Fred Babb Art Project

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Fred Babb’s expressive colors, powerful statements and dynamic compositions makes him one of my favorite artists. Unfortunately, Fred died in 2006. I would have like to have met him. He stood for everything I believe art should be; an extension of oneself that is not necessarily taught, but understood. I try to remember this each [...]

Kinders Paint Kandinsky

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Judging by the intensity of my kinder class faces, I gathered they enjoyed this art lesson a great deal. The goal is to teach the children color-wheel basics. Begin with three colors of paint (red, yellow and blue) and see what happens. It’s really not about blending the paint perfectly, it’s really just about blending [...]

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Maud Lewis Lighthouse Mix Media

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This folk artist from Canada is one of my most favorite artists. Her vibrant, child-like art is not only full of joy but many of her pieces are inspired by the rugged, yet tranquil beauty of Nova Scotia, which is also my birthplace (Yay, Pictou!). Many of my students have never heard of Nova Scotia [...]

“Matisse” Portraits for Fifth Grade

Matisse Inspired portraits

My fifth grade students at Brandon School have been working very hard on these dynamic portraits for three weeks. Yesterday, most finished. I’m so proud of their work!The finishing steps require attentive students and these children did a marvelous job of doing just that. You can find a complete tutorial in my  Fun with Portraits [...]

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Joan Miro Art Project

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I’m always searching for one session lessons. You know the type: art projects that don’t take two or three classes to complete. This Joan Miro inspired lesson is one such lesson. I teach this lesson to first grade, but second or third grade would enjoy it as well. First grade students have a good laugh as [...]

Third Grade Expressive Paintings Inspired by Fred Babb

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Fred Babb is one of my favorite artists. His art is expressive, meaningful and above all, unique. It’s a perfect description of what children’s art should be. Fred’s website features a book with pull out pages. It makes a fantastic accompaniment to this lesson. I urge you to purchase it. Not only is it great [...]

Matisse Inspired “Dancers” Paper Collage Art Lesson

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This is one of my most favorite art lessons. Not only is it colorful, expressive and fun to make, but it teaches a variety of art skills: combining colors, composition, human form and the importance of working neatly. Inspired by the paintings by Henri Matisse, this has been a perennial favorite with my fifth and [...]

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Modigliani Inspired Self-Portraits

Modigliani Art Lesson

I found this lesson over at Art Project for Kids. It’s a fantastic lesson; easy, quick and beautiful. I chose to do this with my 6th grade students but it would be equally successful with as young as fourth grade. Check out the link above for full directions. For more portrait lesson ideas, check out [...]

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Kandinsky Art Lesson for kids

kandinsky art lesson

This is a terrific lesson to teach the fundamentals of kindergarten curriculum basics: Cutting and Pasting! I discovered this lesson over at the Artsonia website. Camelback Desert School in Arizona provided the original lesson of which I altered very little. The kids are literally tracing, cutting and gluing. There is nothing else involved and what good [...]

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Matisse Inspired Name Panels

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This lesson was discovered on the Incredible Art Department website. For those of you who haven’t visited there, go now! it’s a great resource for teachers everywhere. This lesson, in particular, was submitted by Michelle Peacock of Mohave Middle School. Thanks Michelle for sharing! I thought this was a perfect lesson to do with my [...]

Rouault Inspired Royalty Painting

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Searching through more archived photos, I thought I would post another one of my favorites. This art project is adapted from one the Arts Attack video art lessons. The main goal of this lesson is to teach the “double-loading” technique. As the students dip their paintbrushes first in one color, then another, a special affect [...]

Van Gogh Sunflower Art Lesson in Oil Pastel

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Van Gogh’s famous Sunflower series is one of the most recognizable art subjects in a classroom. My students loved the flexibility of drawing sunflowers and enjoyed the opportunity to create many types of flowers. Using oil pastel to color is a mess-free choice, although not nearly as “fast” as paints. Drawing with Oil Pastels The [...]

Oil Pastel Picasso Faces Art Lesson

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If you don’t subscribe to Arts and Activities magazine, you should. It’s full of great lesson plans complete with great photos. I found this lesson in the March ’07 issue. Art teacher Jennifer Bowden submitted this lesson which I found extremely accessible to my fifth graders. I had done a Picasso Face art lesson before [...]

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Gustav Klimt Art Lesson

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Sometimes inspiration comes in many forms. I was perusing one of the many art supplies catalogs that happen upon my desk and I saw metallic paint for sale. Gold, bronze, copper, silver…rich, showy colors. I immediately thought of Gustav Klimt. I picked up a copy of Klimt and His Cat by Berenice Capatti. The story [...]

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Rouault Inspired Still Life Art Lesson

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This is one of my favorite art lessons for kids. It combines a couple of my favorite techniques…double-loading of the paint and black paint outline. Inspired by the French artist Georges Rouault, the lesson is designed to teach the children about light and how to achieve it within a painting. First the children draw a still [...]

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