Chinese Brush Painting dates back to 4000 BC, with techniques being handed down from master to student. In contrast to what most of us are taught about art today, copying and the perfection of technique were more important and more highly valued than self-expression. Chinese Brush Painting uses simple strokes of a paintbrush to capture a single object or an entire scene. Teach … [Read more...]
Illustrate a Proverb or Verse Inspired by the Fante Asafo Flags of Ghana
Seeing a variety of Fante Asafo Flags from Ghana will inspire your students with ideas for this project. Students in grades 5 and up will enjoy creating their own personal flag to illustrate a proverb or verse that's meaningful to them. Kids love the tactile experience of working with felt and embroidery floss as they use graphic symbols to tell a story, convey a concept or … [Read more...]
Christmas Project Collection
Need a fun art project for the last few days before Christmas break? Follow these links to some of my favorites! (Faux) Stained Glass Ornaments Origami Crane Ornaments Japanese Notan Ornaments Christmas Word Clouds Kindergarten Stars Jacob's Ladder Icicles Folded Paper Stars Candy Cane-O-Grams Art Gift Wrap Merry Christmas! … [Read more...]
Lettering Waves
My inspiration for this project came from the book, Hand Lettering, by Marci Donley & DeAnn Singh. The authors call this "Writing Between the Lines", but we've renamed it "Lettering Waves" since we live in a surfing community where waves are a pretty big deal! I taught this lettering style to my middle schoolers and the results were fantastic! You'll find so many … [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...]
