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Category Archives: science

Art and the Brain: How do kids imagine their brains?

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Art and the Brain: How do kids imagine their brains?

[cryout-pullquote align=”left|center|right” textalign=”left|center|right” width=”100%”] How do you experience your brain? What does your brain do for you? How can you express the feelings of your brain? [/cryout-pullquote] Students at our school connected with a scientific researcher to create diverse and artistic representations of their brains.   I teach art at a school for gifted and talented children.  Our students are highly interested and curious about science, so when I was contacted by Ayla Kruis to work with her on a project … Read more… →

Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

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Have You Ever Drawn Flowers with Watercolor Pencils?

The week after winter break was up in the air.  Due to construction, we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to use our art room and we didn’t know if we would have easy access to supplies.  I planned for most of my classes to complete observational drawings during that week period, since they all could use the same supplies and learning to observe the edges and shapes of objects is great training for the eye. It … Read more… →

Watercolor Bird Paintings by First Graders

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Watercolor Bird Paintings by First Graders

I love these charming birds by the 1st graders!  So colorful and a beautiful experience with watercolors. We read the lovely book The Boy Who Drew Birds, which is about the naturalist/artist John James Audubon.  It is a great book that tells the story of how he loved to study birds and spent his free time as a child drawing and observing nature.  Audubon banded birds to see if the same birds returned each year.  It is a great book … Read more… →

On Teaching Art #3: Integrating Art with Other Subjects

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On Teaching Art #3: Integrating Art with Other Subjects

Welcome to the 3rd post in my series On Teaching Art. The first post and the background behind this series is On Teaching Art:  Art vs. Craft. The second post was On Teaching Art #2: Organizing Curriculum. The question posed for this installment is: How can art be integrated into math, science, social science, and literacy? That is a great question and I very often connect art lessons with their units of study in the classrooms.  Integrating art with other … Read more… →

How to Paint Gorgeous Clouds with Watercolor Paints – 5th and 6th Grade

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Clouds.  Aren’t they amazing? Two years ago I took a very helpful watercolor painting class.  One of our assignments was to paint clouds. Connecting Art with Science I love to make connections with other subjects.  This one is perfect for my 5th/6th grade because in Science class they study cloud identification.  They come into my class with a broad understanding of clouds which makes my lesson richer. Clouds and Art Resource The Clouds in Art Gallery is amazing.  This gallery … Read more… →

Frogs in a Pond (with Monet) 1st Grade

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I love lessons where I can tie in different areas of study, art history and art techniques!  This is a project I developed that incorporates study of frogs, Monet and watercolor painting. To start this project, we learn about the artist Claude Monet and his paintings of ponds and lilypads.  We read a book about Monet from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists series. (This series is awesome for read-alouds in class.  I love the picture books about … Read more… →