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Masking with Watercolor

  Hi friends! First of all, have you entered my BIG FUN ART TEACHER giveaway?  If not, go to this blog post or the Facebook page to enter. Today’s blogpost is a cross-post.  This week I was a guest blogger on Marit’s Paper World for her Quirky Dutch Summer series.  In case you missed it, I thought I would share it here as well.  This is a fun and easy technique you could try with your students. Masking with Watercolor … Read more…

Big Fun Art Teacher Giveaway

Big Fun Art Teacher Giveaway

Hello!  I love giveaways and thought it would be fun to have a summer art teacher giveaway in honor of reaching 400 likes on Facebook.   To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this blog or on the Facebook post about it answering this question:  “What is one tip you would give to art teachers (or other classroom teachers) to make the beginning of the year go smoothly?”  or “What do you do with your students in the first weeks … Read more…

Contemporary Art in the Elementary Art Classroom: A Blog Round-up!

This year my professional goal was to learn more about contemporary artists and to create art lessons inspired by these artists.   I taught about William Wegman and Justin Vining.  We looked at contemporary artists inspired by microscopic things and living artists that used Disney as inspiration.  At the end of the year, my students learned about Shinique Smith, Nicolas Lampert and various artists that used stuffed animals as a theme in their art (blog posts to come soon about all … Read more…

Painting the Sun- Metepec Suns

Sun Paintings with 3rd Graders

My third graders ended the school year learning a little about the symbolism of the sun in Mexican pottery.  The sun has been used as a symbol of the life-giving energy and of good luck.  Cassie Stephens has a very good Prezi here about Metepec, Mexico. To make these colorful, sunny pictures we started by tracing a circle shape for the face of the sun.  Then we designed our faces with unique facial expressions, rays and other designs.  We talked … Read more…

Positive Behavior Notes for Art Class

I now have “Good News Notes” in my shop.  Save time with parent communication by filling out these easy positive notes.  It’s always better to start with positive communication so that when you have something less positive to say you already have a relationship with the parents.  I used to send out Good News notes and decided I wanted to revamp and update them for next year.  Here is what one of them looks like: Send individual notes to parents … Read more…

Easy End of Year Art Project: Collaborative Banners

Easy End of Year Art Project

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…

Create an Art Memory Book

Create a Memory Book of Your Child's Artwork-- Preserve your art!

My daughter who is in 4k comes home with at least 3 drawings every day.  She can draw during free choice or nap time (she won’t nap).  Plus with the drawing she does at home, we have collected hundreds of drawings.  I’ve saved almost all of them.  Her favorite things to draw are My Little Ponies, Paw Patrol characters and people.  By far, she has more pony drawings than anything else.  I don’t bother sorting them, I just take them … Read more…