Marcia

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.
  • Joined: January 15, 2013
  • Articles: 1011
  • Comments: 272

3rd/4th grade Clay Projects

Two colorful, round ceramic plates with bright concentric patterns in blue, green, yellow, pink, and purple.

My 3rd/4th grade class made clay pots.  We looked at the Mimbres pottery of the Southwest Native Americans, but I did not require them to use any of the imagery in their pottery.  They could choose to add glaze designs…

Update from New York

Wow, I have been non-stop busy!  I try to pack in as much as possible at the convention, because I figure I can sleep when I get home.  Some of the highlights so far are hearing Peter Max speak, meeting…

I am here!

A person with glasses takes a selfie near a large red "LOVE" sculpture in an urban area, captioning it, “I am here!”

I’m in New York!  I made it to the National Art Education conference!  Proof: I already went to a bunch of sessions and am thoroughly exhausted.  More updates and pics to come!

Art Show

A display stand with various colorful artworks in a public indoor space near a bookstore will attract art enthusiasts.

We had our Youth Art Month regional art show at the mall this week.  The reception was yesterday.  The judges pick one artwork from each teacher to go on to the state art show at the capitol building, which will…

Chinese Calligraphy– 3rd grade

An accordion-folded book with colorful pages and Chinese calligraphy on the cover leaning slightly to its left.

The 3rd graders have been learning about China in their social studies class.  They practiced brush painting with Chinese calligraphy brushes.  These were made into a little accordian book.  Watercolor painted covers were glued on to the front and back.

Winter Landscapes

Child's drawing of a landscape with tents, a tree, a river, people, a camel, and faint mountains in the background.

2nd Grade Winter Landscapes For this project, we read a book about Grandma Moses:  Grandma Moses (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists) We discussed how to draw a river or road showing depth (by drawing it converging to a…

Arctic Animals

A child's print of a fox on blue paper with "Daisy" written at the bottom in pink, surrounded by playful Arctic animals.

The 1st graders studied the Arctic in their Language Arts/Social Studies class.  In Art class, they chose an animal from the Arctic to depict in a print.  They made impressions on styrofoam printing plates using regular pencils. Then, they inked…

Value Scale

A worksheet featuring a value scale with boxes labeled White, Light Gray, Medium Gray, Dark Gray, and Black for shading.

I made a Value Scale worksheet for an upcoming project.  Use it if you’d like! I use this for kids in grade 3-4. Value Scale Handout