African Adinkra Stamps
The 5th/6th grade class has been carving stamps from soft cut blocks. They used acrylic paints to print their stamps on muslin cloth! The students read about the African Adinkra symbol stamps and created their own symbol.
Art Projects for Kids + Tips for the Teacher!
Art Projects for Kids + Tips for the Teacher!
Elementary Art Projects & Creative Lessons for Kids
Welcome to Art is Basic, a blog full of elementary art lessons, easy art projects, and teaching ideas for K-5 classrooms. Browse hundreds of engaging activities designed to inspire young artists.
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Egyptian Profile Pictures– 4th/5th grade
Egyptian Profile Paintings:The 4/5s have studied ancient Egypt in their social studies class. In Art class, they are using the standard proportions of the human face to draw each other in profile. Then, they are adding typical ancient…
After school class
I am teaching an after school art class for two sessions. We are painting abstract paintings on canvas with acrylic paints! We are also experimenting with spray inks and stencils! Next session, we are going to finish our…
Weaving on Styrofoam
Weaving on Styrofoam was a recent project with the 1st graders. A restaurant supply store near our school had a huge package of styrofoam plates for very cheap. Slits were cut at the top and bottom of the…
Inspired by Henri Matisse- Kindergarten
Henri Matisse is a popular artist to teach about in the elementary art classroom. I’ve seen a lot of Matisse-inspired artwork from other art teachers. His artwork is bright and colorful and lends itself well to teaching about…
Clay Butterfly Art Project for 1st Grade
These lovely clay butterflies were made by the 1st graders. Each student traced their hands to make the wings. Some of the little parts fell off, so I would recommend making sure that the kids don’t roll their…
Editorial Cartoons
Every year, students in grades 5-8 participate in a local writing and art contest. There are categories in poetry, editorials and editorial cartoons. In art class, we study editorial cartoons. We analyze cartoons for their use of exaggeration,…
Name Designs– Inspired by Islamic Art– 5th/6th grade
In this project, we studied the repeating patterns found in Islamic art. These students have studied about Islam in their Social Studies class. This project also ties into geometry and math. I have been doing this project for…
Alaskan Masks– 2nd Grade
The 2nd graders have been learning about the characteristics and functions of Alaskan masks as well as the cultural traditions of Native Alaskans. They made a 3-D mask using typical characteristics— animal or human features, fur, feathers, appendages,…
Blog Spotlight
There are almost 200 blogs in the Art Teacher Blog Directory. Have you added yours? I was going to highlight some of the newer entries and then Mrs. Hahn posted some spotlights highlighting the blogs that are on…
Beautiful Oops
If you haven’t seen Beautiful Oops yet, you must find a copy and look at it.. It’s my favorite book ever! The first graders looked at this book in class and then they were presented with a creative…
Top Art Ed blogs
I’m a finalist for one of the top Art Education blogs on Jessica’s website. If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog, take a second and vote for me! Also, be sure to check out all of the other blogs,…
A free guided drawing book
Check out this really cool FREE downloadable guided drawing book from Fairy Dust Teaching. Click on over to her website to get the lovely book. I’m going to print this out and have it in my drawing book…
Free Workshop from Strathmore
This is a repost from my personal blog! I’ve been having lots of fun with Traci Bautista’s online workshop at Strathmore. Strathmore has a series of FREE online workshops with videos and pdfs. If you haven’t heard about…
Kindergarten Clay
The kindergartners made two clay projects before break. They made little pinch pots and pressed shells on the sides for texture. We glazed these with Stroke and Coat glaze. We also made these fun coiled hearts. 1. Demonstrate…