Monster Origami Bookmarks
My students LOVED this project. I had excellent participation for this lesson and we are fully remote. I sent home origami paper to the students in a materials bag, but kids could make their own origami paper simply…
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.
Read More...Monster Origami Bookmarks
Perler Beads- Mario and Among Us
My 1st grade son has been really on a Perler bead kick lately. He made all of these designs this week. Here is a beginner’s guide to Perler (or fuse) beads. I thought this might be something my…
Distance Art Lesson: Shapes with Repeating Lines
We are still fully virtual over here! I feel like I have been getting into a groove and things are going pretty well. Here is a lesson I did for kindergarten and first grade. Repetition in art means…
Frog and Lilypad- Claude Monet
I have a whole slideshow that I will show my students about Claude Monet and his Impressionist artwork. This is a project I have adapted for distance learning. All of my kids have watercolor paints as part of…
Gratitude Turkey- Distance Learning
Here is a fun social emotional project that works for distance learning too. First, draw your turkey with pencil. Next, outline your turkey with Sharpie marker. Write on each feather one thing that you are grateful for. Finally,…
Shape Collage
Last blog post, I showed how to make different types of painted papers with watercolor paints. We are still doing distance learning, so my students did this lesson at home. These are the slides that I used to…
Painted Papers
I had my students make painted papers for one week’s assignment. Their task was to make 4 painted papers (two with swatches of color and two with line patterns.). Then, they are going to turn their painted papers…
Latinx Heritage Month Art Books
From Wikipedia, “National Hispanic Heritage Month is a period from 15 September to 15 October in the United States for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States.”…
Distance Learning Art: Patterned Circles
Here is my lesson on patterned circles for distance learning. I used this with 3rd-5th grade. A pattern is a design, line, shape or color that is repeated.
Call to Art 2: Free Online Un-Conference
Mark your calendars for the week of November 9-13. Cindy Ingram is hosting another Un-Conference, which is sure to be filled with fabulous information and ideas. Last summer, over 8,000 art teachers participated in this online conference which…
Distance Learning: Overlapping Circles
Overlap means to place one object over another object. This is a simple project that easily transfers to distance learning. I did not create this lesson, it was given at my daughter’s school last year by her wonderful…
My Camera Set Up for Distance Learning
When I first started distance teaching, I tried all different types of camera arms and stands. This is the one I found that works best for me. It is not perfect, but it works pretty well for my…
Distance Learning Art: Name Design
Here is a great project for the first week or day of school. I put up these directions in my Google classrooms for my students and they completed them in their own time, asynchronously. Here is my example…
Distance Learning- First Week of Art- The Studio book
I apologize for not regularly adding to the blog lately. It’s been a bit overwhelming here and I haven’t had the motivation. With the day off today, I felt like sharing one cool new book I bought that…
Equality Murals, Part 2
This is Part 2 in my blog posts about the Black Lives Matter murals in downtown Madison, WI. There were so many of them, lining the streets of State Street. See my first post with more murals here.