Art projects for Inclusion Students

saildcg

I’ve received a few letters asking me about projects best suited for inclusion kids. While I’m not anywhere near qualified to answer this question on a professional level, either as an art educator or inclusion specialist, I will take a stab at trying to address what I find is helpful in my art room. First [...]

Painted Bunny Art Lesson

Painted-Bunny-Art-Project

Here is a very easy bunny art lesson that involves a simple line drawing, sponge painting and a few embellishments. My first graders did this lesson in one 40-minute session. Afterwards, I realized that we forgot to add bunny teeth. And wouldn’t a cotton-ball look adorable stuck on Bunny’s bottom? Maybe you all can add [...]

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Watercolor Jelly Fish Art Video

jellyFish

Here is another art video made during my last class with my fourth grade students. This is a super fast and fun lesson that involved drippy watercolors. Mistakes are encouraged and enthusiasm expected. All you’ll need is some watercolor paper, liquid watercolors (if you don’t have liquid watercolors, try food coloring. I hear it works!) [...]

Mexican Unit: Sombrero Art Project

sombrero-art-project

My third grade classes are a creative and energetic bunch. They have a hard time sitting still. Instead of trying to reign them in, I take a different approach: offer a lesson as energetic as they are. For my Mexican Art Unit, I selected the sassy sombrero as my subject. The kids loved it and when [...]

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Painted Paper Hearts Art Project

heartsdcg

Laura at Painted Paper is my go-to source for inspiration. No one can teach color theory like she can! So when I saw her Picasso-Inspired Hearts, I knew I had to give these a try. I had one more Kinder class left in my rotation, so a one-session project was required. To aid in the [...]

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Poncho Art Project

ponchosdcg

I began a unit on Mexico this week, celebrating the vibrancy of the Mexican Culture. For first grade, we made ponchos, a variation of a Painted Paper project that created Mexican blankets. Starting with a 12″ x 18″ piece of colored paper, first grade students cut a 5″ slit down the center of the paper. [...]

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Kindergarten Self-Portraits

Kinder painted portraits

How cute are these? My kinder classes traced oval templates, drew in their eyes, neck and shoulders then embarked on a painting adventure. They painted their faces and necks first, their tops next and backgrounds last. Set aside to dry. Next class, paint eyes, nose and mouth. Add hair and voila! A beautiful self portr [...]

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Ceramic Leaf Bowls

green leaf bowl

I’ve always wanted to try these leaf bowls but was never really sure how to do them.  Lori over at Fun Art for Kids provided the inspiration and the know-how. I ordered the Colorburst under-glaze as per her instructions, and I love the results. Definitely worth the bucks. You can find the Colorburst glaze here. Thanks Lori! [...]

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Watercolor Leaves Art Lesson

Watercolor leaves art lesson

Need a quick, easy lesson that can be completed in 30 minutes? These fall leaves are perfect. All you need are crayons or oil pastels and some liquid watercolor paints. If you have watercolor paper, great. If not use regular sulphite (construction) paper. I cut the paper in half so we’re only dealing with a [...]

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Torn Paper Zebras Art Lesson

second grade zebras

Zebras make a great subject for art lessons. Like giraffes, their graphic markings allow even the most modest of drawings look just right. I snapped a photo of a zebra exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History and an art lesson idea was ignited! My second grade class loved making these torn paper [...]

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Colorwheel Bouquet Art Lesson

colorwheel bouquet art lesson

This is a great lesson to teach the colorwheel, reinforce cutting and pasting skills and sharpen color observation and recognition. I did this lesson with my Kinders at the at end of the school year. They had a whole year to become familiar with cutting, pasting and sorting, so they were quite capable of understanding [...]

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Painted Pigs Art Project

temp-pig-DCG

Simple. Cute. Fun. What more could you want from a first grade art lesson?  Last year I did a watercolor pig art project and couldn’t resist doing it again. This time, however, I used tempera paints with a black outline. Not as fast as the simple watercolor resist, but more dynamic. Art Supplies: 12″ x [...]

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Recycled Robot Art project

robot art lesson

I’ve been collecting odds and ends for this project for some time now. Things like concentrated juice can toppers, plastic strawberry baskets, bottle caps, soda can tabs, old buttons, scraps of shiny paper, old aluminum foil, etc. Even the paper is recycled. The cardboard backing is the cardboard used to wrap newsprint in. Our local [...]

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Lois Ehlert’s Bird Art Project for Second Grade

ehlert-birds

Pie in the Sky by Lois Ehlert I was organizing stacks of art the other day and came across these beautiful pieces. I featured these birds in my “Art and Literature” PDF Booklet but wanted to share the images with all of you. This project was highly successful, meaning that children embraced the project with so [...]

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Valentines Day Art Project

Valentine's-Day-Art-Bouquet-art-lesson

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this colorful bouquet will be admired by all. Easy to do; just paint a vase and stems and add paper flowers. Here’s how my second graders did it… Supplies: 12 x 18 white sulphite paper red tempera paint green tempera paint various painted papers, printed papers and colored construction [...]

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