Artist Trading Cards
My 5th/6th graders made these artist trading cards using the African Adinkra carved stamps they made. Each kid made one or two cards and decorated them with markers. We are sending them to a school in Minnesota, art…
Elementary Art Lessons, Projects & Teaching Ideas for K–5
Because art is fundamental to who we are. Art has always been a basic form of human communication. From cave walls to classroom walls, art helps us express ideas, tell stories, and better understand the world around us. I believe art is an essential part of every child's education, which is why I chose the name Art is Basic. Here you'll find K–5 creative art lessons, teaching ideas, and printable resources to help K–5 art teachers inspire young artists.
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Art puzzle
Here’s a fun little way to get kids excited and looking at an artwork closely. I printed out small copies of a picture I was introducing to them and then laminated these. Next, I cut them into…
Collage Suggestion
One fun thing to try is to photocopy your artwork in black and white and then cut and paste pieces of it onto a collage. Use paints on top to embellish it. Stage 1: Stage Two: During…
Valentines Prints
Here are some of the finished styrofoam Valentine’s prints by the 1st graders. One trick that made these work MUCH better is when I dug out the jar of ink-retarder. The prints look so much better than the…
Carved Stamps– 5th/6th grade
My 5th and 6th grade class carved stamps from E-Z Cut and then we printed them many times. They looked at African Adinkra stamps and then used those designs for inspiration. We printed them on artist trading cards,…
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.
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…
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…
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…
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 showing dimension and form by…
Grandma Moses Landscapes — 2nd Grade
The goals for this project are to We learned about the artist Grandma Moses and created a winter collage using various materials. We read a couple books about Grandma Moses and looked at her artwork.