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.

2nd graders drawing colorful lines around a heart shape with a marker on paper, making vibrant Valentine art.

more Valentine making by 2nd graders

February 8, 2011
1

In a little studio, a colorful mandala with intricate geometric patterns in red, blue, green, and orange unfolds on a white background.

Work in Progress from my little studio

February 6, 2011
1

Valentine’s Projects

Both of these ideas I borrowed from other people’s recent blog posts. You caught me red-handed! I’ve gotten so many good ideas from other art teacher’s blogs. Go ahead and check my blog roll on the side of…

February 4, 2011
1

Circular Weaving

The 2nd graders made circular weavings this week. Some are still finishing up. They are like the ones we made at the weaving camp I taught.

February 3, 2011
5

A variety of colored paper with intricate heart designs and prints, displayed on a flat surface, perfect for Valentines.

Styrofoam Valentines Prints

Here are some Valentine’s Day prints I made out of a styrofoam printing plate. You can use those styrofoam meat plates or, like I did, order the styrofoam printing plates from an art catalog (like Nasco). These are…

February 2, 2011
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Pipe Cleaner Weaving

We made this with my first grade class. I took mat board, and the kids stapled their own pipe cleaners to the ends and then weaved in yarn, ribbons and feathers. The kids did a great job…

January 29, 2011
2

Colorful abstract art with flowers, leaves, and text that reads "and under my feet here, and love in our hearts, today is the happiest birthday," as if painted on the pages of a sketchbook.

Sketchbook Pages

These are two pages I made while “taking” the online Strathmore Visual Journaling Course. Pam Carriker led us through the process of using photocopies of some of our old collages, cutting them up and adding layers of gesso…

January 26, 2011
2

A pointillist painting of people relaxing on a lawn near a river with trees; there are umbrellas and a black dog.

Pointillist Trees

The 3/4s painted Pointillist Trees. They have studied trees in Science. We learned about the artist Georges Seurat by reading Scholastic Art magazine. Students identified and described Pointillist paintings. They created a Pointillist painting of trees…

January 25, 2011
1

A child's drawing of a snowy landscape with houses, a person, a reindeer, a snowman, and mountains in the background. This 2nd grade artwork has a charming quality that brings to mind the folk art style of Grandma Moses.

Grandma Moses Landscapes — 2nd Grade

The goals for this project are to Classify artworks as landscape, still-life or portrait. Identify and use foreground, middle ground, and background in two-dimensional works of art. Use size relationships and simple depth techniques to show space in…

January 24, 2011
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Handmade penguin figurine on paper with a drawn blue sky and fish, making it a delightful kindergarten project.

Kindergarten Penguins

The kindergartners are studying penguins in their classroom, so we made penguins out of model magic modelling compound. One trick to get the parts to stick better is to use just a bit of regular hand lotion on…

January 21, 2011
3

A child's drawing with a yellow triangle, blue squares, pink shapes, and various doodles on a white paper showcases an array of geometric and organic shapes typical of kindergarten creativity.

Geometric and Organic Shape Collage, Kindergarten

Shape Collages— The kindergartners learned about geometric and organic shapes. We read a book called When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins. We made a shape collage using cut construction paper. Lines and shapes were added with marker.

January 14, 2011
1

Book Winner!

True Random Number Generator Min:1 Max: 9 Generate… Result: 6 jenplusfive YOU ARE THE WINNER!! Send me your address. You can send it to marcia @ eagleschool.org

January 14, 2011
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A colorful journal page features red and green peppermint candy drawings with the words "under the tree," and "Christmas 2010.

Crusade #47

Another challenge I recently discovered is Michelle Ward’s street team crusade. There is a new technique every month and then you post your results. This month the challenge is “It’s a Wrap”. You are supposed to incorporate wrapping…

January 13, 2011
12

Last chance!

Last chance to sign up for this random giveaway of an art book. See this post to sign up. I will choose a winner tomorrow.

January 13, 2011
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Egyptian profile paintings–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…

January 11, 2011