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…
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.
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…
Learning about Patterns, Shapes and Henri Matisse
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 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
Materials you will need: images of Piet Mondrian’s artwork construction paper precut black strips glue stick red, yellow and blue crayons (or markers) scissors Goals: identify, describe and analyze the artwork of Piet Mondrian use balance and space to create…
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…
Accordion Books | Drawing Scientific Specimens | 3rd Grade
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…
Veteran’s Day Poppy Posters
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…
Mixed Media Self Portraits by 3rd Grade
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,…
Day of the Dead | Symmetrical Paper Skulls | 1st Grade
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…
Happy Halloween! The Scrap Box Challenge
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…
Salt and Watercolor Fall Leaves
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…