This project was inspired by the metal art of Haiti, and makes a great project for Easter... or anytime! I'll be doing this with children in a couple of orphanages in Haiti next week. I'll try to post some pictures when I get back! "Foamies" and 3M foil tape are the secret ingredients for this project! You can buy these thin sheets of foam in a 9x12 size at … [Read more...]
Crayon Resist Easter Card
Here's a quick and easy crayon resist project I did with some of my 1st and 2nd graders. Students folded 12x18 paper in half and painted on the front, for a charming Easter card. Inside, they wrote: "He is risen! He is risen indeed!" Materials:12x18 heavy-weight white construction paperblack crayonswatercolors (I like the Prang OVL-8 set)watercolor brush (Don't use the … [Read more...]
Words as Art – Wonderful Word Clouds!
Word clouds are fun to make for holidays or anytime of year! This is a great project for home schoolers, or any class with access to computers. A word cloud is a random arrangement of words, in this case a passage of writing where common words such as "and", "the", "if", etc. are omitted and the text is then arranged in random order, with the words that appear more often being … [Read more...]
Kindergarten Stars
Try these simple instructions to teach your kinders how to draw stars. As adults, we make these designs automatically, almost without thinking, but for a five year old drawing their very first star, it's nothing short of magical! Once it "clicks" for them, they will be drawing stars everywhere!First talk about types of lines, concentrating on "diagonal" and "horizontal". … [Read more...]
Butterfly Symmetry with Crayon Resist
Butterflies make the perfect subject for learning about symmetry and they're a great way to welcome the spring season. I love displaying them by putting a couple of staples through the body and pulling the wings out a little so they look like they're in flight! It's fun to let them "fly" off the bulletin board and onto the surrounding walls, or even right down the hall! … [Read more...]
My Good Shepherd
Painting by Sydney, grade 1 When I taught Art at a private Christian School, I would do this lesson every year just before Easter with my first graders. This is one of those projects where the results are totally charming and everyone feels successful.... and the parents love them!! The idea for these adorable watercolor sheep came from a set of Usborne Activity Cards - "50 … [Read more...]
Art Show – Lessons Learned
5th Grade Oil Pastel Paintings inspired by Marc ChagallI'm a "learn by doing" kind of person. And usually that means learning from my mistakes (i.e.what not to do!). But last week I had the rare privilege of learning from something that I unintentionally did right!! Every Spring we hang an Art Show that coincides with our school's Open House. In the past, I always saved … [Read more...]
The Colors of the Rainbow
Kids love rainbows! And kids in grades K-1 tend to be almost obsessed with them. And why not?? After all, rainbows are fascinating! A rainbow is a multicolored arch that forms in the sky when the sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the air. Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colors in a specific order; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. "Roy G. … [Read more...]