Fun Puns about Art and Artists
Are you looking to add some humor to your class? We had a “Funday Punday Monday” at our school where kids and teachers brought in puns to share. I rounded up some fun art-related puns you could use in your…
Art Projects for Kids + Tips for the Teacher!
Art Projects for Kids + Tips for the Teacher!
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.
Pop Art Portraits: 2nd Grade
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…
Concentric Valentine’s Day Hearts
Valentine’s Day is coming! I love heart-related art projects. These concentric hearts were made by my second graders last year. We talked about the art concepts of concentric shapes and patterns. For more Valentine’s Day projects, look at these past…
Learning about Lines
Lines are an excellent starting point for lessons with Kindergarteners. To begin this line unit, we read the book Lines That Wiggle (Amazon Affiliate link used) The students used colored tape to make straight lines across their paper. We talked…
Paper Mache Maracas with Kindergarteners
Aren’t we always looking for ways to relate to other subjects? This project is perfect to connect with your music program at school. Materials you will need: Goals: Steps: 1. Day One: Open the Easter egg and put in a…
Printmaking with Christmas Ornaments?? What!?
Another printmaking experiment for you! I bought some felt ornaments and sparkly snowflake decorations from Target on clearance. Valentine’s Day is also a good time to get decorations. Here is how I created the background shown below. Snowflake: Place the…
Printing with Paperclips
I checked out the book Print & Stamp Lab from the library and there was a cool idea in there with printing with paper clips (among many other found objects.) When I was at Target, I found these cool purple…
Top Posts of 2014
Hi! I hope you all had a very merry holiday season. We had a great December here, other than our kiln setting off a sprinkler at school and causing some minor flooding and damage. (That was a disaster.) I usually…
Henri Matisse Art Projects for Kids – Shape Collage and Flowers
Henri Matisse is one of my favorite artists. I love his bold colors and beautiful shapes. While teaching about patterns, painting, collage and shapes, I recently introduced his artwork to my kindergarteners and 1st graders. First, we learned about his…
Easy No-Cook Salt Dough Recipe
My daughter had a make-your-own play doh night at her preschool (YMCA, which has been really great so far!) and I thought it would be a fun activity for my little students right before winter break. We used the recipe…
Celebrate Beautiful Oops Day!
Have you read the book Beautiful Oops! by Barney Saltzberg? Celebrate Oops on January 15, 2015! It is a super fun, interactive book that teaches kids that it’s OK to make mistakes! From their website: “CELEBRATE OOPS! is an initiative…
Manga Faces: 3rd Grade
The creative students at Artisan des Arts made manga self-portraits and I loved them so much I wanted to try it with my own students. The students used the website Face Your Manga to create an avatar. (Of course, out…
Primary Colors & Piet Mondrian
Are you looking for an easy way to teach about the primary colors or about a famous artist like Piet Mondrian? This is an art project I teach every year because I love its simplicity! Materials you will need: Goals:…
Kid’s Gift Guide: Make an Art Kit for a Holiday Gift!
As an art teacher, I’d like to encourage you to give gifts that inspire creativity in children. Instead of more plastic trinkets, stuffed animals or electronics, how about something that will get your kids building and creating? An art kit…
Mandalas | 3rd & 4th Grade
Materials you will need: Compass Pencil White paper Things to color with like markers, crayons, colored pencils Sharpies (optional) Crayola Twistable Neon Crayons (optional) Goals: understand the meanings and purposes of mandalas in other cultures learn to use a compass…