas to share. Don Masse said,…
Manga Drawing with Kids
My students had a blast drawing Manga faces again this year. I tried this lesson previously with great enthusiasm and results. I printed off lots of handouts I found online of cartoon faces, eyes, noses, mouths, hairstyles and accessories. The…