Art Lessons for Kids
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 [...]
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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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!) [...]
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 ‘em up a lesson as energetic as they are. For my Mexican Art Unit, I selected the sassy sombrero as my subject. These kids loved [...]
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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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. [...]
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 portrait!
I’ve been seeing some art lessons lately that feature shaving cream as a suspension for watercolor paints. This type of printing project looks like a good deal of fun and to be honest, was curious to see how it would turn out. I read a few basic instructions but essentially, the idea is to fill [...]
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! [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Here’s a fun way to teach the color-wheel and use up your end-of-the-year paper scraps. What you’ll need: Pre-cut rectangles of the Primary and Secondary colors 12″ x 18″ white paper Glue stick, pencil and scissors Scraps of warm and cool colors (I have these separated into 2 boxes) Small square of gray paper small [...]
Simple. Cute. Fun. What more could you want from a first grade art lesson? Last year, I introduced this lesson to my Kinders (see post) and it was so successful that I thought I would try it again. This time, however, I used tempera paints instead of watercolor. Simple Steps… Using a black oil pastel, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
