Deep Space Sparkle Art Lessons for Kids
I’ve been doing a different Kinder portrait for the last ten years of teaching art. I love mixing things up and experimenting with different combination of media. This year, I combined my favorite tempera paint with chalk and oil pastels. This might be my favorite combo of all! I use one of three techniques for [...]
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Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park in Utah offers the most humbling panoramas. Majestic rock formations, iron-rich colors and endless blue skies are an artist’s dream. These landscapes in my newest PDF offers the student artist a glimpse into the magic of Utah.
In this 15-page lesson plan, student’s learn how to draw a landscape focusing on perspective and space to create distance. Students use chalk and oil pastels to draw arches, hoodoos and cacti. Using the vibrant colors of the Southwest, children observe through photographs the rock formations and draw their own landscape.
Click here to read more….
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Arlo Needs Glasses by Barney Saltzberg is about as cute as you can get when it comes to interactive picture books. My group of Kinders LOVED this book. We read the book before we created our own Arlo dogs. Because the book is interactive, it is difficult to expect the children to stay seated. They [...]
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This colorful owl is a great lesson for those times when you need a quiet art activity. Tearing and gluing small bits of paper may seem like a potentially frustrating activity for a 7 year old, but every time I do this lesson, I’m always surprised with the deliberate nature in which the children apply [...]
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Diego Rivera is one of the most famous painters in the twentieth century. After studying in Spain and France, he returned to his homeland of Mexico. There he travelled across the country, exploring the cultures, architecture and history of the different regions. Returning to Mexico City, Diego began painting murals for which he became famous. [...]
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Modigliani portraits have become an art room staple, thanks in no small part to Kathy over at Art Project for Kids for providing a simple, fool-proof technique for imitating the elongated faces famous to Amedeo Modigliani. I copied Kathy’s project a couple of years ago with my sixth grade students where we created the Modigliani [...]
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This is part two of my quest for determining the best medium for primary portraits. Last week my first grade students created beautiful oil pastel portraits. I love oil pastels as they are super easy for prep and clean-up but on the downside, they require a great deal of patience. Little ones don’t often have [...]
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My fifth and sixth grade students have been working with chalk pastel recently. We’ve done tropical birds and just finished these stunning rainforest animals. Watch the video (link at bottom of post) to see the kids at work. To begin, use a black oil pastel to draw a rainforest animal. I provided a few simple [...]
Chalk pastels give the dramatic color intensity of tempera or acrylic paint with almost no prep time. Chalk gets a bad rap as being too messy. For the little ones, it can be. Persuading mounds of dust into intricate corners is not for the impatient student. That’s why most of my chalk projects occur after [...]
Van Gogh’s “Wheat Fields with Cypresses” is one of my favorite paintings. There is a distinct separation between the foreground, middle-ground and background, making it a perfect example for a landscape lesson. The Landscape I used 3 pieces of paper for this project: 12″ x 18″ white paper, 8″ x 18″ blue or purple paper [...]
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Want a quick, easy project where every student is successful? This is it! The best part about teaching art is seeing how my students respond to a new lesson. I’m not a scientist, but boy, it sure is interesting to see if my expectations line up with reality. This lesson exceeded it. Continuing with my [...]
A trip to the library last fall yielded a plethora of art ideas. Keith Baker’s Big Fat Hen is filled with fabulous illustrations. Colorful, vibrant, detailed and adorable. Perfect for fifth grade! Similar to my chalk lizard project, this lesson produces fabulous results even for the self-proclaimed artistically-challenged student’s. Big Fat Hen by Keith Baker I [...]
There is nothing cuter than a snowman, except a “kinder-created” snowman. Watching little fingers stick paper noses and top hats to wet paint is utterly adorable. Since most of my students have never seen snow (Santa Barbara!), I talk about how to make a snowman, focus on the big, medium and small concept that is [...]
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I teach this lesson every year. It’s fast; only takes 2-55 minute sessions, reinforces blending skills and offers practice on still developing fine motor skills. Supplies: Chalk Pastels 12″ x 18″ black drawing paper 1 bottle of white school glue per student Display a variety of flower pictures (old calendars are great) on the white [...]
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Inspired by the Spheres in Space lesson over at Art Project for Kids, I adapted it to include a sparkly galaxy and cut-out planets. Planets provide a wonderful subject for teaching shading, texture and depth of space. What you’ll need: 12″ x 18″ white drawing/sulphite paper (planets) Round plastic containers pencils and scissors Colored chalk [...]
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