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Sweet New Children’s Book

I came across a sweet new children’s book that I’d like to share with you. It is called If You Are an Artist, (Amazon affiliate link at no extra cost for you) by Meg Auchenbach. I always love finding new inspirational books for my young students and this one is a charming book that shows what it’s like to think as an artist. The illustrations are whimsical and the book is delightful. Before I buy a book I like to … Read more…

Giveaway and Interview with Cindy Ingram: Art is About Being Whole, A Memoir

**** Art is Basic is giving away one FREE copy of this book to a lucky reader. To be entered, simply leave a comment on this blog post. I will choose one random winner after November 3. ***. Book links are Amazon Affiliate links which means I receive a small amount of compensation at no extra cost to you which go to supporting the blog’s upkeep and expenses. Today I have a very special book to share with you and … Read more…

Latinx Heritage Month Art Books

From Wikipedia, “National Hispanic Heritage Month is a period from 15 September to 15 October in the United States for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States.” Our Spanish teacher invited us to bring some children’s books that highlight Latinx authors and artists to our classroom this month. With the librarian, language arts teachers and Spanish teacher, I brainstormed books to read to my classes. These are some of … Read more…

Birds Activity for Kids Free Printable Downloads

Hi! The winner of the Createures game is Karen Riehle. Congrats! I love GIVEAWAYS. Another one will be coming soon in the next couple of weeks! (Amazon Affiliate links have been used at no cost to you.) Candlewick Press sent me a review copy of the book Birds by Carme Lemniscates, along with a few free activity downloads to share with you. See the bottom of this blog post for the bird activity printable downloads. Birds is a thoughtful, poetic homage … Read more…

ABC Books for the Art Room

ABC Books for the Art Room

Don’t forget to enter for your chance to win the new drawing prompt game Createures. Enter by reading the details on the last blog post. I love using children’s books in the Art classroom. Over the years I have collected variety of books related to art, artists, themes we study or simply have inspiring pictures. This blog post is a round-up of several ABC books that I like to use in Art class. The first one is called B is … Read more…

Peter H. Reynolds on Creativity

One of the presentations I was most looking forward to going to at NAEA ’19 was the author Peter H. Reynolds. Most elementary art teachers are familiar with his books.. they are all so colorful and teach about those concepts we want our students to learn. The Dot The book called The Dot is the one that I think most people have heard of. I have done lots and lots of projects about dots using this book. You can see … Read more…

I am Human, a book by Susan Verde & Peter Reynolds

I wanted to share with you a new book that just came out that I discovered!  It is called I am Human and it is written by Susan Verde and illustrated by Peter Reynolds.   I LOVE the illustrations of Peter Reynolds.  The two of them have collaborated before on books before that I’ve enjoyed in my classroom, including I am Peace and The Museum.  Peter is also the author of the very popular art book The Dot, which has inspired … Read more…