Elementary Art Projects & Creative Lessons for Kids

Sometimes I like to let the kids loose with a box of supplies and minimal instruction. I photocopied some pages from Lynda Barry’s book and showed them to the first graders. In the box were paper scraps, magazines,…

First, we looked at the art of Bridget Riley and the Op art movement.  We read a Scholastic Art issue which features this style of art.  If you don’t get these magazines, they are a great investment.  Each…

These pictures are based on the book Elmer!  I love this book and the colorful elephants.  The kids drew their own elephants and colored them with fun patterns.  The borders were made by cutting up and gluing strips…

This is a playground!  Do you see the mini-Coke cans for sale? Here are some of our finished assemblages. These were made by 4th and 5th graders. This is a town square, with a fountain, pool and snack…

The first graders learned about artists that make art about underwater life. Then, they used markers and water to create a watercolor effect.  They drew the fish with water soluble markers and then used a paintbrush and water…

This is one of my favorite projects all year.  I know it is one of the kids favorite projects too.  The 5th/6th graders study the Medieval period in their Social Studies class.  In Art class, we have done…

My husband has hobbies too!  He is really into building Legos now and he even started his own lego blog.  I think the title of his blog is cute and I love the picture he put on his…

Finally!  My copy of the magazine has arrived. Featuring magazine was started by the lovely Marit in the Netherlands.  It is about art journaling, mixed media and other arts.   She had a call for submissions and applications…

Here are some more of our painted fabrics.  They doodled on the muslin fabric with Sharpies… graffiti-style!  Then, we used liquid watercolor paints (with a little bit of water) in spray bottles and stencils to spray over them…

I was going through my old emails and I found this one from a parent.  He had told me about this at parent-teacher conferences.  His daughter had made some art using backyard materials.. all natural!  She is a…

The first graders made these utterly adorable birds in nests this week. We first made nests.  We used tinfoil to shape a nest-like shape.  Then I mixed up some goopy paper-clay and the kids covered their tinfoil nests…