A Deep Space Sparkle Survey

art lessons for kids

I’m always looking for better ways to help my readers with their art room challenges. A few of you have hinted that I should create an e-course and you know, you might be right!  Creating art booklets is one thing, but instructional videos takes learning to a whole new level. So, to get an idea [...]

Art Instruction: Does it hurt a child’s creativity?

happy-art-kids

Every once in a while I receive a comment or an email challenging the methods I use to teach art.  Why I would choose to do a directed-line drawing instead of observation? Or how could I possibly use a template in the creation of an art project? It stings at first but then I try [...]

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George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog Art Lesson

Blue-Dog-art-lesson

George Rodrigue was born and raised in New Iberia, Louisiana.  What a colorful character he must be to produce such wonderful pieces of expressive art! His personal website is filled with his paintings and all the things he cares about, like the George Rodrigue Foundation in which he promotes and supports art education. He is famous [...]

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One-Point Perspective Art Lesson

one-point-perspective-art-lesson

I’m so pleased to post this lesson. It is my first successful perspective art lesson and I owe it all to Natalie at Smart Class. Her drawing steps for one-point perspective is so perfect that I didn’t change a thing. For anyone who hasn’t introduced a lesson on perspective to your students, I encourage you [...]

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Winter Bird Art Lesson

Snowballs-by-Lois-Ehlert

Lois Ehlert’s book, Snowballs, is yet another inspiring book for  elementary school art lessons. Instead of the featured snowmen, I gravitated towards the wonderful birds in birch trees. I created bird templates before for my “Pie in the Sky” art lesson and was excited to use them again. For those of you who don’t like [...]

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“Trucks” Illustrator Megan Halsey Interview

Megan-Halsey

I’m always on the lookout for great picture books to tie-in with my art class. Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! practically jumped out at me, begging me to peer inside it’s glorious front cover. The illustrations, created by the talented and super nice Megan Halsey are spot-on fabulous. Sometimes it’s tricky to find truck illustrations for an [...]

How to Draw a Truck

How to draw a truck

Drawing trucks is one of my most requested how-to-draw subjects in art class. I love the stories of the people who drive them, the cargo they haul and the best question of all…where are they going?  Inspired by the incredible picture book,Trucks: Whizz! Zoom! Rumble! by Patricia Hubbell and illustrated by Megan Halsey, my fourth grade [...]

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We All Went On Safari book review

Safari Book

I’ve been on a bit of a creative quest lately to find inspiring picture books. My children are well past the picture book stage but I can’t seem to stay away from them. Thank heavens I still have an audience of little ones in my art class. I happened across We All Went on Safari by [...]

Liberty Bell Art Project

liberty-bell-art-lesson

Looking for an easy Liberty Bell art project? This lesson leans more towards craft than art but many standards are reinforced: composition, history, tracing/cutting, and color mixing. To start, my students sponge painted a piece of 12″ x 9″ paper with blue, red and white paint. I provided the paint, but left the children to [...]

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Classroom Management: Reigning In A Rowdy Class

Art-class-in-motion-Jamgochian

We all dream of the perfect group of students listening attentively to our art instruction. We dream of children working creatively, thoughtfully and perhaps above all, quietly in our classrooms. Does it happen? Sure. Does it happen all of the time? Not really. Art room dynamics I love the active dynamics in my art room. [...]