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…
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…
Did that get your attention? How about this? The Science teachers at my school often have the kids create drawings about what they are studying. One of them asked if I wanted to coordinate and have my third graders do…
Have you seen the art installation of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London? It is amazing! If you follow that link, there is a video about how the installation was made. The poppy is a remembrance symbol for soldiers…
My students made self portraits with construction paper, tissue paper and paint. This project is always a hit with the kids and parents. I love it because it involves lots of good art concepts such as color mixing with paints,…
October 31 to November 2 is the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead. My first grade students learned about the celebration a bit in their Spanish class and then in art class, we read a story about the holiday and…
Sometimes when the scrap box gets too full or it is holiday that gets the kids all hyped up (like Halloween) I will give the class a “scrap box challenge.” What can you make by using the scraps in the…
I came across this beautiful technique at the Happy Hooligans blog. She practiced letter writing with glue, salt and paint. I thought this technique would be a fun experiment for my third graders and make beautiful fall leaf paintings. Here’s…
Aren’t the colors of the fall leaves breathtaking? I scanned some of the leaves that I found on the trees here in Wisconsin. Feel free to print these out, color designs on them with permanent or paint markers, make a…
I have been wanting to make some more permanent artworks to beautify the school grounds. I had pairs of kids working on these stepping stones. This was such a fun project I am planning on making more in the coming…
Do you use rubrics for self-assessment with your students? I developed this rubric based on others I had seen online. I wanted to get my students thinking more about their artwork and writing a few sentences in reflection. We…
My third grade students learned about the photography, films, paintings and children’s books by contemporary artist William Wegman. I actually talked to Bill on the phone and had an interview with him, which you can read in this blog post.…
Wow, do I have a treat for you today! I had the amazing opportunity to talk with American artist William Wegman on the phone. Bill is well known for his photographs of Weimaraner dogs, dressed in all sorts of costumes…
Like many other art teachers around the world, my students participated in International Dot Day. The students dressed up in polka dots, we watched the story of The Dot and sang along to The Dot song. If you have not…
We started the day by reading the book The Day the Crayons Quit (Amazon Affiliate link used, goes to help pay for the costs of this website), which is super funny and adorable. Then, they traced a crayon template and…