The other art teacher at my school is retiring this year. I wanted to put together a collaborative present by students to honor her. We were both hired here at the school 10 year ago. She loves origami so I knew it had to be something origami-related. I had all of her 7th and 8th grade students learn how to fold origami butterflies. Now, I am terrible at origami, so I wanted it to be relatively easy to figure out … Read more…
Every year our school has a family FUNdraiser with a silent auction portion. My art classes always contribute a few artworks to the auction. This year, I came across an idea on an art teacher Facebook group. The canvas had the words “You are my sunshine” written across the middle. Each student contributed a sunshine drawn with Sharpie markers or paint markers. We used painted white wooden cradled canvases similar to this one. First I did You are My Sunshine … Read more…
My 3rd and 4th grade class just finished making woven God’s Eyes (Ojos de Dios). Students chose yarn and wrapped the strands around the sticks. Then they were all tied to a large stick I found in my neighbor’s yard. Some kids made multiples so they could take one home right away. I was surprised how almost all of them had never made these before. I guess I went to a lot of summer camps where we made stuff with … Read more…
Thank you to all who voted for my blog in the AOE Blog of the Year contest. While I did not win, I am still happy to have been a finalist. Congrats to all of the bloggers in the contest! Today I am going to show you a super fun project that my students worked on this week. This summer we planted a garden. My husband diligently set up a plastic fence to keep out the rabbits. We watered it … Read more…
Have you heard of the artist Shinique Smith? I just love her artwork! It’s very gestural, colorful and it just draws me in to look at more closely. I love the use of fabric with graffiti-like painted marks. Her art combines traditional art media with non-traditional materials like clothing and stuffed animals. She is influenced by street graffiti and Japanese calligraphy. She works in paintings, drawings, installations, wrapped bundles, sculptures and videos. There was an exhibit of her artwork in … Read more…
At the end of the year in June, I posted about a collaborative word banner project I did with all of my students. Write inspirational words using block or bubble letters on large banner paper. Outline with paint. Color patterns and designs inside with markers. Use printouts of Romero Britto‘s artwork for pattern inspiration. I also used this as an option for students who finished their other art projects and wanted to help out. I saved them for the … Read more…
Are you looking for an easy end-of-year art project? On the last days of school, I had some students that needed to finish up art projects and others that really just wanted to be done with the school year. This was a fun and easy collaborative project that many students opted to participate in. I got the idea from Romero Britto’s word artworks, like this one and I think I may have seem *something similar* somewhere at some time.. but … Read more…
